Dodging storm clouds

I guess a lot of seasoned bikers are familiar this skill but I had to develop it completely from scratch and it was up to necessity rather than fancying myself taking on a skill I might not use ever again.

During my few weeks biking in the US this June I got quite good at it. What it basically is that as a motorcyclist you try avoiding getting wet by avoiding rainy clouds as they intercept your route. You do however have another choice which is to bd a fatalist and give in to nature and … well … get soaked. I preferred to stay nice and dry so I tried my best. I basically learnt the hard way of what it felt like to drive through a cold front and come out the other side looking like something my mother would drag out if the washing machine after a good hours soak. I knew the storm was coming but really had no way to properly avoid it. I could either stay put in a nice warm and cosy (and pricey) hotel, I could try to outrun it or could try riding straight into it and shorten the suffering. I though at the time it was to panzy to stay in the hotel, I didn’t want to turn back and you really can’t outrun a cold front just to let you know. I have also already been to Wisconsin and I didn’t particularly want to go back.

So this is what it all looked like on my phone using a weather app showing the rainfall radar.

The red dot is where I was at the time so I could see that there wasn’t much weather on the other side of that wave of rain.

But I didn’t realize at the time that I was in for some good soaking that would last about half a day. I remember at one point stopping more out of desperation at this diner next to the interstate to get myself warm on a all-you-can-drink coffee and lots of yummy egg-soaked calories with some peanut butter on the side. Seriously, I thought I was going to have to give up and find a hotel nearby and warm up for a week. But then it started to ease off the rain. Just a little at first. Far in the distance you could see the clouds getting brighter. Then half an hour later or so … a ray of sunshine here and there. After that it cleared up big time and once I arrived in Bismarck in North Dakota the skies were blue and the the air was hot.

Once I came close to the finish line of my trip I seemed to improve my wetness avoidance skills tremendously. I was riding towards a small town west of Chicago and I had managed quite skilfully to avoid a few storm clouds in my path. At one point I had to leave the interstate I was on and to my surprise ended on the famous Route 66 . A few friends asked me before I left on the trip whether I was going to do the ‘66’, however this never in my plans. Well, did managed to get on it completely by chance.