This has got to be some sort of record!

On 26 Oct, 18:40, Dan C wrote:
On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:09:04 -0700, Bill Baka wrote:
Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Oct 25, 9:28 pm, (It's Chris) wrote:
...
And running.

And running.

We finally lost him as we pulled into the town of Hickory Grove, after
FOUR AND A HALF MILES!

What's the farthest y'all have ever been chased by the same dog?

Riding due west in South Dakota, we were struggling with a brutal
crosswind, one that tried to tip us off your bikes and kept us down to
about 11 mph, despite perfectly flat roads. *This (like almost all
South Dakota) was the middle of nowhere. *But a friendly farm dog
appeared and trotted along with us, running at the edge of the
cornfield, keeping a very respectful distance.

We rode for about half a mile with him, then I stopped to show my
family the map. *We were due to head north a day or two later. *I
proposed changing our route to let the headwinds blow us north.
Everybody agreed - even the dog, who by this time was enjoying being
petted.

So we rode - no, _flew_ north, propelled along flat, new pavement by
nearly 30 mph tailwinds. *We were easily cranking well over 20 mph, but
that dog was charging along after us. *He was still being smart enough
to stay well off the road, running through the weeds at the edge of
cornfields.

In about half a mile, as we crossed a bridge over a creek, we finally
saw him peel off further right and head down to the creek. *We figured
that was the end of our escort.

But he soon reappeared, soaking wet but still game for the chase. *He
charged along with us until we finally came to a very slight downhill -
one that allowed us to get up to 28 mph. *There he finally dropped off.

Now, it's interesting that I had guessed he ran with us for about three
miles. *But just now, browsing the location on Google Maps, I see the
total was closer to a mile and a half. *Still, it was a fun experience
for all of us! *I've been chased by many dogs in 30+ years of riding,
but that was my favorite.

- Frank Krygowski

Do cows count?

No.

Last year I was out in the boondocks pushing about 12 MPH into a
headwind when a small herd of cows decided to pace me.

So, Bill, you're asking us to believe that *cows* paced you at 12 MPH for
a mile? *Really, Bill? *Cows routinely travel at 12 MPH for a whole
mile? *Come on Bill, who do you think you're fooling with bull**** like
that?

another road there are three horses who follow me and last week I
decided to get off the bike and approach them. Two of the three liked
the attention and the ear scratch, but the third would not come near me
for some reason.

He could probably sense that you're an asshole, and a bull****ter.

My next challenge is an Emu that someone has for a pet. Kind of like a
funky Ostrich, but it won't come closer than about 5 feet, so I don't
know if it would like the petting or be annoyed by it.

It will kick your ass (literally). *I hope you try to pet it... LOL

Bill, where are the pics you promised to post? *How about you post some
pics of these high-speed cows and other farm animals that you play with. *
Can you do that, Bill, or is all of this just more fantasy and
fabrication?


Dunno about high speed, but they can certainly do a decent trot,
probably more typically about 8mph, use the stile, dont try to use a
gate , they'll push through and you'll get the blame.

thirty-six writes:

On 26 Oct, 18:08, Stephen Harding wrote:
Bill Baka wrote:
Do cows count?

During a tour across Montana and North Dakota, I was astonished
at how often cows would follow the fenceline along the road
keeping pace with you.

Sometimes, they would come over from really quite far out in
the pastures, to get closer, trotting, views of the strange
person and vehicle going by them.

Not just individual cows either. Â*Sometimes a fairly long line
of them trotting along the fence keeping up with you, stopped
only by the intersection with another fence.

Never thought of cows as being so curious about what goes by but
MT/ND pastures must be more boring than elsewhere.


They assume you are taking them to be milked if you are moving towards
the gate. Bulls tend not to bother.

Who told you this?

Cows are not as dumb as people think and they know the farmer. And the
farmer is rarely on a bike for this.

Cycling through Cows can be very, very dangerous as I discovered this
year.

