The Deluge

My Samsung Galaxy 5 android phone was dead.  It worked yesterday after we arrived at our motel in Bloomer WI.  I could not figure out what could be wrong. It worked before going to bed.  I plugged it in overnight... I tried plugging it in to different outlets and using different chargers and cords without success.  It would act like it was beginning to charge then go black.  It felt like the last straw.

Yesterday after arriving at the motel I discovered that most everything in my panniers was soaked.  It did not matter how I had packed it.  It did not matter whether it had been in plastic or not.  The deluge of rainfall had no mercy.  Clothing, maps, tools, everything.  My cash was even soaked and my passport curled-up and deformed.  

We had arrived the day before in Stillwater, Minnesota and got a cheap room at a Super 8 motel.  We awoke a little later than usual on Wednesday 9/21 thinking that we would probably be having a rest day due to the heavy rainfall that was forecast.  As it turned out the rainfall did not come.... at least not in the morning.  The forecast had moved it out into the evening hours of Wednesday.  We discussed this new development and decided we could make it to Bloomer WI (The next logical stop some 74 miles down State Hwy 64.  There was nothing in between.  No towns after about 10 miles.  We made a reservation at the Bloomer Inn before leaving knowing it was going to be a very wet night.

The day started out fine.  We made decent time despite our late start of 9am.  We rode across the St. Croix River bridge into Wisconsin and made our way east.  We stopped at a convenience store some 12 miles or so down the road.  It would be the last open service of any kind for the rest of the day... and evening.

It was someplace about 15 miles from Bloomer that the skies turned black.  A look at the radar on my cell phone showed a box around us and an approaching storm.  It did not look good.  We were in a long flat stretch of road near a stream.  Jerry and I had separated a little while earlier and he was somewhere ahead of me.  As the sky began to turn liquid I sped up and searched frantically for Jerry and some kind of shelter.  There was nothing.  The frequent lightening and thunder was my biggest concern.  It started to hail, then pour rain.  At this point I had to look out for myself alone.  I ditched my bike in a cornfield (Did not want to be around metal in this storm)  and ducked under a small grove of trees to hopefully at least temper the downpour.  It was no good.  

I have never been caught in a storm as bad as this one before.  We later heard that 4 to 5 inches had fallen during the period we were out there. I had taken all the usual precautions against rainfall.  panniers covered, rain jacket, helmet cover, shoe covers, etc.   In the end it made no difference.  About 20 or so minutes later everything was soaked.  The rain had tapered off and I slogged back to my drenched bike and pulled it out of the cornfield.  My seat cover was a sponge so I pulled it off and stuck it under a strap on my pannier cover.  As I rode down the road I heard a shout a short time later.  It was Jerry.  He had found cover under a carport with some folks.  Lucky.  

We did not make it far before the next wave hit.  We saw a roadside picnic area.  The sign said "Closed."  No matter!  We headed in and found a tiny covered area about the size of a bus stop.  We stood there for probably 45 minutes watching the absolute deluge come down.  Looking at the radar picture we saw a possible break in the storm that might last 15 minutes and decided to see how far down the road we could get.  As we left our little shelter, we heard a siren in the distance.  It wailed non-stop for the longest time.  No doubt a warning in relation to the flash flood alert on my phone.

We made it about 3 miles before the next series of storms hit.  Fortunately we found a rural saloon with an awning and dove under it.  There was nothing else around.  The door on the saloon said, "Closed on Wednesdays."  That was the only day they were closed.  Of course...  Sigh....  The saloon awning offered good protection and we sat under it for 2.5 hours as the sky flashed with lightening and the downpour continued unabated.  We broke out my stove and made coffee.  We joked about our luck and took photos.   Then we got bored... and cold.  We put on more clothing and continued to wait.  A car or truck occasionally drove past at highway speed.  All else was darkness.  The radar picture showed a line of storm cells perfectly aligned with our position heading right towards us from west to east.  It was like an arrow that had our name on it.  North and south of us was fine.  We were at ground zero.  Our position neatly surrounded by a severe weather box on my phone's radar. 

As evening approached, then fell, we knew we had to make a decision.  Make a dash for the motel or spend the night under the awning of the saloon?  Probably not the wisest choice, but the idea of sitting under the awning all night soaking wet was not appealing and since we were soaked already, why not make a dash for it in the deluge?  The only real hazard was the lightening... and the darkness.... and the possibility of being swept away in a flash flood along some remote road that neither one of us knew anything about.  Other than that - perfectly safe!

We took our chances and rode out into the darkness with our little bike lights on and our glasses off.  Glasses were of no use.  The lenses would instantly be covered by the rain making them useless.  We rode in a headwind.  Our world was water.  Everywhere.

Half an hour or so down the road a kind Good Samaritan named Michelle stopped and offed us a ride in her SUV.  We were sorely tempted, but by that time we were only a couple of miles from our motel and figured we might as well have the "full experience."  

Minutes after she drove away leaving us in the rain and complete darkness, illuminated only by flashes of lightening and our insignificant bike lights, we came to a sign warning of high water on the roadway ahead.  We carefully rode further watching for the hazard.  Fortunately this section of road was okay and apparently the signs were put up in expectation of what was to come.

We made it to our motel around 9pm and checked in.  Somewhere along the way my cushioned seat cover fell off.  Bummer.  I began emptying everything out of my wet panniers.  Not much survived dry.  Never before in all my years of riding have I had such an experience on a bicycle.  I was soaked, distraught, tired, sad, relieved, and had a mixture of emotions hard to describe.  We showered and went to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner.  It did not help my spirits much.  There is so much work to get everything back in order.  

Today is Thursday, 9/22.  The rain predicted for the night did not come.  The weather today is partly cloudy.  We got suckered.  Today we are forced to take a rest day and dry things out.  My phone apparently quit working due to some problem with the outlet or perhaps a little residual moisture in the connector.  It is working now again thank goodness.  I am sitting at the local library in Bloomer.  Some weather forecasters are saying that it was a once-in-a-century rainfall event for the area in which we got hit.

Here's to long distance tour cycling and all the great memories.... and the PTSD that comes with it!  :-)

* On a side note, Stillwater was the halfway point of our journey.  we had 5 Century rides on the first half of our trip.  Those 5 days accounted for 27% of the 2,046 miles to Stillwater.  The other 73% took 25 days of riding.

Arriving in Wisconsin

Before the storm.  Clouds building

Under the saloon awning during the deluge

Still under the awning as nightfall approaches

We are the blue dot and the storm was moving from left to right.  

(The box is the severe weather warning area)

* Note the 'tail' of the storm aligning perfectly with our position.  Ugh!

The aftermath in the motel room

Everything had to be dried out