Day 15: Dog Days Are Over?

Hazard, KY to London, KY — 78.9 mi, 5620 ft

I’m calling a team meeting.

As you may already know, we are big on team meetings. So this is what we say when we find a lull in our conversation and we know we have something serious to discuss. This past week was a rollercoaster, from Aarushi’s tree crash to Caroline’s dog bite to sleeping barely 6 hours at an overcrowded camp site, our team needed a major recharge. Thankfully, our past two night stay at Harmony House Bed & Breakfast provided us just that. So, through our various team meetings conducted in our gorgeous lacey wallpaper bedroom, chandelier adorned dining room, and lemon-themed front porch, we came up with a game plan.

To quickly recap, a majority of the team was feeling a little traumatized from Caroline’s recent dog bite. So we had to discuss a couple of questions including: Who wants to bike through Kentucky? What parts of Kentucky do people want to bike through? How can we support the people who do want to bike and the people who don’t want to bike? Now I’ll walk you through everyone’s individual thought processes.

Drew was the first one to say he absolutely wanted to continue biking through Kentucky. He had grown up around dogs similar to the ones we would be seeing and felt more than comfortable to keep himself safe. Tatiana had a long conversation with previous Spokes 2025 members Charles and Greta in which she decided, since she hadn’t been there when Caroline got bitten, she wasn’t yet able to understand her fear level and wanted to bike so that she could understand it. I was the first to decide I definitely did not want to bike, at least for this first day. Not only was I still feeling extremely scared after nearly being Max’s appetizer (the dog who bit Caroline), but I was dealing with some butt chafing injuries and it was already my assigned driving day so why mess with what might be my fate? Aarushi and Carmen were initially on the fence leaning no, and they decided together by the end of yesterday to not bike. They both felt scared and unsure they would be able to take proper action in the situation. Nate started out a no, but after much consideration, decided he didn’t want his fear to control him. With Caroline, well the team pretty much decided for her, she was in no shape to bike yet. After 6 rabies shots, limping around, and feeling feverish the whole day, I don’t think a justification is necessary. So we had Drew, Tatiana, and Nate biking and myself, Aarushi, Carmen, and Caroline as drivers.

With that, we needed to book a second rental car (one big enough to carry at least two or three bikes). Though, even if everyone but Caroline did want to bike, we realized we needed to book a second car regardless because Caroline doesn’t know how to drive so she would automatically take our one SAG spot and we definitely needed to have an available SAG spot as we’ve learned from this past week. So, having made an online pickup truck reservation the night before, at 8AM Nate and I said our goodbyes to Charles—our amazing host and learning festival coordinator for the Challenger Center—and drove off to the rental place.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we funnily enough saw Charles walk into the exact same car rental shop. We overhear the lady at the desk telling Charles that his initial rental isn’t available and he can choose between two other car options. This is when I knew it was chopped. When it’s our turn, she tells us the same thing. Even though we had made a reservation online, the website doesn’t update the actual availability of their car types and many customers made reservations with their pickup trucks long before we did. Feeling at a loss, we call our teammates who are patiently waiting back at the B&B. They are all equally confused and demand to be put on Facetime with the car rental lady. Nate reluctantly tells the lady, “my boss wants to talk to you.” After some back and forth between our boss (Tatiana) and the lady, we still have no luck and do a one day rental of the biggest car they had available, a Chevy Trailblazer. This way we could exchange the car for a pickup truck at our next stop.

After two hours, we made it back to the B&B, magically stuffed our two smallest XS bikes in the back of our rental, and the bikers were off. One condition we’d decided for this day was to have a “follow car” follow the bikers along the entire 80 mile route from Hazard to London, KY. This means one of the cars will literally trail the bikers at a maybe 10 ft distance going 10 mph to help support them and use the horn to help scare away any dogs. Carmen and Caroline took this first shift until the first rest stop while Aarushi and I went to Walmart to restock on groceries. We also stopped for some coffee.

Once all 7 of us met up at the first rest stop, we had a serious debrief. Right at the beginning of the day, our three bikers ran into a couple of other bikers at a gas station where they were told that these areas they were about to bike through are indeed really scary and there are many dogs that will come out and chase you. With no other choice but to continue, they started their first 20 mile leg. Nate said that he felt like they were in a “zombie apocalypse” and they had to “watch every house to see if a zombie will come out and get you.” Tatiana said she also felt like she was in an apocalypse and compared it to call of duty or walking dead. Drew said that he “felt like [he] was in a video game” and was having “a lot of fun.” It felt like every house they passed, there was potential danger and you held your breath for something to happen until you were safely out of range… until you came onto the next house again.

