total: 1144
todays mileage: 151

Slept late. Ate pancakes for breakfast. Packed up my stuff,
and started to pack up the bike. This is when I made a dumb
mistake. Since my parents live on a dirt road, with a gravel
driveway, there is not a great place to park the bike. So I
had just parked it out in the yard. I couldn’t find a great
spot, and ended up parking slightly up hill, so the bike didn’t
lean over quite as much as I’d normally like while on the side
stand.

So not thinking, I go to load up the back on the back of the
bike. As I’m pulling on the bungee net to get it secure, I manage
to pull the bike off the side stand, and over on it’s side it
goes. Ground was still soft from the rain, so no damage done, but
kind of a dumb way to drop a bike. Stood it back up and reparked
it in a better spot, and finished packing.

Rode back to Raleigh from Statesville, pretty uneventful. A lot of
traffic, moving faster than usual, and it was a bit hot out. But
bearable.

One odd thing was I found myself kind of target fixating on the
ground just ahead of me, instead of looking down the road. A bad
habit. So I remind myself not to do that, and loop up. About 5
seconds later, lots of brake lights start coming on and some
cars start to swerve. Couldn’t hear any squealing tires or crashes
though, but then, with ear plugs, it’s hard to hear much of
anything.

I eventually catch up with whats causing the ruckus. A tire rolling
down the middle of the left lane of I-40. Apparently it had fallen
off a truck carrying new tires. Kind of odd to pass a rolling tire
on the interstate.

Got home, put the bike in the shed. Took a nap. Now I have to
go back to work.