Back on the Road

Well, two of my best friends are now married! I spent about 10 days off the trail in Iowa City, running around, doing bridesmaid things, helping make things run smoothly as best I could. Honestly, I expected a bit more downtime to catch up on blogs than I actually got. I enjoyed the break, but for the first time since Covid began I was around people constantly. Turns out I caught a little something. I think it was a respiratory infection, and it made breathing and biking pretty difficult.

I was invited over Emily’s sister’s to swim in her pool and managed to completely forget about my rental pick-up. This was incredibly foolish of me and had resounding consequences for the next 48 hours. You see, the rental car companies sold off most of their cars at the start of the pandemic as a means to survive the lack of business. Because of the pandemic car production has basically halted, which means now that business is picking up, there aren’t enough cars to fill the demand. So, when I missed my rental pick-up, someone else got my car. In a panicked shuffle, I tried to find an alternative route back to Evansville. David’s brother, Adam, was headed to Chicago to see friends, and I managed to hitch a ride. I had plans to meet with one of my best friends from college, Eli, on my drive back. Well, it just meant we were meeting in Chicago instead! In a scramble I managed to get an SUV rental that cost more than twice what I had anticipated on paying. I wound up sleeping over at Eli’s apartment. We got to hang out much longer than we’d planned and even got to watch a movie together!

I spent the whole next day driving down to Evansville, spent the night at a hotel and got back to biking the next day. I took a break at a riverfront park, got lunch at a bar and made it across the border into Illinois. Once I crossed the state line, I was stuck on a highway with a gravel shoulder for miles. When I turned off the highway I was stuck on gravel roads for miles.

I was getting close to my planned campground when I encountered my first unleashed dog since I paused my trip. I asked one of my bike touring groups on Facebook how to handle dogs chasing me while biking, but when I asked I felt so skittish after so many negative interactions, I couldn’t imagine being brave enough to follow the advise. With more than a week off, I was recovered enough to act rationally. I got off my bike with my bike between me and the dog and shouted in my most commanding voice “NO. Go home!” The dog stopped, but when I started moving he started following. I continued to yell and lunged at the dog with my bike. The dog gave up.

Shortly after, two dogs, unleashed, started to chase me. I repeated the procedure. Stopped, got off my bike, yelled in a commanding voice for them to go home. They stopped in their tracks, but any time I tried to get going again they started following me. At least they weren’t aggressive, and hey weren’t running after me. So as I walked my bike slowly away, kept eye contact, and eventually their owner came out because of the yelling to apologize and take the dogs inside.

The next house was the ultimate test. It was like jumping from the 101 course to a master class. There were at least ten dogs, and all were ready to chase me. My method had worked well so far, so I stood my ground, did the same, very aware that it didn’t take much for them to realize they were a pack and outnumbered me. I was off my bike, shouting, and consciously chose not to get back on my bike. The whole lot of them realized that I wasn’t playing, that they weren’t going to be able to chase me like they wanted, so they laid down in the street and left me alone. Suddenly I felt like I’d reclaimed my power.

As I continued to walk my bike down the gravel road, the next neighbor came out and told me the man next door owned at least 30 dogs! By that point I was at my campground. Fiedlerland Campground. The campground owner was so excited by my story that he brought me to join a group of regulars for a bbq party at the campground. They fed me dinner and gave me water and gatorade to hydrate after such a hot day. I met a couple from New York traveling with their RV, bikes and a folding kayaks.

The owner, Tim, let me put my water bottles in the freezer for the next scorcher, and the next morning offered to drive me past the gravel roads out of town. He wound up driving me into Old Shawnee Town to see a Lewis and Clark historic marker and then offered to drive me all the way to Garden of the Gods. I wasn’t going to say no to that. After such a hot day, I was excited to have a shorter ride.

He dropped me off and I went on a short hike through the beautiful rock formations there at Shawnee National Forest. Then I started to bike out of the hills. My chain had fallen off somewhere in the process of getting here. As I biked through the hills to leave the park my chain came off four different times. By the time I got to the main road I was aware there was a bigger problem going on. I figured it was the cables because that’s what it always seemed to be. So I got an icee from the general store (The general store was filled with Bigfoot souvenirs. I never thought of Illinois as Bigfoot country) and spent about an hour trying to resolve the problem

I was losing hope. I had no service to watch a tutorial on youtube or to call AAA. Plus, I foolishly hadn’t downloaded the photos of my AAA card, so I didn’t know how I’d prove I was a member anyhow. That was when an RV pulled up with at least four bikes attached to the back of it. I went up to the man driving and asked if he knew anything about repairing bikes. With his help I discovered that one of chain derailings bent a link in the chain. I didn’t have the tools to fix it, but he did. He was there with his two sons and his mother on vacation and offered to drive me to my next campground, so I could be closer to a bike shop. Overwhelmed by the idea of breaking down again, in these hills with no service, and lightheaded from the heat and the stress, I accepted.