The weather was sketchy again as I left work. I was looking forward to the Liberty Road Ride. I headed up the road and this time I was facing the menacing dark gray mass of cloud and rain. At this point there was not lightning, so I rode right into it. The rain started about 1 mile away from the Parkway and it was heavy.
I kept riding hoping to get to the parkway, then turn south and skirt the storm. It didn't quite happen that way. The rain did let up a little bit, but then the clouds wrapped around and lightning started hitting the surrounding ridges. 2 miles from Liberty and 1 mile from home, a couple of bolts hit pretty close. The kind of close where you can feel the light when the lightning hits. Then the thunder is only a split second behind.
I scrambled down under the parkway bridge at hwy 74, hoping that I was not going to stumble into a hobo party. It was dry and dusty, and vacant. I waited as the lightning moved a couple of ridges over. It was a couple minutes before 6pm, and I knew I would not make it in time for the ride.
I headed home, and was cresting the last ridge, 4 houses up from my house. I looked over to the east, at the huge storm, when 5 bolts of lightning ripped through the darkened sky, simultaneously hitting the ridge about 1 mile away.
Group ride another day.
Have a great day.
1 comment:
As it turns out, only 2 of us where there. We waited an extra 5 minutes, rolled out onto the wet roads (with massive amounts of soap inexplicably on the Parkway entrances at US25?!) and had a very pleasant ride through Mills River, where it was already dry. We missed you!
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