What is ABB?  It started on an afternoon commute home on the bicycle.  Out of nowhere there was this loaf of bread on the side of the road.  It wasn’t deformed or squashed or had any skid marks.  It was just there.  A few feet later, there was another, which seemed odd.  The next day, similar location, more bread products on the side of the road, but definitely different ones than from the previous day.  On the third day, even more original baked goods, almost as if someone had just tossed them there without a second thought.  Then the idea just materialized:  Abandoned Bread.

It seems a fitting allegory for cycling, and bicycle commuting in specific.  Cyclists seem to be a fringe group these days, and bicycle commuters a fringe subset, almost abandoned by society.  Recall what you think when you see a lycra’d-up middle-aged dude pedaling a road bike on Saturday morning; goof, weirdo, masochist.  Or what goes through your mind when you see a guy in worker’s clothes weaving down the road on a beat-up mountain bike during rush hour; poor, migrant, DUI.  In each case, most people have mentally ‘abandoned’ these cyclists to the side of the road, much like the bread, paying it no mind, just an afterthought that went past the window at 45 mph.

That’s what Abandoned Bread is, something odd you notice briefly on the side of the road.  This site was started to share the more interesting items discovered while cycling and running, the unusual stuff.  Everyone has seen roadkill, or cigarette butts, or hubcaps.  But have you seen a plus-sized pink polka-dot bra, or one [formerly] shiny light pink-peach high-heel shoe that looks like it belonged to a bridesmaid, or an intact paper airplane stuck to the pavement by rain?  In short, have you seen Abandoned Bread?

So enjoy what’s been found.  The items aren’t collected, they are left for others to encounter as well.  Enjoy.

-AB