Turtle Karma

In the SE United States, turtles are everywhere; especially on the roads. The "good karma" thing to do is to stop one's bike/car and move said turtle to the other side of the road. For as long as I have been riding bikes we have been "saving" turtles. We actually have started a tally of "turtle points" to keep track of our good karma. I know, cyclists are a weird breed, but the turtles thank us.

This past week Mark and I went camping at our favorite place on this planet, Pisgah National Forest in NC. Think all day mountain bike rides on trails that are as good as it gets. On the way there Mark unavoidably "clipped" a turtle on the interstate. We were in heavy traffic and he swerved the best he could but it was not enough. We were worried. Hitting a turtle is really BAD turtle karma. Uh oh. Little did we know how quickly it would come back on Mark.

Our first ride out we made it 40 minutes and karma got him. BEE STING!! Ouch. it was a big wasp too. After a painful ride back and a good dose of benadryl we figured that karma had gotten him back for the turtle. Nope. It was just getting warmed up. Two days later he got into not one but TWO nests of yellow jackets for a total of five more stings. That must have been one important turtle because karma was really getting him. Of course it didn't help that I was first on the trail and kept stirring up the yellow jackets in time for him to feel the wrath.

The moral of the story: don't hit turtles. Or maybe just don't be the second guy on the trail.