Riding (for) the Pig!

Yesterday my brother and I rode our bikes the 55 or so miles from our mom's house in Cincinnati to my cousin's farm outside Milan Indiana where my brother's company held its annual pig roast. Yes, there is an actual pig and we do roast it. Mighty good eating too for an omnivore like me!
This is the third year my brother and I have bicycled to this event. We don't bicycle home though. Too dark by the time the roast is over. Anyway, the ride started out well. We headed for Cleves, Ohio. The temperature got into the 90's and I came prepared with one bottle of water on my bike frame and another two 1 liter bottles in my saddle bags. If I bring plenty of water and take a sip every few minutes, that seems to keep me well enough hydrated to avoid leg cramps.
Just outside of Cleves, my brother ran afoul of a country dog. The dog "jumped" us as we were pedalling by. He chased after me since I was in front and the closest target. When I pulled away, he doubled back toward my brother and stopped right in front of his bike. My brother tried to put on the brakes but couldn't avoid the dog and ran smack into him. Since the dog was acting pretty aggressively during the chase, my brother prepared for the worst. But I guess the dog got the worst of it because after the collision, he was no where to be found. My brother banged up his knee, elbow and hands but gamely got back on his bike and continued the ride.
We rode along the Ohio River for some distance and arrived at Aurora, Indiana in time for an annual festival and parade of some sort. Listening to the parade announcer, I couldn't help but think of the old Garrison Keillor show about the "News from Lake Woebegone". It was pretty funny stuff. Definitely small town.
My brother picked a great route through some beautiful Indiana farm country. We also found some pretty callenging hills. Shortly after we turned away from the river we turned onto a road called simply "Zion Hill". I'm thinking that sounds kind of ominous, to have a road named not "road" or "court" or "street" but "hill". Well, my lowest "granny" gear was almost not low enough to keep the wheels turning and the bike stable. I kid you not, it was the steepest hill I have ever tried to climb on a bike. Luckily, it was short and I didn't have to walk it. I just bore down on the pedals to keep the wheels turning.
The only place we got lost was in Dillsboro, Indiana. Dillsboro! Lost! There can't be more than half a dozen streets in all of Dillsboro, yet we were unable to find the one street out of that small number which included our route! After riding around and seeing absolutely all of Dillsboro we finally found our street and continued on to our destination.
We arrived at the pig roast after about 6 hours of riding and sight seeing. My cousin and his wife from California showed up at the roast. This was a very pleasant surprise. I think they had a great time and hope they will come next year as well. The party, as usual, was a lot of fun and the food was great!
I had hoped to publish some pictures with this post but my brother broke his camera when he hit that dog. :-(