Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Thunderstorms

Monday was a bit crazy. 

I departed Edmonton around 1pm and headed for Grande Prairie, Alberta.  Sometime around 3pm it started to rain lightly.  I continued to ride, but eventually the rain became heavy enough that I decided to stop.  So I parked the bike and stood inside a gas station in Sangudo, Alberta.  I stood there for at least 45 minutes, waiting for the rain to stop.  The rain didn't stop.

At some point I decided that I had to get back on the bike.  There was no point in waiting all night long.  So I got on the bike again.  1 minute later, the rain turned into a downpour.  The wind started gusting sideways.  I could no longer keep my bike from crossing into the adjacent traffic lane.  When the wind blew, my bike just moved sideways, despite the fact that I was leaning as hard as I could into the wind.  This was kind of scary.  I was worried that a truck would try to pass me in the left lane, and suddenly the wind would smash me into said truck.  This would be a bad thing.

Then the lightning strikes started.  There was lightning very close to me.  Obviously I didn't get hit by lightning, but it was close enough to scare the shit out of me.  Very close.  I looked for the first place to turn my bike around on the highway.  I was only 2 kilometers from the gas station where I had taken shelter before.

I turned around.  I started riding back to the gas station.  The wind intensified.  I swear I thought the bike was going to be blown over.  The wind was bad.  The rain was so hard I couldn't hear anything.  Not even the bike engine.  Everything got really intense really fast.  I expected the bike would slide out at any moment.  I just held on to the bike.

2 minutes later, I arrived at the gas station.  I could barely see where I was going; the rain was still very heavy.  I parked the bike and ran inside.  The power was out at the gas station and in all of Sangudo.  The lightning had destroyed a nearby transformer.

In any case, I decided to stay in Sangudo for the evening.  Smart decision.  The lady at the gas station gave me free hot dogs and coffee.  I lived to ride another day.

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