I was pedaling into Cambridge, Ohio. And it happened.

Inside my bike shorts, I felt a bee-type sting. In fact, I felt a couple of them.

Now the only thing in the world that I know I have a pretty bad reaction to is bee stings so obviously my brain went on red alert. My right hand went to save my thigh from the penetrating sting. My left hand went for the bike handbrake. Neither action went as smoothly as my brain intended. 

I went over the bike.

Of course, the normal road scrapes and bruises resulted...as would be expected...but no worries. (Thank goodness for helmets and bike gloves!) What is truly interesting, though, was that this was the second time that the "bee sting" phenomenon had struck me. (The first was when I was coming into Columbus.) Neither time was a bee or any insect actually biting, but what both moments shared was I was riding under huge, buzzing power lines.

Doing a bit of internet research that night at the hotel, I discovered a strange situation where bicyclists riding steel bikes under these HUGE power lines (I mean, you can literally hear the buzz!) experience electric shocks that feel like insect stings...and more often than not...the result was inside the legs of their bike shorts! 

So I definitely have my eyes and ears peeled for those big buzzing lines. And I can assure you, I will be walking my bike under them next time.