Rain, Flat Tires and Four Leaf Clovers... 

 

 

The 100 plus mile mark continues to elude me. This week, while trying to break through the 100 mile marker, I road into a heavy rain storm which quickly evolved into a bit of thunder and lightning. I thought to myself that I am not going to avoid rain when I am on the road, and there will always be miles to cover each day, so I might as well get used to the idea that the weather will not always be my friend. I pounded through the rain on a high speed road and was getting used to the idea of being wet. I remained quite positive even as the rain grew harder. I knew I could get through it ... that was until I got a flat tire 48 miles from no where just as the rain was coming down in sheets.

 

I called JoAnn to give her my coordinates and let her know that I ran into some trouble. We agreed that with the rain and the flat, and only clouds as far as the eye could see, that it was probably better that I come home. I told her that I was going to work on fixing the flat, and that if all went well, I might tell her to turn around and go home.

 

The road was deep into the southern Maryland with only farms and road as far as the eye could see. I took my bike off the shoulder of the road to give myself some protection from the cars. The best I could do was to sit in some 12 inch high grass and work on changing out my tube. Even on the nicest day, this would have been a tough task. But being soaked, in pouring rain, sitting in high grass, with cars flying by and shooting spray on me, was just about as bad as I could imagine it could be. And with that thought, I smiled. I might not have hit the 100 mile mark, but with this flat, I was submitting myself to some fairly bad conditions and this was no doubt, great training for the road! I became very optimistic, building on this constructive line of thinking. I had great confidence that I would be able to change the tube, pump it up, make a quick call to JoAnn to go home, and then get back on my way.

 

All was going quite well, until I inflated the new tube, only to find out that it also had a hole in it. If you blend the odds of being the guy that purchased a new tire tube that would have a hole in it with the odds of finding out this bad news 48 miles from home, in a rainstorm, with no cover on a high speed road, sitting in grass like a spandex cheetah... I would have to guess that it was a once in a lifetime event! 

 

I had no choice but to come home and I was thankful that JoAnn was on the way. I'm sure she wasn't so happy that she had to drop everything and drive an hour away to pick me up, but I was very glad that I wasn't thumbing a ride.

 

While I waited, I decided that it would be safer to find a better spot than to sit on the busy road and wait. I needed also to find a mailbox so I could rummage through someone's mailbox to get a good address for JoAnn to find me. I walked back about 1/2 mile or so until I found a little unnamed pull off with some mailboxes. It was much safer and I was glad to be off the high speed road. I got a good address, called JoAnn and then there was nothing left to do but wait.

 

After about a half hour, the rain stopped and the sun came back through. I was feeling quite cold so I was glad to have a chance to warm up. As I sat there with nothing to do, it was such an odd feeling to me. I tried to think of the last time that I had been in that situation. I had no memories of doing nothing, but at that moment, it felt great. Not just great, but awesome. Always, I have had 'very important' work (self important no doubt) or shuttling kids to and from activities, taking on new projects or just plain living the busy life that we all lead. Always reading the fortune cookie saying to 'smell the roses' and 'enjoy the journey', but never quite having the time to do it the way that I should do it. And here I was in this situation where I was forced to just do nothing but breathe and relax.

 

I took the opportunity to look at the dark clouds giving way to blue skies and noticed the little things like how fast clouds actually move through the sky and how the air feels and smells after a  heavy rain. I studied the trees and wondered about the seasons and how they became so green almost overnight. I saw a red tailed hawk because chased by some sparrows and wondered what the predator had done to deserve that. I started to breathe... more deeply, and less frequently. Despite the speeding cars throwing spray from the wet roads, flat inner tubes, wet clothes and missing my 100 mile mark once more, I smiled and enjoyed myself and relaxed. Something that I'm not always especially good at...

 

I looked down to the ground and discovered that I had somehow parked myself in a field of clover. With my bike leaning against the guardrail, I did what anyone would do that was sitting in new found sunshine with time on their hands; I dropped down and started looking for a four leaf clover! I never did find one, but I enjoyed looking for it. JoAnn arrived shortly after and as we drove back through the storm that I had already gone through, I realized that the day was a gift, a valuable lesson and a wake up call. It's given me plenty to think about.

 

Thanks for letting me share this experience... and for supporting the ride!