Feeling worried and scared even as a non biker, Aarushi and I drove the follow car for the next 20 mile leg. Now let me describe to you how serious of an operation this was. It was Nate and Drew flanking Tatiana in a V formation while I tailed very closely behind them, all windows of the car rolled down to hear barking sounds. At the first sight of any movement or potential threat, we would walky-talky each other. If a dog ever started coming at the bikers, Drew and Nate would immediately grab their mace and start yelling at them to back off, I would honk loudly and maneuver the car to block them when possible, and Tatiana would make sure to keep biking through. The whole time it just felt like being on constant high alert, tense and prepared to take immediate action. This second leg, there were quite a few dogs that ended up coming out of their houses and actively chasing us down the streets. Most notably, a Great Dane, at full speed, ran after Nate and Drew before accidentally smashing itself into a mailbox (aura loss). Another Great Pyrenees (the same dog that bit Caroline) ended up chasing the whole group very far down the street (including our follow car). At one point, there was a pack of small dogs in the street and Drew had to mace one of them. We also passed by a house that had a giant cage on the front lawn of maybe 20 huge dogs that all turned to bark at us. In a kind of cruel way, it felt like a horror video game. Drew said that in the end, he kind of found the fun in it.

At our second rest stop, we took a break for lunch. We ended up at a park next to a gas station and across the street from an interesting shop of random things. I bought this supposedly special Kentucky ginger ale that Drew and I thought was pretty good but Nate said wasn’t sweet enough. We made the most delicious sandwiches using the new ingredients Aarushi and I bought—complete with hummus, salami, sun dried tomatoes, bruschetta spread, bell peppers, and more. Our team is getting pretty good at making bomb sandwiches on the fly. And we played on the swings and on this spinning thing for a bit.

Me and Caroline then took the third follow car shift to our last rest stop at the SPLASH PAD! At this point, even as a non biker, I was feeling the effects of being on such high alert for the past 4 hours straight. As we pull into the parking lot of the splash pad, a dog comes running up to us and Nate instinctively pulls out his mace and I am kind of frozen in fear. Luckily, the dog was super friendly and we completely overreacted. Though, it was definitely a reality check that we’d been experiencing some alternate reality and we felt disappointed that, as dog lovers, our immediate attitude had slightly shifted but hopefully only temporarily. Separately, this splash pad was awesome and a great break from the tough day. We danced through the water blasting music on our speaker pretending we were clubbing somewhere in Europe…

The final leg from the splash pad to Lucy and Steve’s home was mostly dog-less. Aarushi and I went ahead to start unloading while Carmen and Caroline drove the follow car. Lucy and Steve, the kindest and warmest people, immediately offered Aarushi and I a “Big Girl” drink which we happily accepted. We met Milo, the cutest dog ever and my favorite because he reminds me a lot of my dog at home, Momo. They even smell the same.

When our five other teammates arrived, our three brave bikers jumped in the pool and we ate a delicious bolognese pasta dinner complete with garlic bread and more Big Girls. After dinner, Drew serenaded us with a couple of pieces from The Greatest Showman. Every day I learn something new and awesome about my teammates and this week I learned Drew is extremely good at playing piano. We wanted to end the night with an awesome bonfire that Steve set up behind their house.

As we were sitting around the fire, looking up at the stars, we suddenly heard Tatiana scream. At first we thought she was looking for the bonfire and yelled at her to follow our voices. Quickly, we realized her scream sounded a little serious and we all ran to the back porch of the house where we found her on the ground. She had misstepped in the dark and sprained her ankle. After some back and forth, we decided to help her to bed and go to urgent care in the morning for an X-ray.

Suddenly, our team in just the past few days has suffered from three serious injuries. Are we just chopped? I think in hindsight, we are going to inevitably have some really awesome weeks and some really tough weeks. I’m just incredibly proud of our team for always working together and problem solving even when faced with what might seem like impossible challenges. We all signed up for this crazy adventure for a reason and I would not want to go through these ups and downs with anyone else. Plus, I think this summer is all about truly experiencing life and the full capacity of our emotions. I’m excited for the weeks to come because we can only go up from here! I’m carrying with me the spirit of this song, Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine. Because hopefully, our dog days are over.

We ended the night trying to set up four hammocks in Steve and Lucy’s backyard gazebo because doesn’t that just sound like an awesome idea? Well you can read more about how that went in Nate’s blog for tomorrow!

– Nunu