Day 29

Day 29: October 27, 2021 (Oberlin LA to Cottonport LA)

Dave Marr and his wife Sabrina arrived late on the night of day 28; I was already asleep when they did. Dave and Sabrina flew from New York to New Orleans. They rented a pick-up at New Orleans’ airport and drove 3 hours to get to the hotel.  That’s commitment to the cause.  

Dave and I finally met face-to-face in the morning of day 29.  It was a great moment for me.  I can’t put it into words.  Dave and I had become good friends through video conferences and phone calls.  A Covid way of making new friends.  

The last couple of days were low drama days.  Today was not.  The weather forecast for the day was thunderstorms; some being predicted to be rather violent.  We got on the bikes a little before 8 AM; Kelly rode with me, Dave drove the RV, and Sabrina drove the pick-up.  

Dave brought his drone and had it out when we started riding.  Sabrina was taking pictures and Dave was taking video with the drone.  They then drove up a mile or so and set up for more pictures and drone video.

As we approached Dave and Sabrina, it started to rain.   It was fairly light at first.  Dave had the drone up and then the skies opened up.  It started pouring.  We were soaked and the drone went down.  One more little thing, the RV got stuck in some mud.  Before Dave could get AAA on the phone, a guy came by and pulled the RV out.

Kelly was loving the heavy rain; he thought it added to the experience.  I was not so thrilled.  It made riding harder and, frankly, I’ve had enough riding challenges.  I’m more than fine if the rest of the ride goes smoothly and the rides are easy.

The rain lasted about 30 minutes and then the winds kicked up.  Yes, they were headwinds.  We still made fairly good time to first rest stop.  I ate some cereal and got back on the bike.  The rain was on and off most of the morning, but it was fairly light and didn’t last very long.

With about 20 miles to go for the day, Sabrina started riding with me.  Kelly drove the RV and Dave drove the pickup.

As we have been doing most of the day, the RV and pick up would get about 3 miles ahead of us and waited (we usually do 5 – 7 mile increments).  We were about 15 miles into this 20 stretch when we met up with the RV and the pick-up.  Sabrina was done riding and I was going to finish.

Then we saw lightening.  That was it. We loaded the bikes in the RV.  I checked the radar; it’s the picture to the right.  We were the blue dot.  Good call on not riding further.

We made it to our hotel just before the really heavy stuff hit.  

The forecast for day 30 is partly sunny, high of 75, and no rain.