Last year my wife and I picked up our new tandem in Seattle and rode it home. About 450 miles into our 500 mile three-day trip (we didn't take the most direct route), we encountered a Chihuahua that was determined to catch us and do who-knows-what to an ankle. We casually sped up, but the little guy kept gaining on us. We finally had to flat out sprint to put enough distance on him that he gave up. At that point we looked up to see that the bridge was out. Fortunately, there was a way around without going back past the little guy.