We are working on increasing our mileage in preparation for the MS 150 in New Bern. We are up to 50 miles now.

We left yesterday morning when it was nice and cool - in the 60's- knowing it would warm up fast. It was a pleasant ride through the countryside, somewhat hilly, like everything is around here, but not too bad. We had two dogs not really chase us but run along behind us, leisurely, more like they were just keeping us company, for a couple of miles. Not being sure of their intent, it was a little stressful and was highly motivating to go as fast as we could! It was like interval training!

We also had an idiot driver squeeze at a high rate of speed between us and a coming car, and then, to top things off, a dog (different dog) ran up silently behind our last rider and made contact with his back tire knocking him down. Road rash and a badly scraped elbow, and he is too sore to ride now for a few days. He barely grazed my tire before going down, but I was able to stay upright. I was glad I had some first aid supplies with me. This is the second time I've had to bandage up a fellow rider.

This is normally a nice, uneventful ride. You just never know what might happen when you take off in the morning!