{"id":1640,"date":"2026-05-22T20:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:07:15","slug":"watch-for-dogs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/uncategorized\/watch-for-dogs-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch for Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 4, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Tom Ewing<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sign posted along Route 76 north of Blacksburg, the home of Virginia Tech, reads: \u201cSlow. Watch for Dogs.\u201d This sign may prompt a series of questions and responses from a cyclist, including what kind of dogs (friendly, hostile, big, small, fast) and where (behind a fence, on the road, or behind a tree). The recommendat, \u201cslow,\u201d may be appropriate for a car driver, who needs to watch for dogs to avoid hitting them, but is counter-intuitive for a cyclist, whose likely respond to hearing or seeing a dog is to ride as fast as possible, in the hope that a human-powered bicycle on wheels can outpace a four-legged creature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dogs were an important dimension of the Bikecentennial ride in 1976, particularly in the two states furthest east, Virginia and Kentucky. Bill Palmer, a reporter for the Anniston Star (Alabama), was riding with a Bikecentennial group from Williamsburg to Carbondale, Illinois, when he was \u201cambushed by several barking dogs\u201d near the town of Elko: \u201cOne of them lunged at one of my rear panniers (saddlebags) and knocked it into the spokes, bending a metal plate in the pannier. I stomped out the bend with my foot and continued. The owner of the dogs appeared belatedly and chased them under her house.\u201d Palmer later discovered that the spokes had broken, which eventually required a new wheel, shipped to Troutville, which resulted in a more pleasant experience for the remainder of the trip. Judy Campbell, whose photograph appeared in the Anniston Star, assisted Palmer in fixing the broken wheel after the dog attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Palmer\u2019s reflections on the trip illustrated the impressions and experiences of many Bikecentennial riders: \u201cI\u2019m more than half way through a 1,000 mile vacation across the eastern United States and I haven\u2019t spent a penny on gas. Unlike some high-speed travelers, I don\u2019t have those interstate blues because I travel almost exclusively on narrow, scenic back roads that wind through farm land and over forested mountains\u2026I\u2019m not in too much of a hurry to stop and chat with the pleasant country folks along the route because I only go 50 or 60 miles a day. I\u2019m experiencing the sights and smells of rural America from the seat of a 10-speed bicycle at little cost other than my own energy. Such a journey is not without hardship. I\u2019ve suffered mechanical breakdowns, sweated up long hills on breezeless afternoons, slept on hard floors and been sick, lame and saddle sore. But I\u2019m having the time of my life!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 4, 2026 by Tom Ewing A sign posted along Route 76 north of Blacksburg, the home of Virginia Tech, reads: \u201cSlow. Watch for Dogs.\u201d This sign may prompt a series of questions and responses from a cyclist, including what kind of dogs (friendly, hostile, big, small, fast) and where (behind a fence, on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1645,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/1645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bike76-va.vt.domains\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}