Crash of thunder

At 3:00 am this morning I was awakened by a crash of thunder and the spatter of raindrops on the tent. Quickly I managed to scramble up and make a quick run to the bathroom before it started to pour. And pour it did, for the next 2 1/2 hours. Towards the end of the storm there was even the sound of some hail.

And after this week it's time for me to buy a new tent. I suspected a leak somewhere last year but this morning I stayed awake throughout the storm and watched where the water was seeping in all around the floor of the tent on the outer edges. I dug the bag of dirty laundry out of my duffel bag and used T-shirts, shorts and socks to ball up and lay against the tent walls to keep the water out of the middle. I curled up in the middle of the tent and managed to stay dry until the storm was over.

When it was daylight, except for the standing water, you never would have suspected rain. It was a sunny day for pedaling, thank goodness. As I had been laying in the tent listening to the rain I was afraid we would have to pedal in it all day. Apparently, though, there were just isolated storm cells over the state. About 30 miles into the ride, coming up over hills approaching Rathbun Lake it looked like someone had emptied an ice chest by the side of the road. Ice piles kept showing up and then we noticed all the broken branches, leaves on the road, and stripped corn fields. Wow-this area really got hit with a bad hailstorm from the front that hit us in Chariton.

Rathbun Lake was beautiful. We got to go over a part of it. To really see the whole thing you had to take the part of the route that was an extra 27.8 miles--what they call the Karras Loop where, traditionally, every Thursday they give an opportunity for bike riders to do a 100 mile day by going on the loop. As much as I would have liked to see the lake, no thank you, 77 miles was plenty for me.

Gorgeous scenery today but GIGANTIC hills. One in particular I'll always remember. Approaching Unionville, 6 miles away, a sign said "Big up and then down and you will be in Unionville." They sure weren't kidding about that. But it was such an awesome scene. You came up over a ridge and there in front it was like a big, lush green bowl. At the bottom was tiny Sundown Lake and you could see the road up ahead curving like you were going up and around the sides of the bowl. Lee will know what I mean when I say the pedal up that hill was like Pickett Hill times three in that you did that breath-robbing push that went on and on and you thought you were never going to hit the crest. But I didn't have to walk up that hill or any of the others we encountered.

I got my tent set up and took a shower here in Ottumwa when another storm hit. I barely had time to gather up this morning wet clothes that I had spread on the grass to dry. Once again they had to be used to plug the water leaking into the tent. Someone who was looking at the weather radar said that there were only 2 storm cells in all of Iowa and one of them was over top of Ottumwa. But, luckily, it was a short storm. The sun is back out and the evenings fun is about to begin.