Longest ride to date and other craziness

Last Wednesday I went for my longest ride to date. A little over 20 miles in total. I was worried the entire way about breaking another spoke of course, thankfully that didn't happen. I started out at my work, it was a bit over 80 degrees at the time. My destination was Guardian Games down on SE 3rd and Pine in Portland. I rode in to Gresham's Main City Park to use the Springwater Trail Corridor for a good distance. The heat was a bit brutal to say the least. I had worked through one of my water bottles by the time I hopped off the trail at 92nd. From there on I made my way over city streets for the rest of the route. I began slowing down, running out of gas. I stopped several times to take a breather. By the time I was on the last couple of miles I was on the absolute lowest gears possible...and they were hard to turn. I bonked hard. Thankfully my wife was already at Guardian Games for her usual Wednesday night ladies game. I put my bike on the rack she has on her car and drug myself in to the store. One of the couches in front of the video games was empty and I flopped down, I think I could have fallen asleep right there and then I was so tired. I took Thursday and Friday off from riding.

Sunday I tested out a new toy called a Walky Dog. It's a tool that you attach to your seat post in order to walk (more like run) your dog alongside as you ride. My wife has been using it to exercise our dog Obi for the last few days, Sunday was my turn to run him a bit. Things went pretty well our first lap around the neighborhood. The second time around there was a stray dog in the middle of the street. For those of you that know Obi you also know how much he is interested in other dogs. Obi listens to Taj better than he listens to me, she spends more time with him and does more of his training. I told Obi to "leave it", that's his command to not go over to whatever it is we don't want him to go look at. He didn't listen. Now the Walky Dog is a metal bar that sticks out to the side of the bike, given sufficient pressure it can be rotated around the seat post on it's mounting. Obi turned around and tried to run behind me on the bicycle to investigate this other dog. The stretch cord off the end of the Walky folded up my rear fender and squished it between the frame and the rear tire. The force of Obi jerking me backwards and to the right pulled me right over onto the pavement and curb. Obi knew he was in the wrong right away, his tail between his legs and head bowed as he looked at me trying to disentangle myself from my bike. Thankfully we were only half a block from the house as I had to carry my bike back, the fender was wedged in so hard the rear wheel would not turn. As soon as we got into the house Obi put himself to bed, neither I or Taj had to tell him to go there. I just hope he remembers the incident the next time I attempt to take him out on the Walky, it would be a shame to have to keep replacing rear fenders.