Took off for the rally at Algona Thursday evening when I found out people were being allowed to set up early. Show up late at this thing, your tent ends up in the middle of a treeless field, surrounded by other tents six inches away filled with drunken sex-fiends. Which can be amusing, until you'd really, really like to get some sleep without entering an alcohol coma. Anyway, made it there and got set up under some trees close (but not too close) to the crappers. Turned around to head home for an early work day at dusk. Which reminded me why I don't like riding outside of town after dark anymore. You ALWAYS look for the reflection from deer eyes at night around here. I've x-rayed a number of patients who've ploughed into, and sometimes through deer on their bikes over the years. What's hard to see is critters low to the ground, like that big, big mama coon. I managed to notice her being back lit when she was fifty yards out (at 60 mph), but didn't see the two young ones following her until about ten yards out. No grief on either side, but plenty of elevated heart rate. Worse was the skunk that I missed by a foot on my left at a good 70 mph. I didn't know those little bastards could run fast, and having one appear at full speed from the dark shoulder of the road gave me what could have been described as angina in calmer circumstances. After that, I made it home without further incident, but highly paranoid. Never did see any deer.
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