Day 20, Friday, September 27

Today went by pretty quickly, although the afternoon dragged a little more than the morning. I think it was the shortest day of the trip, at 87 miles. It was still cloudy all day, although it only sprinkled on us a little at times. Most people are saying that the weather will clear up for the rest of the trip, and it did start to look that way by the afternoon.

In the morning we rode through Amish country and I got to see a man and child dressed in Amish clothing pass in a a horse-drawn buggy. I stared at them, which I guess was pretty rude, but they are by far the most exotic sights I've seen on this trip. It sounds strange but seeing a way of life so different from what I'm used to kind of made the whole trip seem worthwhile. The man didn't seem to be offended by my staring and waved and I nodded back. A local rider was telling me that it's harvest season now and the Amish have galleries where people can buy their goods. I saw hand-painted signs noting wagons, "apple buttr", and caning chairs for sale. I also saw some wild turkey in the morning and that was neat, too.

The rolling farmlands, silos, and red barns in the morning with the dark sky in the background were pretty. Everything seemed peaceful after the storm of the last few days.

Brian "Bicycle Tourist" from Flagstaff, Arizona

Today, Brian from Flagstaff, Arizona, declared that Isadore had turned him into a "bicycle tourist," instead of an "ultra cyclist." This afternoon he took an hour-long tour of the Jack Daniels factory in Lynchburg, showing up at the hotel with miniature whisky bottles in his pockets. He couldn't actually buy them at the factory, however, since Lynchburg is -- ironically -- in a dry county, so I'm not really clear on how he got a hold of them. Even though I didn't stop and take a tour our route did pass by a giant lot filled with stacks of wooden barrels, and I could smell the alcohol as I passed.

I had another stray-dog encounter in the afternoon that upset me again. At about mile sixty I stopped to check the route sheet before making a turn at the top of a steep descent, and a very submissive dog approached me. I didn't even see her at first, she crept up so low to the ground. She wagged her tail, flattened her ears, and sort of darted forward then backwards a little as she got closer, watching me the whole time to see how I would react to her. Eventually she got close enough and tested out putting a paw on my shin, then quickly had both front paws on my thighs hugging me, she was so hungry for affection. I couldn't believe that a stray dog could be so friendly and approach me like that. She seemed desperately needy.

I kept scratching her head as she hugged me, telling her that I was sorry that I couldn't do anything for her. Her fur was matted and covered in burrs, which immediately transferred to my cycling shorts. I didn't know what to do, I didn't want to just leave her there. A few other cyclists passed but none of them seemed concerned or could offer any suggestions. She wouldn't let me go. She kept trying to lick my face and I kept pulling away because she seemed so dirty, but she kept insisting and there was nothing else I could do for her so, after petting her for about ten minutes, I let her lick my chin.

Once she felt confident that our relationship had been secured, she began nipping at the pockets of my cycling jersey, looking for food. I gave her a little of the food that I had, and while I unwrapped each serving, the stray sat and tried to wait without pawing me as if someone had trained her to do that, even though she had to contain her excitement about the food. After she swallowed the first bit of food practically whole, I told her as I gave her the next bits that she had to chew.

Once I gave her what food I had I decided to move on since I couldn't think of anything else to do for her and she had stopped clinging to me. I hated to leave her, though. She was so full of love and affection and so in need of caring, I hate to think of her fending for herself out there. I don't understand how someone could be so careless with something so precious, to let her go stray like that. I think on my next cross-country trip, instead of cycling I'm going to bring a giant truck to collect all of the stray dogs and bring them home with me.

Tomorrow has some of the steepest climbing of the trip, even though the total climbing for the day is fairly moderate at 5,600'. Hopefully the weather will keep improving. After tomorrow I feel like the rest of the trip should go by quickly since none of the last four days are particularly long or steep.