A little of this, a little of that

Wild lightning last night. We were just ready to fall asleep when Bruce started asking about the rumbling sounds. I figured it had to be furniture getting dragged around. There had been a wedding at the place and the sound was happening pretty steadily. Then I opened the curtain. Wow. It was a lot like the wild night in Fargo. The flashes never stopped for more than a few seconds and the thunder roared almost constantly. We sat and watched and thought about how very glad we were to be inside, warm, dry and safe. One bolt was close enough to make me retreat to the far side of the room.

We thought about Liz & Raven, whose flight had been due to arrive in Detroit only a half an hour earlier & hoped the weather system had not been a problem for the plane. Then the worst of the storm passed and we got to sleep. This morning we discovered that Liz & Raven had not arrived until about 1 AM. Raven was up, though, and ready to join us at breakfast. We made a few plans together and set out into the rain. Yes, it was still raining, but it was no longer stormy.

We found that our route was not as obvious as we had expected, so we called back to keep our support crew up to date. Bruce thought to suggest once they were on their way past us that they could look as they passed through an upcoming town to see that there really was someplace we would find lunch. Good call, Bruce. There wasn't. When they called him with that news they made a plan to go a few miles off the route & bring us sandwiches. I had ridden ahead so Bruce pulled out his walkie talkie to make a plan. Its battery died as he was saying, "Raven just called and..." I waited for him to pull up, we phoned in our orders, and rode on. The rain had pretty much stopped by this time. In a few more miles, we found our gang with sandwiches in hand, parked in a lot of a former shop that should have been one of our food sources for the day. The town's only open business today was an antique shop.

So after we'd eaten, we realized that meant no public restrooms either. Raven drove us up to the place they'd gotten the sandwiches & Liz sat with the bikes. Raven and Liz are only with us a few days; we seem determined to make full use of their visit!

I rode ahead again. I saw a white tailed deer bounding along the edge of the field beside me. Why do birds and animals work so hard to outrun us when they could just turn right and get away so easily? Anyway, this one looked quite small & seemed almost to be flying to escape. Eventually there was a break in the crop growing in that field, so I assumed it would turn into the space. Instead, it stopped and turned towards the road. A car was headed towards me so I put my hand up signaling it to stop, then pointed at the deer. It froze and stared at me briefly, then turned back and escaped into the field. I had gotten close enough to see it still had the spotted coat of a fawn.

A little later, I saw a pileated woodpecker flying. Then I saw two. The pair of them flew just ahead of me for almist a quarter mile. A good day for wildlife.

Then I stopped to check in with Bruce, who told me he'd misplaced his phone. We are getting more and more prone to errors like that as the trip progresses. You'd think that with so little to keep track of we would have it all figured out by now. We don't. Anyway, he called our helpers. I gave him my phone to carry figuring its best position was in the sweeper's hand. His phone did turn up in the car, so Liz and Raven rescued us yet again. They brought him his phone, then carted mine back up to me.

At our next regroup, we found the only place we saw all day that was selling food along the route so we stopped for a snack. When we left, it was once again raining steadily, and the rainy system looked pretty big. We had only 19 miles to go; we figured we'd just be wet. Then, about 5 miles farther along, we saw the lightning. It didn't look - or sound - very far away. Off the bikes we got, and we huddled under a low clump of trees (there were all sorts of trees around that were taller and on higher ground). And we tried to decide what to do next. There were no buildings nearby. This was not an isolated system; the entire sky was a damp looking gray color. So we called Liz & Raven, who came to pick us up. The storm never got worse, but every time we thought it must be over, we'd hear another rumble, see another flash.

So I skipped another few miles. It really poured, too. Had we finished the ride it would have been a very long, wet day. As it is, our room is filled with damp stuff.

We are very happy to be here in Port Stanley. Great room, great dinner.

More rain predicted tomorrow. Hmmm.

Miles today: 64
Total so far: 3411