Day 35 - Bad Dogs and White Line Fever

(A huge shout out to the MS Hungarian ExCycled Race Team for helping me prepare for this long ride. I wear this shirt proudly.)

Today's ride of 85 miles wasn't a really tough day but a few little bumps made it less than perfect. Dick cursed me yesterday when he reminded me that I hadn't had a flat for awhile. We'll I ended yesterday with a flat and at mile 16 today I had another. I have become superstitious on this ride. 

The ride wasn't very scenic as we rode through farm country and miles of rice fields. I've been fighting a cold for a few days now but I feel ok biking. However, today I wanted to get the miles over with so I just put my head down and kept my front wheel on the white line. Some call this 'White Line Fever.' I did look up long enough to see a typical Louisiana cemetery. 

We did have a mishap early in the ride. I was chased by three big black dogs but after chasing me for about a half mile I yelled loudly at the lead dog and they all backed off. Kelly came across the same dogs and they caused her to fall. They ran off but her front wheel did hit one of the beasts and it yelped which startled the other dogs. Kelly received some scraps. 

We road through a few little towns and stopped at a few convenience stores where people where curious about our ride and we have found the folks to be very friendly. One town had an interesting law.  

Tonight we're staying in a very nice state park. It has great showers and a free laundry room. I'm laying in my tent to escape the annoying insects and it's sweltering in the tent at this moment.  

Tomorrow we have an 86 mile day and we're staying in a church. Hopefully there's air conditioning.