Day 50, April 24: Marianna to Quincy, FL

0 of 54 miles—SAG driver

The day began innocuously enough. All, you read it here, ALL of the riders were ready to go at 7:30. There was a short delay due to foggy conditions and the troops were getting restless. Finally, the ALL CLEAR was given at 7:45 at which time Marilyn, who was ready to go and has never, I repeat NEVER, made it out within a half hour of the rest of the group, discovered she didn’t have her flashing rear reflector on her bike. Now, normally, this would not be a problem as her luggage is always the last to load. However, as luck would have it, today her luggage was intermingled with everyone else’s. Those of us waiting for the clean getaway were clearly crestfallen. We convinced Marilyn that there was very little fog and that it would clear completely within minutes (it did), and she was on her way.

I merrily set up my SAG stop at 18 miles thinking the day was going along just peachily. On the way to SAG #2 at around 40 miles, the call came in from Command Central. REALLY Command Central; that is, Rochester, NY. Jennifer from WomanTours was contacted by a woman whose boyfriend was biking our route this morning and bitten by one of three chasing dogs. The woman happened to have spoken with some of our riders at the hotel last night and had previously done a Womantours trip, so she knew how to contact WT. Once her boyfriend was cared for, she called the WT office to alert them. Jennifer had a precise description of the location of the quasi-abandoned house and the dogs. Meanwhile, Carol, our trip leader, made her way to the house and determined that the biting dog had been taken away by Animal Control and the owner had agreed to keep the other two dogs inside for a couple of hours to allow our riders to pass through.

I set up shop just west of the “crime scene” to give the riders a heads up. Being the South, you just know that the remaining two dogs would be unleased, once again, as soon as Animal Control left the premises. They were. However, all riders made it through without major incident except Marilyn. Despite my best efforts, I was unable to locate Marilyn for about three hours and, therefore, she was unwarned about said dogs despite two cell phone messages. When she stopped to take a photo of the “interesting old house”, the dogs barked, chased, and scared the bejesus out of her.

Only one more SAG drivin’ day—I wonder what new surprises and wonders await!