Found on the road

[johnsondasw]

Over the years of riding (60!), I have found many items on the road.  These include a wallet with $222 in it (returned), a full size crowbar, two 12 inch crescent wrenches, two short rubber mallets, multiple smaller wrenches, sockets, and screwdrivers, over 250 bungee cords (I have a collection), a loaded .45 pistol (safety off!), several cell phones (only one able to return) and today, 4 miles from home, a leatherman multi-tool, a little rusty but fully functional. I'm sure there have been many other items which I'm not recalling right now.  I'm curious as to what you other riders out there have picked up on your cycling travels?

I tried to attach a photo of the Leatherman to this post, but the attachment could not be done.  Any ideas on that, you techies?

[DaveB]

I've found a bunch of tools including four various size Vise-Grips, three screwdrivers, two claw hammers, 4" and 6" Crescent wrenches, several combination wrenches and, like you, a rusty but functional Leatherman tool.  I can only assume these have fallen off of commercial trucks as they are by far my most common find.

I once found a wallet just outside a gas station.  The owner had put it on the roof when he went inside to pay with a credit card and had driven off with it still there.  Yes, I did return it to the rather grateful owner.  I also found $2.67 in loose change all in one place but was not able to return it.     I did find a cell phone but it had been driven over several times and was completely trashed.

Every ride is a treasure hunt!

[indyfabz]

Lots of tools. Change. A few smashed cell phones. Over a decade ago I found a large carabiner that serves as my key chain to this day.

A plethora of kids toys. On the last day of my x-country trip we passed an "eccentric" man who had picked up every small toy he had found crossing the country and had affixed them to his bike. It was quite a sight. Earlier in the trip I found a rubber glove in the middle of nowhere while in Alberta heading for the border crossing at Del Bonito. I stopped and wrote the words "I'm Flexible" on it, which is something our leader used to say a lot, and left it on the road. The only person in the group who noticed it was a guy who had stayed an extra day in Waterton and was chasing us down. He picked it up and carried it with him to our campground in Cut Bank. For many weeks later we took turns sticking it each other's bikes.

The creepiest thing seen was probably the animal hoof and foreleg. Guessing it was from a small deer, but there were no other signs of road kill. There was just the hoof and portion of a leg.

In ND we came upon a pheasant that had been hit so recently the blood running from its nose had no yet clotted. A woman in our group plucked a few tail feathers for some of us that we attached to our bikes. Mine blew away that afternoon during when a massive thunderstorm moved through camp.

The funniest thing was probably the jacket of a porn video tape. The film was entitled "Fat Alberta."

[BikePacker]

By far the most common item I have seen is 1 (not both :- ) work glove.

[RussSeaton]

By far the most common item I have seen is 1 (not both :- ) work glove.

Not work gloves.  But I frequently pick up one glove.  Usually the thinner insulated liner gloves.  Have a small pile of them and have made two pairs of mismatched gloves.  Doesn't bother me to wear mismatched gloves if my hands are cold.

[DaveB]

By far the most common item I have seen is 1 (not both :- ) work glove.

I've seen one, not two, shoes several times along the road.   I always wonder how that happens.

[indyfabz]

By far the most common item I have seen is 1 (not both :- ) work glove.

I've seen one, not two, shoes several times along the road.   I always wonder how that happens.

Heh. Good one. Maybe kids tossing one of dad's extra shoes out the window?

[misterflask]

Towards the end of the first day of a tour, I started finding crushed loafs of white bread and various bakery items on the road, about every quarter mile or so.  I was apparently following a bread truck with an open door.  I eventually found what I was hoping for, a totally intact box of Hostess cupcakes.  They made for after-dinner desert for a week.  It was one of the most auspicious beginnings to a tour I've had.

For the most part, it seems that the people that buy nice tools are not the same group that lose tools on the side of the road.  So it was a pleasant surprise to once find a nice set of Klein electricians pliers, albeit with a ding burned out of the wire cutters. 

[johnsondasw]

I started this thread a couple of days ago because I had found the Leatherman multi tool.  So today I went out for another short late winter ride and found a nice pair of sunglasses, no scratches, on the side of the road. I use prescription sunglasses, so I will give them away to a buddy that can use them.  This find was about a half mile from the previous one.   We get a lot of snow around here, and when it melts out in the spring a lot of stuff shows up.  Of course, most of it is dog poo and other garbage, but there are occasional gems in there.

[Tandem Tom]

When riding through Washington State we found lots of onions that had  fallen off the trucks. We picked up a few for our meals!

[wishard]

I also often wonder when I see just one shoe what happened to the other one?  Was someone jogging and just lost one without noticing? Not likely, but does make and interesting vision in my head.  I see a lot broken bungee cords, which explains why I see whole boxes smashed along the highway occasionally. 

I think the most interesting thing was an prosthetic leg, now how do you lose that and not notice!?!?!  I carried it back with me and turned over to police.  It had some ID number in it but figured it was easier for them to track down than me.  Never did go back to find out the story though . . .

[indyfabz]

I think the most interesting thing was an prosthetic leg, now how do you lose that and not notice!?!?!

Maybe someone stole it 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Country_People

[Westinghouse]

By far, the most numerous of all items I have seen on the roadside were bungey cords. I saw them singly, in numbers and entire packages of them unopened. I have seen various kinds of tools and wrenches and watches and food wrappers. Occasionally I saw used hypodermic needles. The strangest thing I ever came across was in one of the western states on the southern tier. It was out in the middle of nowhere. I stopped and had to relieve myself of excess fluids. There was no traffic around anywhere. This was more of a back road. I walked from the road about 50 feet or more to the edge of a drainage ditch. I looked over the edge to about 6 or 8 feet down. There was a rolled up piece of floor carpet like the carpet in a house. It had legs sticking out from one end. I got the hell out of there and never looked back. That was the very end of 1984. In fact it was near new years eve 1984 if I remember correctly because it was still east of Guadalupe Pass, and we spent new years eve in a tent in a blizzard near Guadalupe Pass. That was a 3700 mile trip or maybe 3500 miles. We went from Stuart, FL to Okeechobee, FL, to Moore haven to Everglades City, and across the everglades to Miami and south to Key West and back to Stuart. Then we took Florida roads to hyw 90 in north Florida and along the gulf coast to New Orleans. We got into Texas and went by Lake Conroe and went through Midland and Odessa. We went over Guadalupe Pass and into El Paso and into Juarez, Mexico. We followed roads in Mexico to Douglas, AZ and took various roads to San Diego, CA.

[johnsondasw]

There was a rolled up piece of floor carpet like the carpet in a house. It had legs sticking out from one end. I got the hell out of there and never looked back.

Yikes!  Do you notify the authorities?

[Westinghouse]

A lesson I learned a long time ago was, do not trust the authorities or involve with them unless absolutely necessary. This happened several miles east of a place called No Trees. It was not even a town, and if it had been at one time, all that remained of it, from what I can recall, was a gutted, run-down, abandoned, gas station. It was behind a wall, out of sight in that old gas station that we slept the night. I might have made an anonymous call at some time or told someone. It was too long ago. I do not remember.