Biking with Bill

BARN STORMING


In long distance cycling you never know what you will find up ahead on the route. Or what will find you. Severe weather FOUND US in spades today. I had never been caught out in a thunderstorm of this intensity before. We were right smack in the middle of it. There were heavy winds, whipping rain with pea-sized hail, lightning and thunder and some of the darkest sky imaginable. It turned our 100 mile “century” day upside down.

We left Mankato at 6:20 am and arrived 10 ½ hours later in Rochester, MN. The winds followed us right up to the door of the Holiday Inn. They were relentless all day long. We rode for 50 miles in various stages of rainfall, soaked to the gills.

Hoping to avoid the forecast “scattered” thunderstorms, we rode the first 40 miles under heavy gray skies with a quick and steady pace for a century ride. Just outside of Mankato we had to walk our bikes through sand and gravel over a closed road under construction. Others, having left later were detoured around it.

The unusual events of the day began for Dan and me at the 40 mile mark–somewhere outside the town of Waseca, MN, in farm country. We saw the sky color turn to green before the cloud appeared pitch black. I said, “I have to take a picture of that cloud”. It had appeared quickly and looked violent. Before I could put the camera away (in a plastic bag), the severe storm hit us–squarely! There was no cover and lightning flashes were numerous. A farm lady in a pick-up stopped and told us we could find shelter in her barn 1/4 mile down the road. We found the barn, now occupied by 7 of our cycling friends, and waited out the first thunderstorm. Larry (MA) had his brother on the cell phone giving us updates from the Weather Channel radar. When it looked clear to go we departed, but the lightning returned us to our second one hour barn visit. This farm couple not only opened the barn, but brought us folding chairs and bottled water, and showed off their pet chinchillas (he sells them), and new litter of puppies. They couldn’t have been nicer.

By 12:30 we still had 50 miles left to complete the ride to Rochester. In the wind and rain Dan and I trudged on. Many chose to ride in in the vans. Who could blame them. It was a miserable and at times dangerous day.

We had to ride right into the downtown area of the city of Rochester, passing the Mayo Clinic in rush hour traffic.

It was not an enjoyable ride –the weather was too extreme–, but I felt great satisfaction in having DONE IT.

Bill

ps The buffalo photo was taken in Reconciliation Park in Mankato. It symbolizes “Peace” between the Indian and white man. Mankato is the site of the execution of 38 Dakota Indians for their role in the uprising of 1862, which launched a series of Indian Wars. It is the largest mass execution in American history.