Preparing and packing every morning is usually uninteresting, which is good. Making sure you have everything that you arrived with might seem overwhelming, but after being on the road for nearly three weeks I had a routine down. It's more or less like being on autopilot; you're doing quite a bit, but it doesn't require too much thought. As I was clamping the dry bag I heard a hissing noise, like contents being released from a pressurized container. At first, I thought it was air being released from the air pump that I pack on top of the bag. With one inhalation, I realized how wrong I was: the noise I heard was bear spray being released in the dry bag. I quickly told my mom to get out of the hotel room, as the deployed spray was beginning to sift out of the dry bag. I opened the window and door, hoping that this would ventilate the room. I began to assess the mess inside of the dry bag (now formerly dry). Two factors contributed to this event happening: 1) the plastic safety clip had dislodged from the container, so with a downward push of the trigger the spray would be released; 2) I absentmindedly packed the spray in a standing position; all that had to be done for the spray to deploy was downward force being applied on the trigger. Much like the downward force by my attempting to clamp the bag shut. Had it been packed on its side, the likelihood of the spray releasing would have been reduced. After 30 minutes of cleaning the bag in the hotel parking lot, I was finally on the road shortly after 7:00am. While bear spray has a much lower concentration of oleoresin capsicum than in pepper spray, I soon had firsthand experience with how irritating it was. I had washed my hands vigorously several times while cleaning and gave one final thorough washing before starting to ride. About five miles outside of Atkinson, I felt a tingling sensation on my hands and feet. This tingling sensation soon changed to a burning sensation that was more irritating than a sunburn. I felt this discomfort for the remainder of today's ride. I simply told myself: your skin is not on fire; your nerves are mistaken. Experiencing this discomfort along with a stubborn wind really made this ride feel longer than it already was. 100+ miles in a day is enough of a feat in and of itself, but dealing with this setback was annoying at the present moment and after the ride had concluded. After all, the majority of the evening would now consist of thoroughly cleaning everything that the bear spray had contaminated. I am very thankful that my mom picked up some Dawn and new ziplock bags for holding gear. This made for one less thing to dedicate time to while riding today. Toward the end of the ride, I approached another construction zone. The designated paved detour would add six miles to the route, where taking gravel roads would only add two miles (per the worker flagging traffic). Despite preferring paved surfaces for riding, I opted to ride on the gravel. Unlike the gravel I had ridden on elsewhere during the trip, these gravel roads were tightly packed, and the gravel was very fine in size. Surprisingly, the gravel road was smoother than much of US-20. This slower pace on gravel through the farmland of Nebraska made for a good end to a long, long day. When I arrived in Laurel, I said my goodbyes to my mom, had dinner, and began the tedious work of cleaning what had been exposed to the bear spray. All told, this lasted about four hours. Gloves usually donned by workers at Subway really came in handy for cleaning and avoiding re-exposing my hands to the bear spray. Tomorrow's ride would be a little hilly, but it would be considerably shorter in distance. To top it off, I would be riding back into more familiar territory: Iowa.
