Ride across America - Saturday September, 20 2008 - Day 5

Saturday September, 20 2008 - Day 6
Joe and Chet start out riding this morning. The roads we have chosen reflect Joe’s most recent comment “I had flat roads”. Chet and I picked a course which runs primarily south and has towns along the way with names like “Greasy Ridge”. Bo and I ride in the support truck for the first part of the morning stopping every couple of towns and waiting. I know what I wrote yesterday that we never follow a route and today I eat every word of it. We follow the route and are in communication with the riders all morning.
The roads are so beautiful I cannot stay in the truck any longer and abandon Bo, and ride back towards Joe and Chet. I catch up with them on a steep long hill, turn around and my legs kick my head for making such a stupid decision. Chet, Joe and I pedal along with me bringing up the rear. We pass through several very back woods towns and pass an Amish vehicle being pulled by a horse.
We are moving through Ohio, back into West Virginia and then into Kentucky. You have to be from the Midwest to understand how this could happen as we continue southwest. Joe keeps asking me if we are in Kentucky and I keep telling him I don’t know what state we are in, keep pedaling. He has never been to Kentucky and if he keeps asking me about it he will never know he was in Kentucky. He will think Ohio borders Kansas. Finally he stops asking and I tell him we are in Kentucky. Fifteen miles later the sign reads, “Welcome to Kentucky”. I shrug my shoulders as if whoever placed the sign made a horrible mistake - and this is how the days go by.
Biking over the years I have come to fear the sound of a barking dog. A porch full got an angle on me one day outside of Bloomington Indiana and I pedaled over other people’s lawns and dale to escape with my life. Ever since, when I see or hear a dog coming I prepare for a fight to the death. The first couple of days, each time a dog would dash for us Joe and Chet wouldn’t break cadence and I would let out a very loud shout. Yesterday, a large dog broke for Joe and I and instead of shouting I just kept pedaling at 22 mph. The dog never had a chance. We blew past it.
What I realized was Chet and Joe are used to traveling over 20 mph and most dogs can’t keep up. I am used to pedaling around 15 mph and most dogs looking for a quick nip can get to 15 long enough to chunk my calf. So today, I am Mr. confidence when a dog comes off the lawn in pursuit. He doesn’t get to me but he also doesn’t miss by much. Now another thought quickly enters my theory. Joe doesn’t bother about the dogs because 1) he is traveling fast and 2) there is always a rider behind him who will get bit first. Dogs are smart hunters they go after the slow or weak prey at the back of any pack. In today’s pack that is me.
Within the first 10 miles this morning Joe’s back tire wheezes a death breath and goes flat. We turn the truck around and help Chet fix it. Later in the day Joe starts blowing tires like bubble gum and we have to get his wheel worked on in Huntington, West Virginia. Yep, that is the “We are Marshall” Huntington. We grab lunch in town and then go to the Huntington bicycle center. It is owned and run by a guy who has some very interesting but not unusual ideas. We have to listen to most of them in order to get a half dozen more tubes and the wheel checked out. We leave the store and venture into Kentucky!
It has taken Joe a mere 5 days to figure out he is now living on a bicycle. He says this several times in the past two days and each time it seems to calm him into the saddle for another 20 or 30 miles. I tell him I am going to make a song out of it or at least a poem and I will, just not tonight. If any of you reading would like to start it, as I said earlier, I am much better at drafting.
By popular demand I am going to put a couple of pictures on the blog tonight. Tomorrow or Monday I will send a web link to all the pictures and video I have taken.
Here is a link to the kids and cause we are riding for - http://www.lisas810.com/cause_AOR.html