Yesterday's weather predictions came true and at 3am all hell broke loose. There were heart stopping thunder claps and lightning lit up the tent like paparazzi flash bulbs. The rain was coming down hard, pounding the tent.
When the dim dawn came the lightning and thunder had ceased but the rain continued unabated. We assembled like drowned rats under the shallow eve of the toilet block for breakfast, then had a group meeting in the men's room (the women were given a special dispensation to attend). Our plan for the day was to ride to an RV park about 60 miles away and camp there, but we decided we would meet up in the town of La Grange about 40 miles away to reassess the situation.
So we struck the tents in the pouring rain and set off. The route took us through lovely state forest, the water pooling on the sides of the road and flooding low lying areas. About 10 miles in we came to an intersection across which the road was completely blocked by rushing water. Luckily a lady in a jeep was passing by and told us the only open route was to turn right and ride to Highway 71 and take that into La Grange, which is what we did.
Luckily the 71 had a wide shoulder and beautifully smooth surface, so with some tail wind we had a fast ride through the rain. We arrived around noon and encamped ourselves at the Subway to eat and wait for our leader, Dave, to arrive. Given that it was still raining hard, everyone's gear was wet and some people had gotten quite cold, there was a strong leaning in the group towards staying in La Grange and using one of our allowed motel nights.
Waiting for Dave
After a while we moved to the Latte on the Square, where we continued to wait. When Dave arrived about 2pm a quick vote was taken, some calls were made and a few minutes later were around the corner at a motel. The proprietor was very friendly, bringing around a bowl of candy as we unloaded our bikes and doing our laundry for us, but was clearly nervous when he realized our bikes would staying with us inside our rooms, and that tents were being pitched inside the rooms to dry them out [editor's note: there was no need for his concern since we are all very tidy and take great care not to get anything dirty or damage anything].
By early evening the rain had stopped and we all went out to dinner at the Guadalajara Mexican Restaurant. The forecast is for fine weather tomorrow, but more rain after that. Well, one day at a time.
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