Too old to know when to come in out of the rain!

[Danny D]

Last Sunday we were riding and rode through a couple of spots of light rain on the way to my buddies house. While sitting around outside we noticed huge black clouds moving into an area northwest of us about 20 miles away. They asked me to stay until it passed. Probably should have.

I figured that storm was about where I lived so maybe I better get home before all hell breaks loose. I got a couple of miles down the road and it started raining pretty good. Turned to the west to miss most of the heavier rain and saw lightning hitting both sides of the road about a mile ahead. Did a U-ey then turned north to avoid most of the lightning but into heavy rain. Mind you now that I had rain gear in my bags, but I was already pretty wet so I figured what the hey, and pressed on. It was now raing pretty hard but I was only 10 miles from home. During the last stretch on the turnpike it was raing and blowing so hard that the cars pulled over on the shoulder because visability was reduced to squat! I pressed on and it started to hail on top of all the other bad weather and I could just see the lines on the road and little else. The drivers in the cars on the shoulder watched me on my bike passing by and their mouths dropped open in amazement. They were probably thinking, "What a lunatic!" That's what I was thinking about myself too after chewing on some hail that got in my mouth. Yummm, fresh hail.

I got home and took off about 30 pounds of wet clothes and threw them in the wash in the mud room. All in all it was very intense but brief. Once you are out on the road and there is no cover, and no shelter of any kind, you just got to press on.

Danny D

[Woody469]

Nice, what a trooper!!

[shovelmike]

Good story, Danny. I've been in similar situations myself....minus the hail, a person questions their sanity at the time but those times make some of the lasting memories. Non-riders will never get it but the exposure to varied weather is one of the attractions of riding and why I love it so.
Great looking bike...I believe I met you at Mapleton this past Spring.

[Klem]

Agreed, will maybe not on that part about Danny not being smart enough to come in out of the rain. But a big part of enjoying riding is being more connected with the environment. Sometimes it can be truly unpleasant or even hazardous, but usually it gives you a neat memory and something to talk about, like that's a problem with this group. I wrote an essay once about a long ride I had taken and personalized it in an attempt to let my inlaws understand riding. It merely confirmed to them that I was out of my gourd.

Thanks for sharing Danny, a story like that stirs the memories in all of us. It also reminds us that although we may be lunatics, at least we aren't alone.

Don