Mother Nature Hates Us

What a wonderful country we live in. We live in a land of great freedom and a large bounty of corn. For weeks now all I can see has been corn fields. Not a terrible sight (unless it's flooded - thanks mother nature). We get so excited to see soybeans or other things as we bike that I never thought were enjoyable to bikepast before. I must just be spoiled with my training being by the beach and ocean.
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The real purpose of this post has been weather. Most of you know, the weather is continuing its childlike tantrums and throwing them right at us. We have made progress though. We went from the freezing rain in New Hampshire to the thunderstorms of the northeast to the eventual tornados of the Midwest. I would just like to share how this affects our daily routines. It makes them stink! Literally and figuratively.
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Rain. From the first night in Belfast where it was cute and unfortunate to now Iowa where it is laughably predictable every day, the rain has reared its head and at the very least spit at us. It makes our bikes wear down fast, which leads to our mechanic being way too busy for his own sanity and health. It makes our clothes smell like sweat and wet dog. And it makes everyone have a pretty negative mood overall. We seem to be moving past the rain as an enemy, though. By the time the rain is accepted in this group, mother nature will probably give us scorching, dry heat.
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Thunderstorms and wind. Bad separately, but as I learned today are not terrible together. Winds from the west are the best, but winds from the east we like the least. My friend Mark is a professor at Central Michigan and taught me that western winds don't bring storms often, but winds from the south and east do. So storms aren't normally accompanied by headwinds, thankfully. There was a time a few nights ago that it got unreal though. I cannot tell you how fast the winds were going, but I can share a few texts I sent after the center of the storm passed us...
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To my family: "Just wanted to say that I praise the Lord for my tent. It's small and it's simple, but we just had hurricane weather for the past 30 minutes. I'm under a large pavilion tonight in it, but the wind nearly flipped it with me inside. I was holding a wall of it up against the wind. The waterproof sprayed walls were no match for the rain coming at me nearly horizontal under the pavilion, but only mist was able to come into the tent. Now I'm in a lake under the pavilion. I am still dry but my tent is laying in an inch of water. What a wonderful waterbed this is."
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To Natalie: "Take the tarp off your tent, they said. You're safe in the pavilion, they said. The rain won't go sideways, they said. All misinformed. It rained sideways... 50mph wind is a guess. My tent just collapsed on me the wind was so hard. Felt like a hurricane.
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As you can guess, rain, wind and lightning are not the best camping weather. We have been pretty understanding about it but luckily our route leaders are doing their best to get us accomodations inside for most nights knowing it has rained on us so often this trip. Thank the Lord for them. Fixing our bikes and helping us sleep indoors as much as possible. They're the only reason many of us are strong enough to press on. They are 50% of the motivation.
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Lastly, the tornado warning. During a United States womens World Cup game against Colombia, too? Me and a few others ran two blocks in the rain with tornado warnings due to one touching down in a nearby county, after which we were "stuck" in the pub for the next few hours. Tomorrow we are supposed to get a tornado watch. Luckily, we get tailwinds with our bad weather. Everyone is trying to beat the storm to camp, but it's a 95 mile day... Wish us luck and strong tailwinds.
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God bless.
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