Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Day 31 - Rochester, MN - July 19th 2006
Weather: Extremely Wet and Windy (Lightning/Thunder)- Photo shot at 10 AM.
Location: Rochester, MN (from Mankato, MN)
Miles per day: 101.5
Average miles per hour: 11.44
Elevation climb:
Blizzards/Ice Cream to date: 23
Flat Tires to date: 1 (at DQ)
Guts, Tenacity and Perserverance, the ingredients for today! Centuries (100 plus cycling day) are not easy for the everyday cyclist but even more challenging is doing them back-to-back! Following yesterday's century, under normal circumstances, today would be physically exhausting. As it turned out, today was no ordinary day and would challenge us to our limits! Why? First clue was at 6:00 AM: 'Red Sky in the morning, sailors' warning' - the sky was ablaze! Mother Nature and the DOT (dept of transportation) had lots of surprises in store today.With my stomach lined with Oatmeal, I confidently set off up the very steep mile incline out of town. That was followed by 5 miles of construction where the road was dirt and nearing the end, the local DOT advised us that we should not be on the road. Now he tells me!
At that point, the weather began chasing us down. As the dark clouds started rolling in, locals were telling us that we were in for bad weather. The local newspaper reporter who greeted us at our first SAG advised us that when he arrived at work, they were discussing where the Tornado Shelter was located. Great! We departed
quickly but within a mile, we were stopped in our tracks as the clouds with lighting and thunder were upon us. We darted into a local barn and waited for it to pass. We were stalled for 2 hours with just 30 miles down. We were losing time and getting hungry. We did consider ordering Pizza. Address? Back of the barn! In spite of my investment in rain gear for this trip, it did me no good packed in the back of the truck! We had no choice but to resort to the good old garbage. 
By noon, we were able to resume with 70 miles to go and in relatively good spirits. Although, it was wet, we made good headway and even started to see some sunshine until we reached mile 80. It was late, I was tired. Not only was it heaving it down but the wind was paralysing my progress and chipping away at my mental strength. We took a quick weather watch and concluded lightning was near. We headed for another barn just in time. As it happened, we picked a good one - it had a basketball hoop to keep us entertained!With sheer determination to finish the day, we put our heads down and ground out the last 20 miles to arrive just before 8pm. As I am writing this, the TV has flashed TORNADO WATCH 623. Many would think 'why go on' in such conditions? I can only tell that it is sheer satisfaction to finish a day! In simple words 'I'm loving it'...