On Oct 26, 2:08*pm, Stephen Harding wrote:
Bill Baka wrote:
Do cows count?

During a tour across Montana and North Dakota, I was astonished
at how often cows would follow the fenceline along the road
keeping pace with you.

Sometimes, they would come over from really quite far out in
the pastures, to get closer, trotting, views of the strange
person and vehicle going by them.

Not just individual cows either. *Sometimes a fairly long line
of them trotting along the fence keeping up with you, stopped
only by the intersection with another fence.

Never thought of cows as being so curious about what goes by but
MT/ND pastures must be more boring than elsewhere.

My theory is that there's not a lot to see in North Dakota, even if
you're just a cow.

On that same tour, we found ourselves riding a _really_ deserted
gravel road - the most isolated place I've ever been in my life. We
were perhaps an hour behind another couple of cyclists we'd met
earlier.

As we rode north, we were met by a woman in a pickup truck heading
south. She waved us down and made a strange request: Could we please
hide behind the big hay rolls while her husband herded some cows down
the road?

Seems that when the previous cyclists rode by, the herd of young
heifers had started running and run right through a barbed wire
fence. They rounded them up, but needed to move them down the road
back into their own field.

The reason she asked us to hide was she figured they were just afraid
of bicycles. But now I wonder if they were just running along for the
fun of it.

Ah, touring. No end to the interesting stuff you encounter!

- Frank Krygowski

On Oct 26, 6:42*pm, Simon Lewis wrote:
thirty-six writes:
On 26 Oct, 18:08, Stephen Harding wrote:
Bill Baka wrote:
Do cows count?

During a tour across Montana and North Dakota, I was astonished
at how often cows would follow the fenceline along the road
keeping pace with you.

Sometimes, they would come over from really quite far out in
the pastures, to get closer, trotting, views of the strange
person and vehicle going by them.

Not just individual cows either. *Sometimes a fairly long line
of them trotting along the fence keeping up with you, stopped
only by the intersection with another fence.

Never thought of cows as being so curious about what goes by but
MT/ND pastures must be more boring than elsewhere.

They assume you are taking them to be milked if you are moving towards
the gate. *Bulls tend not to bother.

Who told you this?

Cows are not as dumb as people think and they know the farmer. And the
farmer is rarely on a bike for this.

Cycling through Cows can be very, very dangerous as I discovered this
year.

Nuh-uh:

http://www.pilencykel.se/site/sv/film/evert-kossorna

On 26 Oct, 23:42, Simon Lewis wrote:
thirty-six writes:
On 26 Oct, 18:08, Stephen Harding wrote:
Bill Baka wrote:
Do cows count?

During a tour across Montana and North Dakota, I was astonished
at how often cows would follow the fenceline along the road
keeping pace with you.

Sometimes, they would come over from really quite far out in
the pastures, to get closer, trotting, views of the strange
person and vehicle going by them.

Not just individual cows either. *Sometimes a fairly long line
of them trotting along the fence keeping up with you, stopped
only by the intersection with another fence.

Never thought of cows as being so curious about what goes by but
MT/ND pastures must be more boring than elsewhere.

They assume you are taking them to be milked if you are moving towards
the gate. *Bulls tend not to bother.

Who told you this?

I got an affidavit from the lead cow after a visit to a dairy farm in
1986. I was about to question whether this was really necessary and
then thought that if a cow can summon a lawyer to claim damages
against me for upsetting their daily routine, then I better give
in.


Cows are not as dumb as people think and they know the farmer. And the
farmer is rarely on a bike for this.

The lawyer drives a Mercedes today, dairy herds must be good business.


Cycling through Cows can be very, very dangerous as I discovered this
year.

Only the county court. Small claims issue. I had to play soothing
guitar music to them for an hour each day for a week to compensate
them for disturbing their afternoon. The lawyer was not awarded
costs, I think he got a 1/4cwt cheese and milk puddings for a week.

