Monday, September 24, 2007

Sguirrels and Cows

You never know what you will see on a ride around here. Saturday's ride was in the mountains again (can't seem to stay away from them), we went from Erwin, over Tillson Mountain, Spivey, Indian Grave and back to Erwin. We had a great time. This time of year folks are more apt to stay together on rides and wait for slower riders. Riding along with guys you normally never see on rides was nice. It's amazing how as riders rotate around the different conversations you hear and are a part of. As we rolled along through Flag Pond we must have been interfering with the high paced lifestyle of the locals, since one of them in a big assed truck came around us with the angry roar that always seems to accompany accelerating loud vehicles. Looking to the left I saw a dog barreling down a bank barking at us on a collision course with the big ass truck. I cringed because I was afraid we were going to see a dog explode into a cloud of pink mist! Fortunately, the dog had good brakes because the big ass truck wasn't going to slow down for anything. That dog had to have grazed his whiskers on the tires of the truck as it went by. I guess the guy in the truck wanted to show us who was boss because he continued bloviating on down the road in the left lane till he was out of sight.

Tillson Mountain road makes a u-turn once you come off the main road, the first hundred yards rises so that you can see the road you were just on below you. As we were approaching the turn we heard a voice from above say " hello down there!" Was this the voice of god? I hope not because it sure sounded a lot like Bill Bridger and that's a scary thought. Once we topped Tillson Mountain and started down the technical top part of the descent Zach and I ended up in the front, as we rounded the last corner and started out into the flat there was a sight I'd never seen before. A beat up pick up truck was crawling down the road with a big black cow tied to the tailgate. I new what would happen as we went by but there wasn't a whole lot we could do at the speed we were traveling. There was no way to stop and I'm not sure that would have made things better anyway. We blew by the cow and it went crazy, bucking around and twisting it's neck, wild eyed like it was being lead to slaughter. Spun completely around the right side of the truck into the ditch. I felt bad for the farmer and his cow, but who transports a cow like that? Tillson Mountain had another animal oddity I'd never encountered before. We crossed the flat sections and started down the last down hill section when I looked up the road and saw what I thought was a pop bottle in the middle of the right hand lane. Zach veered toward me and I went closer to the center line in order to avoid it. As we got closer it began to look more and more like a squirrel. It was standing on it's hind legs, holding a nut in it's front paws, stock still. It just kept standing there. It must have never seen such contraptions before and suddenly realized at about 3 feet before impact that it should move. It zigged left, then right and off into the grass. I though for sure it was going into Zach's spokes. I don't think he would have fit through the forks when he went around.

The rest of the ride was sans anymore animal incidents, but was definitely hard since we raced off Spivey and along the Toe river where Zach and Perry handed out several fresh ones before we got to the store at Huntdale and regrouped. This is probably the one of the last long rides I'll be doing in this year. I'll miss the mountains till next spring, but now the real fun starts Cyclo-cross.

PS: I apologize for the butchering of the English language something which several people have pointed out to me. I know people who's native language isn't English and they do a better job than me. Oh well, I am from Carter County you know.

2 comments:

Jonell Smith said...

I enjoy reading your posts, Dwayne. The spelling and grammar mistakes only add to the flavor. Keep it up, OK?

Yim said...

Eyes noes he can spell and has good grammer. We's gradeated the same hy school in Elizabethton. We had some of the best english teachers you could have. Miss Pike that beats us with her rings. Lizard lips that we couldn't watch. Ms. Archer that was 2 petty for us to think about nothing but hammer, I mean grammer and Mist Fair, that was just cool. So gets off his back or I'll come an Jone's some butt.