Me vs. the weather

I wanted to get a ride in early-ish today, because I had the UPS waiting zone of 11AM-2PM. So I got down to Navy Pier around 10, then decided to turn back. Upon looking north, I saw a swath of black clouds descend that screamed "welcome to hell!" But I had a pretty tasty tailwind and figured I could make it home before Armageddon was unleashed. But the portentous announcement of "the beach is closing due to electrical storms in the area" should've clued me in.

I came upon a female rider who was going pretty damn fast and I kept a respectable distance, all the while the sky threatening to unleash Hell. Well, around that curve by the Rec drive totem pole, she hit the slick yellow stripe, and totally went down HARD. I stopped to make sure she was OK, as did a couple of joggers, and she maintained that all was well. Her bike looked/felt OK, and she was a little scraped up. So I tried again to book it home quickly.

So not more than a half mile later, all Hell finally erupted, with winds threatening to blow me sideways into the golf course fence. I decided to hop down into the underpass right pass Irving to wait it out. And not more than a few minutes later, several other cyclists came in for the very same. In fact, one of them was the woman who had just went down!

Not too long afterward, a few more precipitation refugees made their way in, including a couple of folks from Scotland who had just rented bikes from Bobby's. They pressed us for good bar/restaurant ideas. I recommended the Globe. We all had some pretty good conversation, and after what seemed like a HELLUVA long while, the sky's fury finally relented a bit, and I and another cyclist (turns out she lives just a bit north of me in Edgewater) hit the path. The sky was pretty calm, but there were areas where the sitting water was almost up to me knee. At one point, my fellow cyclist rode through some murky deepness and received a small branch in her chainring!

But all in all, I don't mind getting wet; after all, a life spent in the subtropics kinda steels one for this jive. ;-)

That being said, I had no idea what time it was. After stripping off my waterlogged clothes, I ran to see if UPS had been by, and was, of course, met with the sticker of doom: "We attempted 1st delivery; next one comes Monday." By the way, I put clothes on before running to check if UPS has been by. ;-)

So it goes. I'm phoneless until Monday, no real worse for the wear. But it was one Hell of a way to begin the day!

Views: 21

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jasonk on June 19, 2009 at 9:35am
The weather has been SO disgusting so far this spring/summer... At least you didn't wipe out and just got wet.
I've been commuting all week (I did leave my bike overnight here at work Tues...) and this morning the wind was awful! I was really pushing and only going about 13-14mph the entire way which totally sucked. All I have to say is that I better get that awesome tailwind you mentioned on the way home!!! ...Assuming it's not storming when I leave. Gotta keep the fingers crossed.
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on June 19, 2009 at 10:26am
I tried to do the same thing today. I wanted to go on the EBC Friday Adventures ride, but Asbury doesn't go all the way up to Central, so I never hooked up with the ride. It's probably for the best since at Main and Chicago on the way home, I realized I couldn't outrun the rain and hopped on the train.

Absolutely disgusting downpour at Howard and raining cats and dogs at Loyola. It let up a bit after about 20 minutes, so I got home minorly wet.

And now it's sunny!

Hopefully tomorrow night will have good weather for a kickass Marauders ride.
Permalink Reply by Chucko on June 19, 2009 at 10:37am
I narrowly avoided that same problem this morning. I went down to the bike to work rally a bit later than I'd wanted to- got there about 8:50. I looked around for a couple of people I know, found Levi and chatted with him a bit. Saw his new SRAM goodies on the Trek he rides- nice stuff for sure. He left to go to work, I made one more round of the plaza to see if anyone else I knew was around, and then headed home. I went up Wells to Lincoln, and as soon as I made the turn North on Lincoln I could see the clouds of doom. The tailwind was pretty nice though, I was bookin' at around 20mph a good bit of the way back. Just as I got to the basement door where I lock up the first drops were hitting. There was some seriously hard rain coming down for a while after that. Glad you made it home okay!
Permalink Reply by Jackie on June 19, 2009 at 11:22am
Haha, I'm a dog walker - and I ride my bike for my route.

I left my house for the day about fifteen minutes before the rain started, and When I was at a red light at Cortland, Clybourn, and Racine, I looked up and anyone near by me could have easily seen the terror of doom rush onto my face. Shortly into my first walk it started raining pretty hard. It was POURING when I had to ride to my next walk. It pretty much came down the hardest for each time I had to ride to the next dog's house.

Although riding in the rain is terribly dangerous, I actually enjoyed it today. It was kind of invigorating/exhilarating. I was going to get soaked anyway, and it wasn't cold, so, yeah. I liked it.

The charcoal colored clouds that started my morning were terrifying though.
Permalink Reply by Mark Trulock on June 19, 2009 at 11:36am
Dude
I looked at the NBC and Chicago Tribune weather sites and the radar said the heavy stuff was going to be north of the city. So I rode down to Spanish class at 19th and Halsted at 9 AM. I was looking outside during class and it looked progressively worse. I started north and made it 5 blocks till all hell broke loose. I hung out in a parking garage for 20 minutes and then headed north. I made it to On the Route cycles on Lincoln south of Belmont when the thunder seemed too scary.

Dennis the owner of OTR could not help laughing at my drowned rat appearance (he did try). Hung out in the store for a while and priced upcoming purchases and then made it home during a lull. It was sort of fun, except for the thunder.

Good luck in New Orleans

Mark
Permalink Reply by John on June 19, 2009 at 3:52pm
You are not alone, my friend. It was quite the morning, with a microburst in the Ravenswood/Andersonville area resulting in very high winds and someone trapped under a fallen tree near Wilson/Paulina.

I was at a neighborhood establishment when the evening fury hit around 7pm: horizontal rain, a power failure and the owner patting me on the back and telling me to "run fast" to get home.

Dry off and prep yourself for an outing of mythic proportions before you leave town!
Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on June 19, 2009 at 4:22pm
I live in Ravenswood and trees right across the street from my house as well as directly behind my alley were totally uprooted by the powerful winds. Why my trees got spared I do not know....

John said:
You are not alone, my friend. It was quite the morning, with a microburst in the Ravenswood/Andersonville area resulting in very high winds and someone trapped under a fallen tree near Wilson/Paulina.

I was at a neighborhood establishment when the evening fury hit around 7pm: horizontal rain, a power failure and the owner patting me on the back and telling me to "run fast" to get home.

Dry off and prep yourself for an outing of mythic proportions before you leave town!

RSS

Groups

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service