The hot weather finally broke, I think. We had two wonderfully rainy days here, which seems to have cooled everything off into the comfortably warm range instead of painfully hot.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the forecast said there would be thunderstorms. My general opinion is that if the forecast says rain, it will not rain. And I'm usually right (because I live in the desert. It just doesn't rain here.).
Of course, sometimes I'm not right.
During my ride home on Monday, I somehow managed to ride precisely between two rain showers, one to the east and one to the west. I could look either way and see the storms pouring rain down, but I was cozy and dry right in the middle.
On Tuesday, I wasn't as lucky. Apparently I left work just in time to ride into a severe thunderstorm.
Whoops.
I didn't have my rain gear on because I hadn't brought it. Because my rain gear sucks. And besides, if I get a few drops of rain, I'm generally dry by the time I get home.
As I rode through a light rain, I could see lightning ahead of me. Lots of lightning. And it was really dark up there. And I thought "uh oh." And then I rode into a massive downpour.
Roughly 30 seconds later, I was about as wet as I could get, catching rain in my teeth as I'd opened my visor halfway in order to try and fend off fog. Traffic around me slowed down, and became scary and erratic, because if the residents of Phoenix know how to do one thing well, it's how to completely lose their shit when it rains.
I got off the freeway as soon as I could safely get from the HOV lane to the right. Incredibly enough, I didn't encounter any flooded roads until I got home (where the water was shin deep in places).
As you might expect, I was grinning ear to ear. I had to peel my clothes off in the entryway so I wouldn't track water through the house. My boots and gloves are finally dry today.
One of my coworkers asked if I'd ridden home in the rain, and was somewhat disturbed when I said, "of course."
I guess not everyone has the same sense of adventure.
2 comments:
I don't think they were doing scary stuff because of the rain, per se.
Nothing like a soaking wet Viking on a bike grinning like a madman to make commuters do even weirder things than normal!
Well, that's true. Sometimes I forget not everyone knows my intentions are only the best.
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