"Meet New People" is something you obviously do at events, during group rides, and on the interwebs. To Learn Valuable New Skills such as bicycle repair/maintenance is important and might save your behind out there on the road or trail. And to Plunder is fun! Or at least interesting, as documented from time to time in Flickr's Roadside Finds group.
And it is plundering that I wish to talk about today!
On the way to work last week, I saw a wallet lying near the gutter of the street. It was one of those things that, had I been in a car, I would never ever have seen in the first place, nor would I have been able or inclined to stop, turn around, and go back for it.
But I was on my bike, so I did see it. And I did stop, turn around, and go back for it.
But I was also on my way to work, so after I confirmed that there was nobody nearby who might have dropped a wallet, I continued on my way while planning to investigate the found wallet once I got to my destination. After, that is, stopping on the way for a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I didn't want to alter my commute plans just because I found a wallet on the ground!
Searching the wallet later, I was able to learn the owner's phone number, which was disconnected, his email address, which produced results on neither MySpace nor Facebook, and his street address, which was on my way home. I also learned all the details concerning the owner's Initial Arrival because his original birth certificate was folded into the billfold!
Left with only street address, I struck out after work with the intention of knocking on doors.
I wouldn't recommend that anybody go knocking on doors by themselves after dark like I did, by the way. I didn't think too much of it until I found myself trying to explain my presence to a wary and skeptical looking older lady who eventually decided I must be harmless, identified herself as the owner's aunt, and accepted the wallet.
I hope she was telling me the truth!
People, bikes lead to adventures.
