It's almost August, that particularly
heated, dreaded time of the year when this little town invites
everybody to come and share our misery dealing with said heat and the
wind. We do this in the form of a bike race...100 miles...in the
unforgiving Texas sun. And it's fun, gosh darn it! All these
earnest, sweating bicyclists challenging themselves, attaining a
personal best and overcoming obstacles. One obstacle to this mighty
race that I have just discovered is, of all things, emus. Yes those
big birds with brown feathers who can't fly, but boy can they run.
Apparently those cyclists, outfitted in their colorful second skin,
brightly attired, attract these large, curious but bored birds who
are navigating the outskirts of town, maybe hold up on a ranch
somewhere and tired of the run of the mill cows, coyotes and people
running around with those water sticks vainly searching for
underground streams. Yes apparently the cyclists have piqued their
interest. Maybe the emus want a chance to outdo them.
I can only imagine the fear when these
vibrant cyclists, suffering from heat stroke look up to see Big Bird
barreling down upon them, giant sprawling feet, little head with
beady eyes, and that piercing beak agape... and then “Oh Snap!”
and a loud scream. If the cyclists are lucky, then there is just one
emu, okay maybe unlucky if that particular emu likes the color red
they happen to be wearing. Hopefully the sweltering bikers haven't
encountered a whole flock on the road, then they might suffer from
worse than a little nip.
Some interesting emu facts include:
- Females are in charge, they make the males hatch and care for the babies.
- Did I mention they are curious?
- They have “strongly clawed” feed that can rip metal wire fences (how fast can you pedal?)
- They can go 50 km/h which is described otherwise as a “fast, economical trot.
Does anybody happen to know why we have
this little bit of Australia in Texas?..oh well, happy racing folks!
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