Country Back Roads and Other Rainy Places: Sunny day to Berlin

47 miles
11.8 mph aver

Today was supposed to be our biggest chance of rain. It was beautiful all day. We got up early and had another hotel breakfast. By 7:30 we were on the road to a sunny day. The ride across the causeway was nice with low traffic and soon we were headed north to Berlin, Maryland. The terrain was rolling and not as flat as the past two days. It was not bad and I actually enjoyed the coasting down the small grades. It was down one of these grades that we almost crashed

As we coasted along about 20 mph the tandem began to shake violently from side to side. It caught me so by surprise that I almost lost control of the bike. Then I heard Susan screaming;
“It’s on my leg’ it’s on my leg!!”
“What’s on your leg?!?”
“Stop it’s on me!!”
“What’s on you Susan?”
“Stop, STOP!!”
“OK, OK I’m stopping”

With the bike sliding to a panic stop with a loaded tandem and a trailer trying to jackknife we finally came to a halt. I turned around quickly to help get the creature that was killing her.

“What is it, what it is??”
“It’s a bug on my leg!”
“It’s a what?!?”

I looked down and removed a little worm that was on her ankle. As we rode off with Susan still hyperventilating I’m trying to figure out just what the heck happened.

Tomorrow is our long day, 64 miles. The rain is predicted at 90% chance with 10-20 mph winds from the ESE. We are headed north. It could be worse.