I am going to start off today with a PSA: Do not honk at bicycles to say hello or for any reason besides alerting them of imminent danger. It is not uncommon for this to happen, but today it has been very frequent. There are a few reasons why this not only annoying, but also dangerous to cyclists. First, there is no difference to a cyclist between a hello honk and a danger honk. We need honk to always mean danger in order to respond quickly and appropriately when there is danger. The amount that I get honked at by someone who is excited to see a bike makes it so that I cannot react to honking as if there is danger every time. Aside from that it would be very disruptive, it is often high risk to quickly get off the road. Of course, that danger is less than getting hit by a car, but if I unnecessarily treat 100s of honks as immediate danger I will get hurt. Second, it’s really loud on a bike to have a car honk right beside you since horns are loud enough to hear from in another car. This can cause a cyclist to flinch as a reflex, which has the potential to result in a crash. Third, even if we do not reflexively react it is a distraction. Every honk we have to evaluate why the honk occurred which pulls our attention away from normal road monitoring tasks.
Aside from all the honking, the riding was pretty good. I took state highway 26 all day and it had a nice shoulder just about the whole way. In a few areas there were small dust storms, but they were contained enough that they did not require detours.
It got very hot in the afternoon, hitting 98F. I carried a lot of water and made it to the Adams County Fairground to camp. There was an event at the fairground blasting music so loud it was physically shaking the ground at the campground at least a full acre from the event late into the night.