Urbana-Champaign Bicycle Commute

I suppose the drivers to the north didn't want to have the southern ones make 'em look bad. Oops, I mean good. I might even have finally met One of Them: this particular driver sort of almost stopped at the stop sign perpendicular to where I was stop-sign-free (as most drivers would), then started forward as if I weren't there... then when I didn't act as if I weren't there and shouted *HELLO!* she slowed some... sort of... I waved her on with a "Go ahead! It's too dangerous with you on the road!" which I am pretty sure every neighbor heard (hey, I wanted to penetrate her windows)... and the look on her face - which of course may not have reflected her true thoughts - was "well, I hope I taught that silly bicyclist that roads are for CARS!" and she smugly proceeded forward. The folks walking on the sidewalk averted their eyes.
Yesterday's saunter was a big group that got broken up quickly... coming back a gardening lady referred to us as "brave!" and I was asked, "what did she mean?" which is encouraging; my fellow biker apparently didn't think it was horribly courageous to be On The Road With Those Big CARS!!!. It *does* require some courage... now the big question is whether the gardener in question thought such courage was either unattainable or ill-advised for mere mortals, which would be a pretty pathetic commentary on our culture.

However! The last stretch of Bradley was pretty hairy; it's whacked from four to two lanes with intense concrete-rending construction right there in your face. I hopped to that sidewalk and breezed past the waiting folks and saw that construction implement tossing debris every which way, and was getting stuff in my eyes even from 20 yards away, so I decided I wasn't going to cruise between things (as the cars were) but would go the extra half mile to Duncan... even though there was no more sidewalk. So out into the skinny lane I go, anticipating that those impatient drivers would soon be on my backside, trying to climb the jersey wall to get around me.
Here comes this big ol' truck in my rear-view, except it's not getting any bigger, 'cause he's just hanging back, letting me proceed my uphill speed until I could turn off. Green View was its name. I think I like Green View.