Hmmmm, I was thinking with the cold I wouldn’t be riding. Well that’s not true, because of the cold weather I have to take the bike out for a length of time to make sure the battery builds a charge. I’ve been waiting until early afternoon as that’s the warmest part of the day. Still cold out riding! When I get back in it takes a while to warm up, tea and I wish I had my blanket to curl up on the couch with.
While out riding, I’ve been exploring the area, and taking pictures of some of the interesting buildings around town.
The ice storm that hit this area really stops everyone and everything in its tracks. Major highways were shut down, any road with overpasses were closed. The temperatures dropped to the teens in most areas. Everything becames a sheet of ice. Mid afternoon my hotel lost power, I went downstairs to the lobby to see what was up. Another person staying at the hotel came in and said that the whole area was in the dark. A gentleman and I got talking and when the power came back we each went back to our rooms. I was thinking the power was only out for about half an hour, but by the clock in my room it ended up being about an hour and a half.
Sunrise the morning after the storm, temps are still very cold, not going to get above freezing until later this afternoon. It’s going to freeze back up when temperatures drop below freezing again. They are predicting 70, this weekend! Phew
When I started this journey I didn’t think I would be hitting the weather and cold temperatures that I have this year. Part of that is they are having below normal temperatures. The weather station here mentioned that they have had three major storms this winter in the past five weeks. They said normally they have one storm in five years! The last time they had three storms in one season was back in 1973. The last time they had ice like they did in this storm was in 1989, and the last time it was this cold was in 1996.
Here are pictures of my bike covered in ice. Some of it almost looks like rain, but it’s ice.
I went out about 11 am to start my bike and take it for a ride, and it wouldn’t start – ugh! I went back up to my room and researched getting a trickle battery charger. Just what I thought, I need to be able to plug it in to work. Living in hotels, I don’t have access to an outlet, I even looked around before coming in to make sure. So, how am I going to get my bike started? I can’t use a vehicle battery to charge a motorcycle battery, it can damage it. Around 3 pm I decided I would send reiki down to the battery. I sent reiki down for about ten minutes, until I felt my bike was going to start. I got all my gear and leathers on and went downstairs. My bike started right up – Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! I took off down towards Jamaica beach as I knew the speed limit was higher and less traffic lights. I need to keep the RPM’s up to charge the battery up. It was cold, the temps were 34 degrees, and then going 65 made it extremely cold. Boy did I get some looks as I was driving. Before going back to the hotel I stopped and picked up something for dinner. When I got back to my bike, I looked over to the main road and there was another biker out riding (I’m sure it wasn’t for pleasure) we waved in acknowledgment as we both know what the other is feeling out there in the cold.
It’s all part of my journey!
Love and Light to you all!
MyIronHorseJourney 