Sometimes the Old Time Weather God's like to throw a spit ball at the new High Tech Radar Want-a-Bees . I also see that 'Water Man' (aka Jack) has lost some of his adventurism or maybe he has gained some common sense - either way Jack good call on delaying the Saturday 9am ride till noon.
So now for the rest of story - I woke up at 2:30 am after a loud lightning bolt hit near my house. I went back to sleep thinking the 5 am ride is surely off. I got up at 4:30 am after receiving a text message from Randy Stayton asking if the ride was on - I paused for a moment and looked out the window. I called Kevin and he said "yes" the ride was on and the storm was going to blow over by 5 am. So I hung up the phone and called Randy to give him an update - he informed me that he was on his way. So I grabbed my stuff and off I headed to "Neal's Place"- This is Neal's home away from home.... When I got there Kevin and Randy were waiting on me and it was just misting - so off we went. Will actually one of our buddies - was not there and it looked like he had turned off his cell phone. I wanted to call the house phone, but we decided his wife may not like getting up at 5 am - I did not think she would mind and our buddy had stood us up (smile). I don't want to name any names in this story, but if you go on a ride with me I will tell you. So off we headed toward Okesa via 39 hill - it was not far into this ride that I realized it was dark and wet. Just an FYI, when you get wet and it is dark out - you never dry out! Also when it is raining hard and then starts to let up, but you see lightning in the distance it is not a good idea to continue to ride toward the flashes of light. It is not the sun peaking through the clouds at 5:40am !!!!
So as we rolled toward Okesa - it was OK - just a little rain. As we hit the bridge outside of Okesa we met a big truck - he just stopped - he could see 3 lights coming at him in the rain. He thought "ET" was returning to earth - when we went by him he realized it was just 3 guys with nothing better to do at 6 am in the rain. I am sure he thought those guys have no idea what is about to happen - he had come from the West so he knew about the storm.
As we rode down Main Street in Okesa and approached the Bar it was not open - We thought what now - I said lets go to the Fire Station. It would have an overhang and we could get out of the rain and we could check the High Tech Radar - the same Radar that got us into this situation!!!. FYI - the Fire Station in Okesa does not have any overhang on the building. Randy was able to connect to the radar maps and the news was not good. The Radar had red spots all over it and the flash of lights we had been seeing in the distance -were really bright now and a lot closer. So we decided to ride the "Storm out in Okesa" - do you remember the song by REO Speed Wagon - "Riding the Storm Out". That is what we did.. This is where the Ride goes from just another ride to an Epic Ride - if you are wondering what an Epic Ride is, just check with an adventure club rider. We leaned against the aluminum garage doors on the east side of the building and was able to stay out of the wind, and some of the rain. We also had front row seats to watch the storm go over us. After while I had lost all my body heat and also lost some of my excitement about this ride. So I asked Kevin if he was cold - his reply was "I am trying not to think about it". Well I can tell you he was starting to shake. So finally we made the decision to ride down to the bar and see if there was a better place to get out of this storm and also at the same time we were a little concerned about Okesa Justice or the lack of it. We figured that most of them had guns and might not like us hiding out on their porches. Especially in our nice little tights!
So we opted to just ride back in the rain - drenched, cold, good news - not as dark out, but bad news - no Sun to warm us up. We got back around 7:25 am and I think we had about 22 wet miles, but it was an EPIC Ride !!!!.
So now you know the Rest of Story!!
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Here is Kevin's e-mail at 4:42 am
Sent: 4/18/2009 4:42 AM
Subject: radar looks good
The radar indicates the storm is about to pass. I am driving to the start, will see if the storm does indeed pass.
Kevin
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