Dog days of Kentucky

August 3, 2016

Cycling in the dog days is not always pleasant. I'm not talking about the temperature, which was a very manageable high 80s with shade trees and some clouds to break up the sun. Let's just say that Kentucky is dog friendly, but not necessarily full of friendly dogs. Every house seems to have a couple of dogs, and most are nice, but a few like nothing better than chasing bikes.

Our stokers have dog whistles (not to be confused with wolf whistles). There are two theories about what happens when they blow the whistle. One is that the loud noise scares the dog and makes it stop chasing. This is a crock, dogs treat the whistle like a dinner bell. The second, somewhat more plausible theory is that the loud noise inches from the captain's ears juices an extra 5 mph out of the startled captain.

In most cases by the time the dogs see us we are already passing the house and they are content to just chase us down the road. Some particularly nasty dogs did this to team S, but then they were already out in the road waiting for team A. The dogs came running at us, snarling and snapping at our legs. Since we were going up a hill, we weren't going to out run them. We swerved into the left lane to avoid the dogs. Just then an oncoming car came over the crest of the hill. Seeing a bike in their lane, they swerved to their left (our right), just as we saw the car and also swerved back to that lane. Lucky for us the driver reacted quickly and swerved back again into his original lane.

All the commotion alerted the next set of dogs, but by then we had crested the hill and had enough adrenaline to get past them.

In addition to dogs we were also chased by horse flies. This should come as no surprise when you smell like a horse.

Finally something chasing us that we could out run, even going uphill.

We also managed to out run some fog. Too bad, it would have cooled us down.

Today was much flatter than yesterday. In the morning we spent some time riding next to a CSX railway line. After one 2 mile climb in the middle of the ride we found ourselves back in the Ohio River valley.

Our old friend the Ohio River, although this time we are looking across to Indiana instead of Ohio.

Live bait vending machine, not the first one we have seen on this trip. Some of the Ohio River tributaries must have good fishing. I wonder how long worms last compared to Twinkies or Snickers bars?

This bridge will take us to our destination in Madison Indiana.

That speck up ahead is team S, eager to get to Indiana.

Finally, here is something for those of you with too much time on your hands (that would be anyone reading this blog) to ponder. We have seen many of the same street names over and over as we travel from town to town. What is the most common street name across America?
A) Washington Street
B) 2nd Street
C) Main Street
D) River Street

Madison has some wineries. We may need to stay here an extra day to conduct an adequate investigation. The house we are staying in has lots of room for the bikes. Another nice feature is front and rear porches, both with view of the river.

Ample bike storage is always appreciated.

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