6-9-14
Florence AL to Florence AL
We went to bed last night knowing there was a very good possibility we were going to see rain in the morning. At 4am a it was already coming down hard. At the 6am wakeup it was still raining and a flash flood warning was issued for our destination Tupelo Mississippi 85 miles away. The morning forecast called for up to 1” of rain continuing into the evening with an additional 1” of rain after 4pm.
We stalled for an extra half hour before we dressed into our cycling garb. All dressed bikes packed we took another look at the radar. A huge thunderstorm was directly in our path.
The various go, no-go scenarios were being discussed with nobody wanting to be the one to say "let’s not go". One thing we were all in agreement with is no one really wanted to spend 9 hours riding in the rain. But we all knew our little wagon train can’t afford to miss a day of riding.
Someone could have played the “safety card” clamming it would be dangerous but that card was not played. The pondering of whether to go or not pushed our arrival time even further back and into what the NOAA forecast said would be the worst of the storm.
Having already been rained on more than we wanted last week, the decision was made to toss in the towel. Nobody really liked the idea but when you looked at the weather outside, the forecast and now the late start it made sense. The show was over.
We dressed back into our street clothes and started reworking the maps. If we had a car a day off could be a good way to go explore the sites or do something fun. But we are on bikes and if you’re going to ride to go see the sites you should be able to ride to you next destination. Can’t have it both ways. And this adventure is for cycling not riding around in a car or hanging out.
A couple hours later the weather started to break and clear. The massive thunderstorm that covered parts of two states completely disappeared. The NOAA forecasts changed and we all realized we could have made it. We should have just saddled up and went for it. We made a bad call.
Now seeing the sun was even worse than seeing the rain. If it is not raining we should be on the bike pounding the pavement not held up in a hotel room. It was a little depressing for all of us knowing we made the wrong decision. Each day we are on the road it cost money and time both of which are in tight supply.
We walked a few blocks for a pizza around 1pm then decided to go back to the room and do some bike maintenance. At least we are doing something bicycle related.
We plotted our next four days and hopefully we can make some forward progress starting in the morning.
ZERO Miles
ZERO Feet of Climbing (unless we can count the elevator)
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