Date: Mon, Oct 26, 2009, 2:03pm From:
(Stephen*Harding)

Not chased per se, but had a fox run
along side me (about 15-20 feet off the
side of the road) for a good 300 yards or
so.

Very strange. I saw him, he saw me,
both going the same direction along a
local side road out near a horse farm.
Expected him to bolt but he stayed ri
ht in step, loping along.

Thought at first he might be rabid, but
seems we were just heading the same
direction and he was fairly tolerant of
people.

SMH

That IS unusual; foxes are particularly skittish, especially around
humans. I've rarely seen them (only twice in the nine years I've lived
here), an I live and ride in the country.

- -
Compliments of:
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

If you want to E-mail me use:
ChrisZCorner "at" webtv "dot" net

Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Oct 26, 2:08 pm, Stephen Harding wrote:

Bill Baka wrote:

Do cows count?

During a tour across Montana and North Dakota, I was astonished
at how often cows would follow the fenceline along the road
keeping pace with you.

Sometimes, they would come over from really quite far out in
the pastures, to get closer, trotting, views of the strange
person and vehicle going by them.

Not just individual cows either. Sometimes a fairly long line
of them trotting along the fence keeping up with you, stopped
only by the intersection with another fence.

Never thought of cows as being so curious about what goes by but
MT/ND pastures must be more boring than elsewhere.


My theory is that there's not a lot to see in North Dakota, even if
you're just a cow.

On that same tour, we found ourselves riding a _really_ deserted
gravel road - the most isolated place I've ever been in my life. We
were perhaps an hour behind another couple of cyclists we'd met
earlier.

Was this ND?

I liked the state over-all, but it really was boring as far as
scenery went. Great people though.

I believe the state has reinstituted a state "Homestead Act"
where you can get free land if you work it/improve it for so
many years. The state is losing people rather badly.

I went through one area that was building after building abandoned.
A whole (small) town just empty and decaying away in the wind.

Took one of my favorite pictures the

http:dandenong.cs.umass.edu/bike/nd_oldhouse.jpg


SMH

Stephen Harding wrote:

Took one of my favorite pictures the

http:dandenong.cs.umass.edu/bike/nd_oldhouse.jpg

Make that http://dandenong.cs.umass.edu/~hardi...d_oldhouse.jpg


SMH

On Oct 27, 7:40*pm, Stephen Harding wrote:
Stephen Harding wrote:

Took one of my favorite pictures the

* *http:dandenong.cs.umass.edu/bike/nd_oldhouse.jpg

Make thathttp://dandenong.cs.umass.edu/~harding/bike/nd_oldhouse.jpg

SMH

I trimmed the broken link back to http://dandenong.cs.umass.edu/ which
says "Welcome to the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval" and
a broken link. I think that's the funnies thing I've seen today.

On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:28:06 -0400,
(It's Chris) wrote:

Went on a 54 mile ride today with a friend through King's Mountain State
Park. As we were winding up the last few miles we passed through the
microscopic city (yes, its a city) of Smyrna SC, two dogs started
chasing us. Well, chasing is a liberal term; they weren't barking,
snarling or biting at our heels, just running after/with us.

....
We finally lost him as we pulled into the town of Hickory Grove, after
FOUR AND A HALF MILES!

What's the farthest y'all have ever been chased by the same dog?

We rode out of Cave in Rock, IL last summer, and were escorted by a
beagle pup for three miles. We'd get out of sight, then turn and
start uphill, and Pup Dog caught up with us. Finally hit a long,
steep downhill, and lost him for good.

Interesting thing (1): three coyotes saw him, and turned around and
went back into the woods, and he went up to a couple of penned or
chained dogs and quieted them as we passed.

Interesting thing (2): a rider a day or so behind us caught up with us
and told us he, too, had the dog follow him for about the same
distance.

As Frank says, you see some interesting stuff on tour!

Pat

Email address works as is.