A Ride to Ave Maria

February 26, 2017

I, like OLPH, am behind in blogging so this one will be a short one.   Bob W, our new member Debby W, Joe B from SoWeFlo  and I rode to Ave Maria.  I don't have any photos for this blog but an interesting story about the ride.

We were about 7 miles from the turn to head into Ave Maria.  We were stopped at a light and we spotted two German Shepard puppies crossing the busy intersection ( busy for the desolate roads leading to Ave Maria) wanting to greet us.  They were young and looked like siblings.  They were very friendly but obviously lost and we were afraid that they would cross the road back towards home and get hit by a car.  Joe B and Debby W leaned their bikes up again a pole and coaxed the dogs closer so that they could look for tags so that we could call the owners.  Of course no tags but they both had an electronic device on their collars probably to keep them inside a invisible fence.  That didn't help much.

We talked it over and Joe B and Debby W walked them safely back across the road in search of their owner.  Bob W and I watched the bikes.  There were a few houses nearby and we thought for sure that they belonged there but that was an incorrect assumption.  Joe and Debby talked to a few homeowners that said the dogs lived a few blocks further away from the intersection so they tried to get the two dogs to head in that direction.  Each time they tried the dogs followed them back towards the main intersection.  Bob W and I watched for about 10 minutes while the dogs continued to follow Joe and Debby until finally the dogs settled down outside a gate. We continued on our way to Ave Maria however looking back to make sure the dogs didn't follow us.  Thank goodness they stayed in place.

We had a nice rest stop in Ave Maria at the coffee shop.  It was the first time Debby had been to the town.  There are plenty of chairs and even a bike rack for the bikes.  W were happy for the rest but needed to head back home as it was getting late.  We had lost about a half hour trying to secure the dogs.  I had planned to go home a different way which was a relief to all of us.  We didn't want to know the fate of the two German Shepard pups that we had left outside the gate.  We were very hopeful that they found their way home safely.

We ended up with 42 miles and a great feeling of accomplishment that we did a longer ride and at a faster pace than our usual Monday ride.