Feral dogs, friendly people

We've been out in our new home on the banks of the Mississippi for two weeks now. I am happy as a clam. Commuting into work on my bike on great roads with little traffic. I've noticed something interesting here that is the polar opposite of what I found in Ohio. In Columbus (and thanks to the mayor and E. Gordon Gee they are working on this) people did not take kindly to cyclists. I saw the bird finger and got yelled at plenty of times. But the dogs were tame and I never had a problem.

Here in Missouri, the opposite is true. When I get passed by a farmer out here I almost always get a friendly wave. But the dogs are terrible!!! And they seem to always be sitting at the top of hills, just waiting for a cyclist that has just exerted all his/her energy on the hill. I'm getting a great workout that way. Anyway, its worse on foot (I've been running with a big rock in my hand) but they still like to give chase on the bike.

But I'll take nasty dogs over nasty drivers any day.