Today is the hardest day, for several reasons. A big thunderstorm rolled through last night about 1:00 AM, bringing winds up to 70 miles per hour. Not fun when you're in a tent. The police didn't come through soon enough, so we didn't get the evacuation order until the storm was right on top of us. My tent was collapsing on itself under the wind! I was really getting worried, the lightening seemed right on top of us, and I didn't know if my tent was going to stand up to the wind, or if I would be rolling across the campground. I heard a police siren and a message to get into the school. I decided to run for the school building. The door I (and about twenty other people) ran to was locked, so we had to run to another door to get in. The rain was sideways.
I was absolutely soaked... and cold. After a few minutes, Dan and Bridget found me in the school, and at that point we figured out that we were sleeping in the school that night (along with everybody else). Dan's tent had blown down and a lot of their stuff was wet.
There was a lull in the storm, so I went out to my tent, which was still standing somehow, and brought in my sleeping bag and a few clothes. We camped out in the science lab and got a few hours of sleep.
The next day we surveyed our camp. Dan and Bridget decided to sag that day, they were going to try to find a laundromat in Esterville to dry out their stuff. Tim's tent was fine, he stayed out there through the whole thing. (Note to self, buy a tent like Tim's) My stuff was dry except for what I had carried through the rain to get into the school, so not too bad. We packed up out stuff and Tim and I set out for Esterville, about 80 miles away.
The mood in the ride was kind of down, everybody was tired, wet, and we had heard that one rider was killed when a tree fell on his tent. The only thing we had going for us was a big tailwind that let us cruise along at 24 mpg with no effort. Of course, the wind shifted and we made a turn, so we had a good 30 mile stretch straight into the wind. Our speed then dropped to about 12 mph.
Not too many pictures from today, but here is the little town of Melvin.
Lunch today was at the "Lovely Looney Luthern Ladies" food stand out in the country. Good hamburger, but the corn was overcooked.
Here is a photo of another roadside vendor from today, don't remember what they were selling.
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