Severe Weather

Sunday afternoon I ran into rain about 120 miles out from Memphis, Tennessee.  I decided to find a room and not ride in the rain.  Monday went I woke up I turned on the TV to watch the weather.  Severe weather from Jackson, Tennessee to Little Rock, Arkansas.  They were saying heavy rains and high potential for tornadoes in the afternoon/evening – yikes!    I got ready fast and left the hotel by 8:30 am.  It was windy out, and it really picked up once I crossed over into Arkansas.  About 2 o’clock it started to rain, I knew where I needed to be to be out of the tornado zone.  I still had about 100 miles to go, so I kept going.  It started pouring, I could hardly see lights up ahead.  This is one of those times I’m so glad Denise showed me the lights I ended up getting for my bike (I felt comfortable that I was being seen from behind).  I stayed behind a PAM Transportation truck, knowing they take some time stopping.  I wanted to pull off, but knew that wasn’t safe sitting on the side of the road.  This happened to be an area with no exits, so I kept going.  The rain stopped, and about five miles up the road traffic came to a standstill.  There had been an accident!  It started raining again and got heavier again.  I pulled off and waited for a bit.  When it almost stopped I got back on the highway and made it to Conway, Arkansas.  This was just outside of the severe warning.  I was soaked!  I laid all my gear out to dry and turned the heat up as high as possible.  I left my room to get dinner and when I got back my room it was gross  a warm wet smell.  I decided to put the air conditioner on instead, thinking it would take the moisture out of the room.  It worked, plus I was able to sleep better.

Tuesday morning there was a heavy fog warning with low visibility.  My room looked out onto the highway and the roads were still wet.  I was debating leaving, but all the weather reports said a sunny day.  I decided to just wait and leave close to checkout time.  That worked, roads were clear and temps were 62.  Most of my gear was dry, but my left boot was still very wet.  I took a plastic bag and put it on under my boot, worked great.  It brought back memories for being a kid.  We would use bread bags in our winter boots if the felts were still wet.

Love and Light to you all!