I always forget how crazy the weather is here in the Northwest in spring time. Wednesday was a perfect example (today is about the same). I've been one-injury-after-another-guy all spring (long story, I'll blog about it eventually), but I'm getting better so Wednesday I came into work early so I could leave early and get on the bike for a while. Tuesday had been gorgeous but I didn't make it out. All day Wednesday had been a recurring pattern: one our of mostly sunny, nice weather, followed by one hour of monsoon-like rain. It's nice when I get out of work, so I boogy home, get my stuff together and get on the bike. I'd brought a rain shell just in case. I get about 15 miles north of where I live and it starts raining a bit. Before long it's a major downpour. Fortuantely it's not that cold and I've got my shell so it's not that big of a deal. I make it to my turn-around spot, and start trudging back up this 2 or 3 mile hill I'd just come down. It's like riding in a creek bed. I'm on the side of the road on a hill and the water is just flowing. Then something happened that's never happened to me before: the weather was so bad, this minivan pulls up next to me, the passenger window rolls down and this nice lady says "do you need a ride?". This was at the peak of the downpour and I was not only soaked but covered in road grit by this time, which is about your only opportunity to look tough on a bike, so that's cool. But you should have seen the look she gave me when I laughed and replied "um, no I'm actually out here voluntarily...but thanks!"
Print | posted @ Friday, May 20, 2005 2:49 PM