Alright so probably the highlights of riding the past couple days have been the weather. And boy has it been horrible.
Leaving Lincoln University, we got the word that we might hit some stormy stuff. Well, we did. At about thirty or forty miles (I don't remember) we stopped at a a crew van for a quick rest, and looked out to the northwest to see a HUGE wall of ominous, black cloud racing toward us like a tsunami. I'm not kidding you, that's what it looked like. Thinking, "Oh, s***, that's coming right for us," we hurriedly continued on our way.
About five miles later, the front line of the clouds rolls over us and it turns from day to night. Then one of our guys gets a flat, so as we're waiting for him to change it I'm looking up at the swirling, angry-looking clouds, fully expecting a funnel to form. Then: lightning, and thunder almost immediately following. Almost as if on cue, rain starts coming down in buckets, so we all ditch our bikes and run for cover under some trees. Yeah, probably not the smartest idea but comparing the probabilities of getting soaked versus getting electrocuted, we figured we try. We got soaked anyway. Fifteen lightning-and-rain-filled minutes later, a van shows up only to tell us that the lightning was "far enough away" that we could continue riding. (Joy!)
We later found out that the line ahead of us made it to some good samaritan's mansion where they were able to wait out the rain in his garage while drinking piping hot coffee. And the line before them made it to the next crew stop and stayed dry in the van. I guess that's just tough luck for us!
The next day (yesterday) it started raining almost immediately after we hopped on the bikes. I had a jacket on this time, but it didn't help much, save for keeping me from being as cold as I could have been. I still got soaked.
So, dirty and wet we arrived in St. Louis to a restaraunt owned by someone one of the cyclists knew. Good Italian stuff. Then we did another arrival into downtown where we got some pretty epic pictures and a proclamation in front of the old courthouse and famous Arch. Perhaps better though, we're staying at the Ballpark Hilton which is a-maz-ing.
Today was filled with friendship visits with the St. Louis Arc and St. Louis Society (lots of board games, specifically mancala). It was hot again, so we went for a swim at the Country Surf Swimming Club pool where our project manager lives, then dinner hosted at his house with his family (and friends/neighbors). So, for a "day off," it was friggin' busy.
A couple random things:
- I've been on the computer here in the hotel for almost two hours, mostly trying to design the team t-shirts.
- I checked my grades finally...not good. The whole confliction with finals week and the beginning of JOH didn't bode well for me.
- I'm looking for some research/lab work in Seattle, and the researcher at one of the labs I'm really interested in mentioned that there might be some opportunity for me! Exciting. Hopefully it's for pay because I'm almost dead broke. So, happy and sad today.
We cross over into Illinois tomorrow -- for likely the longest mileage of the trip. It's in the books for 110 but that's subject to change, and as we've found out...not always for the shorter. Oh well, hope for mild weather and flat road! But now I'm going to go up to my nice hotel bed and relax.
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