Some funny things happened on the way to Mt. Somers today

Tonight I find myself in the pleasant and tiny village of Mt. Somers, tap-tap-tapping on my iPhone at a public campground that I'm sharing with just three other parties. But some slightly bizarre things happened on the road today. Most of which would never happen in Seattle, at least.

Funny thing Number 1: A house drives down the road.

Sure, I've seen the occasional double-wide (or whatever you call them)
rolling down I-5, but this was a real, honest-to-goodness, two-lane-
wide House. The interesting bit was that this was a 2-lane road. So
yes, oncoming traffic had to STOP and PULL OVER to let the house pass.
And yes, this was a HIGHWAY. I think this sort of thing would drive
American drivers to road rage, but apparently it's not uncommon here.

Funny thing Number 2: Susan races a
Tractor.

As I paused at the top of a hill a bit before the town of Geraldine to take a picture of a WWI monument (why are there so many around here?), a very wide tractor (taking up more than a full lane) cruised by on the highway at about 15 mph. I didn't think much of it until I got back on my bike and started cruising downhill.

It didn't take long before I caught up to him. He waves me on and I quickly crossed the solid yellow line, pedaled like mad to pass, and then back onto the left side of the road. Phew! Now the challenge was to stay ahead of him so that we wouldn't have to replay that scene over and over again.

Sure enough, as I cranked up the next hill, I could hear him
approaching, but I emerged victorious! and never heard him again.
Little did expect that it wouldn't be my last race of the day.

Funny thing Number 3: My bike computer comes back to life

The last time my bike computer (which tells me how fast and how far
I've ridden) actually worked at all was March 6. I believe that a
small crack in the screen allowed some moisture to get in, which
caused it's demise. I had actually been liking the fact that I didn't
know how slow I was riding, but today I started thinking that I really
should replace it... For use on training rides at home, if nothing
else... And it was literally within a few miles of thinking this that
it magically came back to life! Which was handy for funny thing
number four.

Funny thing Number 4: the race against the Labrador retrievers

I've had dogs chase my bike before (though not on this trip) and the
scene usually ends with a dog either respecting Susan's yells to "go
home, stupid dog" or a tired dog on the side of the road. This time
things ended a bit differently.

When I saw two dogs jump out on the road I greet me, I didn't think
much of it. They ran in front of me, I avoided them, and they were
quickly out of sight (I had a slight downhill, so I wasn't moving too
slowly).

So it was with some surprise that I discovered they had caught up and
were running along beside me a minute later! And they kept running...
And running...

Thanks to my recently-revived bike computer, I can tell you that they
were running faster than 15 mph (that's sub-4-minute-mile pace for you
runners) for about two miles! They ran to my left... And then to my
right... as cars an even a bus rolled past!

Afraid that they'd be hit, I yelled at them repeatedly to go home!
What was I supposed to do? At this point I didn't even know where
they lived...

The fourth or fifth vehicle that passed us (it wasn't a very busy
road) was a truck that passed by and then pulled over. Uh oh. Was the
driver going to yell at me because he thought they were my dogs? (I've
had this happen while running).

Not at all! He opened up the back of the truck and one of the dogs
actually ran into my bike in its eagerness to get in.

I pulled over as well, full of curiosity.

"Those guys are fast," I said, in as complimentary a tone as I could
muster.

"Yup."

"What kind of dog are they?" I asked, wondering if they chased sheep
or hunted pigs for a living.

"Labradors."

He didn't seem to be in the mood for a chat, so I rolled off down the
road, more questions forming as I pedalled.

How did he know his dogs had taken off down the road? Was he even the
owner, or just a friendly neighbor who happened to see what was going
on?

And most importantly, how fast can those dogs run a mile? I bet they
could give a greyhound a run for their money.