Man's Best Friend My------?

Woo Hoo what a day, where do I start. I guess I will start with last night at the motel hell. We stayed at the worst Day's Inn I have ever seen, but that's another story. I went to bed around 9:30 last night and woke up having a night mare. I dreamed a large man jumped on top of me in the dark in my bedroom. In trying to gain any advantage  in the fight I felt his face and was trying to gouge out his eye's. I was awakened by a sharp pain in my left bicep which was being gouged by my right hand thinking it was the intruders eye. How weird  is that? Then I woke up again starving and ate my left overs at 1:30 in the morning, strange night. 

It was beautiful  this morning, cool and sunny as we headed out for the day. It did not take long for the dog games to begin, within 10 miles we were chased 11 times by pissed off dogs. There were pit bulls, Dobermans, German shepherds, and Rottweilers just to name a few. The girls were so scared they could hardly ride anymore. Every time one would come after us all hell would break loose as we sprinted to get away. I heard plenty of swear words from the Brits and Aussies. It made me laugh so hard each time when it was over. Fortunately for us, none of them came after us while we were going uphill. When it comes to biking rural Mississippi dogs are quite a challenge .

   I rescued a little box turtle off the road today, I guess that was my good deed other than helping get the girls past the dogs. Mississippi is beautiful, rolling hills, lots of hardwoods and pines, and a lot of water. Most of the rural black population seem to be far better off than their cousins in the cities. They have nice homes and lots of room. I am not sure what they all do for a living but they seem to be getting by ok. The different smells today made the ride more fun as you use one of the senses you don't use seeing the country in a car. There were fragrant blossoms on the trees, the smell of fresh cut hay, the earthy smell of dirt as the fields were being plowed. There was the sweet aroma of burning wood and even bacon coming out of some houses. We did have one herd of playful cows race us as we rode by. You see so much more on a bike as you slowly ride along. Speaking of slow we did 138 miles today with our third largest climbing day so far. The roads were rough and steep, so the day seemed to take forever, over 10 hours on the saddle is a long time. The wind was also against us all day, I sure wish it would change direction soon. Love you all.

Life Is Good Ride On