Conway Arkansas and Scary Situation

Everything felt pretty good this morning as we prepared to leave Fort Smith heading 123 miles to Conway. There was a head to shoulder cross wind of about 10 to15 mph. Arkansas  is a beautiful  state and I got to enjoy that beauty today. We rode in a saddle between two mountains on each side of us. Everything  was going along routinely  until about mile 50. At that point I was riding in a 6 person pace line on the shoulder of the highway. As we came to an intersection  where we had the right of way I was sitting in 4th position in the line. The first 3 riders went thru the intersection without really looking, as I started into the intersection a car was coming right at me at a high rate of speed. He either did not see the stop sign, was drunk, was asleep or having a medical problem. I waved my hand and caught his eye as he locked up his brakes and skidded to a halt in the middle of the highway. I swerved very quickly to my left and cleared his bumper by inches. The people following me thought he was going to hit me for sure and said the only thing that saved me was my quick reaction  to swerve out into the highway around the skidding car. It happened so fast, I know God protected me. The man appeared to be in some kind of trance, he would not even look up as the riders behind went to his window. Witnesses said that if I had not gotten his attention the man would have been killed by an on coming truck from the highway when he ran the stop sign. It was a close call, my only of this trip.
  An hour later I had a big grey pit bull with a head the size of a basketball come after me. I was tired but put on a serious sprint to get away from him. I can not even imagine the damage he could inflict. I did have a bit of pain in the patella tendon in my right knee. I guess it is inflamed from over use, I will need to ice and take anti inflammatories for a few days. Brian came to Conway to have dinner with me and he got to meet a lot of the riders. We took Rich, Rose, and Monique with us to a really nice  Italian place, it was a lot of fun. It was so good to see Brian and hug him. I really appreciated him taking the time to come see me. I love Brian he is a great brother in law. It sounds like one more decent day before bad weather sets in. We will ride by a lot of the damage tomorrow from last weeks tornado. Thanks for your prayers and support, it does make a difference.

Life Is Good Ride On