Today’s ride is on again, off again rain, and mostly on.
I got the test how well my gear holds up to a full day of rain, and so far so good.
The traffic is intermittent but very manageable and everyone seems to give me plenty of space. I need to watch out for is the oncoming semis that create these massive vortexes off the back end. You don’t see the wind but every once in awhile you sure do feel it. The trucks coming from behind me tend to slow down and move over thus I avoid their vortexes which is always good.
I’ve actually enjoyed riding today in the rain. For those that know me, you know how much I love going through puddles and splashing people, – John, Sarah, or whoever else was out running during a lunchtime recess at work. One of my favorite memories was one hot summer afternoon when a group came out for a standard lunch time run. No it had been hot and dry for several days. And as we began the run I could see Sarah was part of the group was not in a good mood. She was not in a good place. And for some reason she turned to me and said ha you’re not going to be able to splash me today! And of course, all I heard was challenge accepted.
About 2 miles into the run we happen to be going down a dirt road and there it was, a deep hole that some truck had left with some nice dirty water. As I came running by Sarah I called out her name and slammed my foot into the puddle causing the dirty old water to splash into her ear and face.
That day we had a couple of new people join our little run group and they were minding their own business when they saw me splash Sarah.
As Sarah felt the surprise of the water she began to throw out choice f-bombs at me as she began sprinting away from the group. The two newbies were sure that I made her mad. I reassured them both that she was fine and she was just going to find her happy place. She’ll be back. And sure enough later on in the run, as we circleed the university together both of us knew exactly what was coming next. It was so hot and humid we started running toward the big water fountain on campus. As we approached there were several mothers with young children enjoying looking at the fountain. We did what we always did and that was jump in the fountain. Of course the mothers looked at us with a certain amount of disbelief and you could just hear them saying to themselves, I just told my kids they can’t play in the water and and then you show up. By the end of that run Sarah had found her happy place and was able to go back and finish her day.
Those were some of the best times going out and running with that group. We all were just hanging out having a good old time during recess. Rain or shine there was our typical OTD or out the door at 11:10.
Today’s ride was like one of those runs just without the group chat. I do miss those but as we all know life moves on.
I was a little nervous starting out this morning. But I have to keep moving. The good news today was that it was not a super heavy rain just constant. I’m not sure if I would have left in a really heavy heavy rain.
As I left the Urban town this morning I was on several one-way streets with two lanes which the cars moved around me but as I approached a park setting there was some little bike trail or sidewalk and Garmin nav definitely got a little confused. It was trying to take me on a very safe route but in the end it got me all twirled around and eventually I got back on the the correct road and started the journey to my campground.
Garmin does track climbs throughout the route and there is a page to look ahead to see what you will encounter. I’m not sure I like looking at that page. Today I saw there were three climbs of note. This is kind of similar to the tour de France where they mention certain climbs. Let me be clear these are nowhere near those type of climbs. But today I had three major climbs, two of them were of 12% grade. So far those are the steepest climbs I’ve had. And I started to experience some cable drift which comes after you ride with a new set of cables for a while. So with some side of the road adjustments I was able to get the bike shifting again properly and it was able to pedal up the hills and not walk.
I can hear all my spin instructor friends, Lauren, Allison, and Maria just telling me to shut up and pedal. BTW there’s no walking up the hill. I can’t say I won’t have to in fact there’s a high probability I will, but so far I haven’t had to walk one.
Tomorrow is predominantly downhill and then some pretty flat land. That will be a nice change of pace.
While I was climbing I rolled past a sign (sorry no pictures of that I wasn’t about to stop climbing up the hill)
kindness is something the deaf can hear and the blind can see
Later, I found a nice little shelter to take a break, get out of the rain, and eat a little snack.
More rolling hills scenic byways and then the first state road with some pretty heavy traffic but a nice wide shoulder.
About 2 mi out from the campground I ran across this little pizzeria and I decided I was going to stop try to warm up and eat something before I jump into this campground. Today the temperature is quite different, now 50°, but with the wind and rain it’s definitely on my lower end of preferred riding temperatures.
Hopefully I can find a nice dry shelter to camp under in this state campground. I’m sure there won’t be a big rush of people trying to camp tonight in the rain.
All in all it was a good day and now it’s time to leave the restaurant head to the campground and get situated for the evening.
I’ll try to add some video of today but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that at the campground check back in a few days.
After setting up my site I was contacted by a man named Larry who is a warm shower host. I had reached out to him early in the day in hopes I might make his town. Unfortunately the weather mad that impossible. He was so kind he came by to talk and share some homemade soup with me. We talked and shared stories for over an hour. Thank you Larry for your kindness!!