I took off on the F5 this morning and rode my Martin Mills Metric route. Today’s 60 miles, along with two 30 mile rides during the week, gave me 120 miles for the week. It was 55 degrees when I took off this morning, with a brisk north wind. Fall is definitely in the air.

On FM 3080, about 12 miles into the ride. I hit a dog. It’s a large dog that’s been a problem for me for a while. It often gives chase as I pass its house, but worse than giving chase, it likes to run back and forth in front of me. I’ve come very close to hitting it before. With most of the dogs I’ve encountered, a spray in the face from the special dog training fluid (read: ammonia) in my spray bottle, and they don’t come as close again. This one has been an exception, and keeps coming after me. As I approached him this morning, he rose from his spot on the ground and ran toward me. I was still in the act of retrieving my spray bottle from the bottle cage with my left hand when I hit him with my front wheel.

It’s the second time I’ve hit a dog on the bike since I moved here three years ago. At least I wasn’t going nearly as fast this time as I was when I hit a dog in 2014. Fortunately, I didn’t run over him. My front tire struck him in the shoulder, knocking him off to the side. I quickly got my left hand back on the handlebar and brought myself to a wobbly stop, without going down. He jumped up and hightailed it back up his driveway and out of sight. So thankfully, we both survived. Hopefully, he’ll take a better lesson from this than he has from the spray bottle.

Today’s route.