Riding the Storm Out

Last Fri night was a typical dark hot ride, the bugs were out and in attack mode , little red June bugs with the black dots slam into your lips, grab your lip skin with their little sharp feet and don't want to let go, If you smack them you might as well eat them , so you gently try to brush them off but they don't want to go , their enjoying the ride, If you look down you can see the wind flowing through their hair, and they have this big grin on their faces. Good ride a little warm, St Charles ave was exceptionally busy, plenty college students dating , lines at all the restaurants , the cooking was wanting me to get in line with them, smelled great,, all were in their "its hot " attire, never saw so many flip flops in my life. Did my 35 and got home about 10:00.
Saturday about 4pm the heat started to subside so I headed out. wanted to put in some miles so I headed up river, reaching St Rose I was ambushed by a bitter thunderstorm, I decided to ride it out and I did, cold giant drops of rain beating on my uncovered skin, rain water dripping into my eyes and burning till all I could see was a fuzzy outline of the track, not much of a chance of hitting someone, I was alone. reaching the end at Ormond Blvd, the rain stopped.
I turned around and a mile down the path the same storm had sat there waiting for my return.,
I once again trudged through it, squinting , and thinking , thinking , thinking.
I reached Williams to find clear weather and continued my ride to the quarter and up midcity back to home , made my 50 miles and managed to hobble out to dinner with Marie who patiently understands and tolerates my obsession. This weekend was a repeat of last weekend with harsher consequences, Friday night was hot, I got a late start, traffic was heavy, but I got my 37 miles in and got home about 10:30. Safe and sound. Saturday I left the house about 4pm, watched the radar before leaving, a storm was heading east and was just north of us, it was being followed by another smaller storm same direction, my plan was to ride behind the first storm and ahead of the second storm, yea right, I made it to Destrehan dry but windy, I could smell the rain in the air, I stopped at Ormond to break, I toured the sky to access the directions and make a plan to get past the weather. Lightening and dark clouds to the north of me, still a few miles off, nothing to the south, the east looked semi clear, all I have to do is outrun this storm toward New Orleans
stay ahead of it and it'll pass to the south behind me, Yea right. I made it a mile down the path when I was attacked by ground to sky lightening, gee there I am on an aluminum lightening rod 21 feet off the ground , the rain started to pelt me so I headed for River Road to lower my profile
well River road was in Street flooding stage and I was riding in 6 and 8 inches of water in traffic ,
I found a shelter at one of the plants and stopped for a while. Called home to remind Marie I was still alive. The rain slowed to a drizzle so I took a shot at it but stayed on river road , lightening was still popping but not as close as earlier, made it about 2 miles and here it comes again,
the drops were hurting they hit so hard, I pulled up to a convenience store and stopped long enough to put on a poncho for protection, I rode the river road all the way back to Williams Blvd.
finally a break in the rain, just a drizzle, I returned to the levee top and thought I'd finish my
ride, it rained, and rained and rained and rained, I reached the Huey P long Bridge and decided enough of the Levee and the river I'm hitting the street. Well to my astonishment that didn't impress or stop the rain, I wiggled my way back to the house one side street after another and the rain continued on and on and on. Only manged to get in 35 miles. Took off today to celebrate my grandson's birthday. I ride on Monday, and Wednesday nights right here in Lafenierre
Park , just 10 or 15 miles to keep me loose for the weekend. MS Tour is first weekend in October I shouldn't have any trouble if I keep the road I''m on now.
Lance is in 20th place but they haven't hit the mountains yet, the Alps belong to Lance.
He's still a hero win or loose.
later
gary

can't take pictures in the rain. I'll have to get a water camera