Peacocks on the Prairie!

Yesterday I rode in the high velocity winds...(really? what a surprise!) It was warm though and once I get going, I'm fine. Getting out of the house is a challenge when I see the flags on my street blowing straight---but at least the wind was from the South Southeast. Heading down Country road 7, I passed the Old English sheepdog house..(there are 10-15 Old English Sheepdogs behind the fence who always bark like mad when I ride by...hence the name).

You know you're starting to adjust to your new surroundings when you start describing places or giving directions or understanding the directions you're given, not by their street names or addresses, but by some sort of landmark. "Take a left at the road to Lynd...(County Road 74), or the back road to Russell (County Road 4), or the Lake Balaton Road...". You get the idea. Those were the directions folks here would give me. It gets hard when the directions include a landmark that is no longer there...like, "take a right where the old church used to be". You're like...well what's there now? Usually, nothing is---or if it was a church, maybe the cemetery is still there, but if it was something like a farm...well, then you just ride around the square route until something looks familiar.

When I first got here, all the roads looks the same. But now, I've found something distinct about all the roads and I don't get lost. My usual way of defining the roads includes some wildlife and loose farm dogs though. The back road from Ghent, is the road where the Black Lab and Friend always chase me for almost 1/2 mile when I am heading back home. County Road 67 becomes the road from Camden where the Black Lab, an Ahsa Lapsa, and some kind of Poodle try and catch me going uphill...(I always drop em' on the descent though)! The River road to Camden (in Lynd) is the Dubbledee Kennel or Donkey Road. And now Saratoga, which was the "The Dog that Bit Me Road", is now the Peacock Road!

On my way back into town yesterday, I saw these big birds on the corner of "The Dog that Bit Me" Road, and as I got closer they just kinda hung out and waited. Then one of them opened up all it's feathers and I realized the birds were in fact Peacocks! 1 gorgeous male and 2 females. With their feathers fanned, they're like 8 feet tall!! They were hanging out on the corner and I got within a foot of them. I stopped and waited while they crossed the road. But they were tame and not very scared of me. They had to be pets as they let me get within reach of them and didn't jump or anything.

And with a huge tailwind at my back, I headed home on the former "Dog that Bit Me" road...and at 30-35 mph, even if the dog that bit me was there (which he wasn't), he'd have trouble catching me!

Peacocks on the Prairie....imagine that? Enjoy your day!