A Natural State

Every Thursday I go for what Ursa and I call a Ruwake. Or something like that. She can correct the spelling. That’s a: Run / Walk / Hike. Depending on the terrain, and how lazy or energetic we’re feeling.

We used to go on trails that had mountain lion warnings, and have veered away from those for the Bay Trail. It’s a beautiful walk around Seal Point (yup, I’ve actually seen seals there!) and around the Dog Park, so we can get our puppy fix. Then we loop back around and end up at the Burlingame Yacht Club before returning back to Ryder Park. Sometimes we even go the extra mile to the beach at Coyote Point. It’s a nice relaxing, or challenging trail, again, depending on our mood.

However -- you knew this wasn’t going to be a sweet little story about walking, didn’t you? – last week half way through our walk we saw this sign posted:

“Attention Ladies, a man on a bicycle pushed me down from behind while I was jogging. The police have been notified, please be aware!” She gave a very generic description as well: “He was Hispanic and wearing a black jacket.” Hmm, so, he was about 70% of the men on the trail? Okay, she was pushed down, and probably scared, so I will definitely cut her a lot slack. And she left a warning for everyone else. I probably wouldn’t even want to revisit the scene.

We decided to cut our walk short that day, and not loop around the Yacht Club. It seemed best to stay out in the open, on well-populated trails. We returned to our cars, and hung around chatting for a while. Mind you, we park at Ryder Park, which is a cheery little rec area with a new playground, fountains, etc. There are usually lots of families hanging out. That’s not what I noticed though. I noticed the guy in the red Bronco, sitting in the middle of his back seat. You know how you feel someone staring at you? Yeah, okay, he was staring at us. But not just that … he was totally pleasuring himself. Hello?! What is up with that? In daylight, at a children’s park? EWWWWWWW!!

So now I am wondering:
A) Should we avoid this park? We’ve never had any issues before, except for once, this guy wearing really baggy pants exposed himself, but that could be because his pants were already at his knees, and he could have just tripped and pulled them down accidentally.
B) Should I have called the police? The guys I ask say no – he was in his car, minding his own “business”, and I didn’t actually “see” anything, just a rapid arm movement and tissue hand wiping action. The women say, “yeah, you should have, especially because of the recent pushing incident.”
C) I just think it’s super creepy to hang out at a kid’s park to spank your monkey. God knows, me in my sloppy t-shirt and running shorts is nothing to get excited about. Maybe he was there for the children.

Okay, I have to stop, I’ve just totally creeped myself out. Let me know what you think … avoid the park? Police action?