Dodgeball

The thermostat was cranked even higher yesterday with the afternoon hitting the mid-90's. Despite the threat of coming thunderstorms, I had to take advantage of the heat and what started off as blue skies. I didn't leave work until 2:30, at which point I checked the radar and saw thunderstorms approaching in a south-easterly direction. I decided to head toward Wolfeboro to make a surprise visit to see Karl. This was also directly toward the storms, but I figured that once I hit the leading edge I could turn around and get back into the sun.

I started off on Rt. 153 and then continued toward Wolfeboro on Middleton Road. A few miles from hitting Rt. 28 I hit the rain. The dark sky in front of me let me know I wasn't going to make it to see Karl. Instead, I turned around and began to backtrack. My plan didn't pan out as well as it had looked on paper. The skies were forming new thunderstorms as much as the existing ones were moving toward me, so I suddenly had rain clouds over me and in the direction I had to travel to hopefully get back to the sun. I was caught in a brief bit of heavy rain, but barely enough to get me wet. By the time I got back to the Rochester area, the blue skies were quickly disappearing. I decided it would be best to head more toward Stratham so I was close to home in the event that it began to downpour. I attempted to take Rt 202 in a more roundabout way home but hit rain again a few miles after getting on it. Again I turned around and took a more southerly route on back roads that come out on Rt. 125. At this point the entire sky had turned into rain clouds and it began to rain pretty heavily with no clear point in the sky to head to. I made it to 125 and stopped at the Mobil to wait it out. To my delight a hole opened in the sky a few short minutes later and it quickly spread. 15 minutes after a rain filled sky, the majority was again blue.

Being eager to stay out riding I decided at this point to head toward Plaistow to try to meet Laura so we could ride home together. I didn't want to take the boring 125 corridor though so I took 9 to 43 to 107 to 125 which comes out in Kingston. This took longer than I had hoped and I didn't get to the Fleet parking lot until 5:08. Laura's bike was no where to be seen and her cell was shut off. Oh well, I tried. Turns out she had left at 5 of and gone through Hampstead. James Earl Jones is whispering in my ear "You could have called first..."

I finished my day taking 108 home, which is a really nice ride. As I got closer to Stratham the sky was now very dark and it was obvious that somewhere in front of me were torrential downpours. Luckily it had passed through Stratham 15 minutes before I got home. The ground was drenched but I missed it entirely. Phew.

Mileage for the day: 150