I got home early from work today. I was exhausted, but if I want to reach the goal, I have to pay the price, so I went on a ride. I left my house at 4:45. Mother said supper would be late so I decided to try and be back by 7pm. The wind was out of the Northwest at 14mph so I went North. I like that road better than the South anyway.

I was riding well into the wind in 8th and 9th gears. It was cool and I was feeling good.
And then it happened. A bird flew down and hit me on the head. I am not kidding you. I was two miles from Oakland and I felt a bird hit me on the back of the head. I quickly turned around and saw a black bird with red shoulders following me. I will have to admit that it scared me and so I rode faster. I was actually able to outride the bird due to the wind that was holding it back. I did follow me for a good 100 yards or so.

I don't know if it was attacking me or not. That was me initial reaction. After I thought about it I gave the bird some credit, not wanting to condem him/her to quickly. Maybe it thought my head was a tree to land on. I didn't think I was moving that slow though and I have never before heard of such a thing. Or maybe it wanted my hair to make a nest. I don't know but I do know that it attacked/hit me/tried to land on my head.

I made it through Oakland. Ironically, tommorow, the Bike Riders Across Nebraska will be there. But today it was just me and I didn't stop.

Then about three miles North of Oakland, someone threw a can of Dr. Thunder at me, from a moving vehicle. I don't know why they would do such a thing. I could have been killed had it hit me square on the head. Luckily it hit the ground and slip past me two feet in front of my front tire. It did anger me quite a bit though. Punks.

I made it to Lyons Nebraska by 6pm. I stopped to refill my water. Then at 6:05, I headed back. The wind was bad at times on the way up and so I thought it would help a lot on the way back. It only helped some. The cross wind was still a bother. I hate wind, but I have to deal with it.

Then just as I was leaving Lyons, a tractor pulled onto the road, and a minivan followed. The minivan was following the tractor. Her licence plate read BETTE. Well, BETTE was all over the road. She couldn't decide between the shoulder, where the tractor was driving, or the road, where the speeding traffic was. I was going fast enough to pass them both, but couldn't because of BETTE's driving. I found the situation humorous. Luckily they turned off at the first mile country road. I continued home with out further incident except for the dog that thought he would race me. I won.

Round trip: 28 miles.
I was tired by the end, but feeling good.