One thing about the rainy season. It's predictably unpredictable. It
will rain. The only question is when. It may be raining at breakfast then a great sunny day an hour later. You can head out for a ride in the sunshine but be soaked when you make it home in a few hours.
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| Sometimes you can wait the rain out. We tried here. No luck, though. It just kept raining. |
Sunday we were about halfway through our planned ride of Coral Gables, Coral Terrace, and Coral Way when Al suddenly suggested we head home. Storm clouds were gathering rapidly. Soon it started to rain steadily. At first we took shelter. When the rain showed no signs of slowing, we just started pedaling. It didn't take long for us to be totally and completely soaked. We rode past motorcycles parked on a sidewalk, their very unhappy riders sheltering as best they could nearby. They waved. We waved back. We passed cyclists coming back from the Rickenbacker. We were all dripping and splattered with sand, grit, and small leaves. (An argument for fenders, but most bikes here don't have them.) At home we dripped through the lobby and into the elevators. We wiped the bikes down in the hallway before rolling them into our unit.
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| Bright sunshine made fish watching delightful. (It rained an hour later...) |
Monday morning looked delightful, and we decided to do loops on the Rickenbacker and Key Biscayne. We had our first banana break on a seawall at Cape Florida State Park. There were schools of colorful small fish to watch. After a couple of loops, we saw the clouds gathering. We turned for home, making a vain attempt to beat the rain. In a couple of miles, the rain caught us. A second soggy ride home.
On the bright side, our down the road speed has notched up another mile per
hour, making our new default (touring) speed three miles per hour faster than at the start of the summer. All the better to race down the road, trying to beat the rain.
