gracious, wonderful people! For us this episode was another reaffirmation of the basic goodness of most people.
The ride today was our longest so far in terms of mileage, but thanks to yet another tailwind we cranked along at a good pace. And the weather again cooperated; it was overcast and cool for most of the morning and a few drips of rain fell. But by noon the clouds had moved on and we had sunny skies the rest of the day.
South of Fort Wayne, we met Steve, another cyclist out for a training ride. He was only a few years younger than us but was training for a series of competitive races. We were impressed while he thought we were the bomb. We took pictures of each other and then rode together for a few miles. After we watched Steve fend off a German Shepard that came after him from an adjoining house, Steve told us that another large dog actually ran into him recently while he was on a ride - nearly knocking him off his bike. We've started to encounter the Fido problem pretty much every day for about the past week. Most of the time we are able to simply outrun the dog before it ever gets close enough to do any harm. But stories like Steve's are not uncommon, with riders often being knocked to the pavement and sometimes suffering serious injuries. Our big fear is not being bitten by a dog, but that the dog would get under the wheels or in front of the bike, causing us to go down. One crash on this trip is enough.
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