ok, I will look into getting redundant lights... any changes how you ride during dark?
and I know I messed up the description of the road so I will try to fix:

its a 2 lane road (1 lane each way) that has a bike lane on each side about 4-5 ft in width. There is an intersection that I do have to cross and the bike lane, of course, continues on through the intersection. the intersection widens into a left turn lane (with left turn arrow), straight lane, and bicycle lane.

the road does have a 45 mph speed limit but the motorists do go faster... and there are no parallel roads to use (unfortunately).
oh and the ride is only about 5.5 miles.