First Getting-Chased-By-Dog Experience....

[fultzie]

Okay, I used to be a person that read the "I was chased by such-and-such an animal" threads and thought, pu-leeez. A dog? and you can't outride it??

yeah. that's changed.

HOLY SHNIKES that dog was FAST!!!!!

My mom and I were riding (she's visiting me this weekend! yay!) down this nice stretch of road through farmlands outside of A2, going ~16 mph (speed limit ~40, and cars every 4 min or so). We ride past this farmhouse where a girl is playing frisbee with her dog, and I hear her shout "Jodie, NO!" and see the dog come TEARING out of the yard. He was on my ankles in about 5 seconds, and kept trying to jump in front of my bike. There were cars going by too, and I was afraid he would get hit. I kept yelling "No! Go home! You're going to get hit!" which wasn't terribly effective :rolleyes: After a few minutes, I managed to turn around and get him to follow me back to his house, where his owners were getting in the car to chase after him. Yikes!!!! i'm so glad he didn't get hit, that really would have put a damper on the ride! :(

other than the dog incident, the ride was great. a bit windy on the way out, but coffee/tea helped fuel us for the ride back :) took the hills pretty well, until the last when i pushed my HR a bit too high and started the asthma up.
i'm sure you'll be able to read my mom's side of the story in a few days, when she gets home :p apparently she was "ready to kill me" on the way out b/c of the rolling hills and wind. sorry, mom!!
i, for one, think the ride we did yesterday and the ride today were the best two of the season so far!! :D good weather (aside from wind), good pace, and, most important, good company and good food!!!

happy riding!

[gretchen]

and now for "mom's" side!

What a great time we always have riding our bikes (boy, hate to call "Slick" that...just "bike"...it's so much more then just a "bike").
Ride #1 was out Hurron River Drive. A gorgous ride that was 12? miles out along a winding river (oh, hey, that's why they call it "Hurron River" drive!) with just the right amount of hills. Enough to get your heart rate going, but also not too many to make your knees scream at you. Perfect weather, perfect day. Perfect ride.
Then...Ride #2...I'd like to call the first 22 miles of this ride, the "Ride from Hell". Katherine so cheerfully prepared me for the ride by refering to the first part as "oh, just some rolling hills mom". Rolling hills that only went UP...and the wind?...gail force! The kind that blows your bike from under you. Makes you want to stay in the drops just to avoid being too big of a target to get blown over into speeding traffic whipping by at 50mph (yeah, the speed limit was 40 but who reads?!). Then the doggie incedent. We're cruzing along, finally on a flat stretch (by stretch i mean about 50 feet) and "POOF" a boxer going about 55mph is flying down the road chasing after Katherine! Wow, could that dog move!!!!! Like Katherine said, it was hard to decide which to be more concerned about, her ankles being chewed off or the dog being hit by a car! All that flashed through my head was the mountain lion attacks in Caulifornia and how you're supposed to hold your bike over your head and look "BIG". Oh, sure! This dog didn't care how "big" anything was, it was out for the sport of nipping at rotating feet!, throwing itself in front of spinning bike wheels and by pure luck, dodging speeding cars! Nut case dog!!!
That was the first 22 miles...and a break in a great little town for an energy boost and then back on the road for the second 22... which was awesome! A bike trip from heaven. Wind at our backs, winding roads with gentle hills, 60 degrees and sunny...and no more nut case dogs! Very few cars and lots of other bikers!
All in all,....a very nice ride. (kind of like having a baby...you forget the pain over time!).
Thanks for the great weekend Katherine! And the Awesome rides!
Mom/gretchen:p