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Has anyone else ever seen this dude, cruising up and down Arsenal or Manchester? Or better yet, the elaborate cardboard/wire/toothpick (?) model/sculpture/contraption (?) strapped to the handlebars of his old ten-speed? Because I'm always either on foot or in my car, and he's always on his bike, I've never gotten a good look at him or the model. I see 'em all the time though! The model looks like a complicated overpass or industrial bridge structure, with lots of wire scaffolding, obsessive ornamental detail, and enough bulk to make bicycle balance difficult.
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Here is a quick map I made of my most oft-traveled corridors in southwest St. Louis City, and where I usually see the mysterious model transporter. Take note of how closely our beaten paths mirror one another. I've never seen him east of 3-Ring Binder Worldwide on Jamieson or west of the White Castle on Big Bend. Where does he come from?! Where is he going?!
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My most recent sighting of the dude was a couple of days ago, and he's modified his rig for summer. The over-sized flat-brimmed ballcap has been replaced with an over-sized bicycle helmet, and he's now got a weird rectangular box strapped to the rear of his bike, sticking out well beyond the back wheel. I could've swore I saw little silver cardboard wheels on the box, making it look like the trailer of an 18-wheeler. Does the model go inside the trailer? Why is he carrying this stuff around in the first place? Do I really want to know the truth?!
Disclaimer: all drawings made from brief field-sightings. Ink and White-Out on construction paper.
UPDATE! This fellow's name is Raynard Nebbitt. He's a pretty well known and well liked figure to neighbors living around and truckers driving beneath the South Rock Hill Bridge, the overpass which he carries a replica of on his bike. Read more about him and the grassroots campaign to re-name the overpass after him here.
3 Comments:
This guy is the coolest and thanks for sharing this story. I rthink he deserves to be immortalized in the grandest of art-forms, comics.
I've seen him in my neck of the woods as well, I think, around Kingshighway and Chippewa. Either him or some other guy with a similar bicycle / model bridge fetish.
I agree with W. If anyone should be Raynard's biographer, it should be the Daring Dan Zettwoch.
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