Getting closer

Wow - less than two weeks to Portland. To be very honest I am equal parts excitement and dread. When this trip first came up I was sure we would be in our new house and that Susan would join me in Portland for a few well earned days of holiday in celebration. As it turned out the sale on our house fell through after we had finalized the deal on the new house - and, of course, the result is we are still trying to sell the old house (in perhaps the worst real estate market of all time) while postponing the actual move until we get that elusive buyer. I have visions of negotiating either the sale or rental while standing on the side of the road in Kitty Hawk NC or some such place....At the same time the emails with introductions and photos of the ride participants has been flowing all week and I cannot help but get excited over the prospect of riding every day with new and old friends. Last week we had rain virtually every day (remnants from the tropical storm that hit the gulf) and it was the perfect week to get my bike into the shop. I got it back Friday and was out yesterday for the test run. Alex, the mechanic, told me the bike would be like new and he did not exaggerate. There is nothing like the first ride after ride after a complete tune-up. Everything is smooth and quiet, nothing but the whir of the wheels and (new) chain and the occasional click-click of the gears. And the first 40 miles or so were truly perfect. I hardly got out of the big gear except for the hills and even they seemed easy. I pulled into one of my favorite country deli's for a quick rest stop and all was well with the world. As I was leaving I immediately noticed that some of the overcast was becoming ominously dark and darker from the only direction I could take to get home....To cut to the chase I had a few sprinkles almost immediately but nothing serious and I kicked it up a notch and figured I would pull into my driveway well before the storm. Wrong! With maybe 12 miles to go the skies literally opened up and the water came down in the traditional buckets. I was on good road but with the ground saturated the roads flood almost immediately and I found myself slowing to a crawl trying to see, trying to avoid passing cars and keeping the bike stable in the heavy water at the side of the road. Finally, with both bike and rider thoroughly soaked, I found a school where I could run up on the porch and wait it out. Needless to say, it did eventually lighten up and I headed home for shelter and a hot shower. The bike has been cleaned, re-oiled, and sits in the garage drying out - tomorrow promised sun and temps back up to 80. I've had my unplanned training in bad weather and for the next few days it will be sunshine or nothing. A final bit of irony: I've always been safety conscious but probably more so since my encounter with the Harley. When I had the bike in the shop I purchased, among other things, a rear flashing light for the bike. I was specifically thinking of early morning departures, dark days, and the possiblity of rain. It is an LED type red steady or flashing light and it is the brightest thing I have ever seen. The store claims it will be seen a mile away and it definitely can be seen through heavy rain and mist - exactly what I wanted. And, you guessed it, it was still in the bag and not on my bike yesterday. That will not happen again, believe me.