A day of firsts, seconds and everything in between

Yesterday I left work and it looked a little overcast but nothing too bad. That is until I got home. Enter the thunder and lightning. It was booming pretty bad but it looked like there was light on the horizon and I figured the storm was passing me. hmmm ... yeah, not so much.


But as it was, it ended up being a day chock full of new stuff. First, I've never riding during a hail storm. And I have to say one was more then enough for me. Those little things hurt! Riding my normal road route takes me across Peninsula Hwy and the draw bridge that resides there. It's never up, well it's never up when it's nice. It appears it's up quite regularly when the poor weather hits. As I ride towards it I slow down and pretty much just slow pedal up the ramp. This is about when I feel the first few drops. I got to chill at the top of the draw bridge and watch the curtain of rain run up and over me. I go from dry to a wet mess in little under 3 seconds. Now that the bridge has done it's job holding me up so the rain can catch me the gates start to raise. Thanks for that drawbridge ..


Now, as you know a draw bridge's center span is a metal grade type thing a ma jig. It's painted and the road is it's most slick when it first starts to rain. Not to mention there are a line of cars that have been waiting for the bridge. I was a little nervous as you can never tell what people are going to do .. Amazingly everyone passed me in the other lane and no one screamed at me .. that's a first and a surprise. Numbers were on their side and I figured where would be at least one goon in the pack. Pleasantly I was proven wrong .. or at least the goon in said pack was just a quite goon and choose to think lame things about me instead of yelling them at me. who knows.


So I'm over the bridge and heading along the road.. that's when the hail started. It was pouring and at first I thought the rain was stinging me but NO! I was lucky and it was HAIL! Yay .. smacking into me, bouncing off me. It was the best, let me tell you. I had to ride about a mile and a half before I came to the only overpass and cover for miles around. I climb the small hill and shoot down into cover. Where I start watching it pour and hail thinking this is the first time I've ridden in hail and only the second time I've ever had to pull over for cover. The first was under a bank's drive through window (thankfully it wasn't open, and it was my bank so I felt I had the right!). I hung out under cover for about 10 or 15 mins I guess. It passed pretty quick so I hoped back on the bike and rolled on.

I usually head down to the old steel plant and then circle back, as I turned around there it was! BAM, a huge rainbow. Not just a half either, I saw the whole arch. So another first, I've never rode into a rainbow either. It ended up being a day of super crazy weather.. Sun, Rain, Hail and then a nice Rainbow. I got to finish it off with the craziest wind as well, it would blow one way, stop, then blow the complete opposite way. Then it would go back. It was a crazy day.

And at least I wasn't the only crazy one out there, while heading back I came across an older gentleman running in the opposite direction. I gave him a Nod, Smile and a howdy .. he returned the smile and gave me a thumbs up. Old or young we were bonded by crazy I suppose!