Changes in Latitude

Jingle Cross Rock - Saturday on the Mt. Krumpet

My last day in Iowa City, Saturday, included a fun few hours at the Jingle Cross Rock race (as a spectator), and another chilly but nice ride in the countryside north of town.  The weather was just a little warmer and there was a bit more sun, and by then I was finally starting to acclimate to the northern latitude anyway.  Sunday morning we were up early and ready for the drive back south by 6 am, but couldn't actually hit the road before scraping the frost from the windshield and stopping at Starbucks for a little travel caffeine.  The long drive was uneventful until some time around 7:30 pm when I suddenly felt the engine missfire a bit going up a little rise in Mississippi.  A couple of minutes later the dreaded Check Engine light came on with the cryptic message, "Slow Down or Use Higher Gear."  Huh? We were close to McComb, so I backed off the accelerator a bit and watched the warning light go on and off depending on how much load I was placing on the engine.  In McComb I filled the tank, checked under the hood for loose vacuum hoses, and finding none, fired the car up again.  All seemed fine, so I eased back onto I-55 and latched onto the draft from a big US Mail truck that was going a nice steady 65 mph.  This worked fine and I didn't see the Check Engine light again until the truck pulled into a weigh station and I lost the draft.  For the next couple of hours I stayed in the right lane feathering the accelerator and watching the warning light go on and off, but somehow I made it home before 10 pm.  Monday morning it was rainy so I took the car over to the Volvo dealer, got a ride back home in a messy cab that reeked of some kind of nasty air freshener (which I smelled for the rest of the day), and rode in to work.  About $600 and five hours later I picked up the car after having one of the ignition coils and all the spark plugs replaced and the intake system serviced.  Turned out to have been a very expensive little trip.

So this morning the streets were a little damp and the radar not looking too promising, but I headed out anyway expecting to be riding alone. The temperature was around 70F, the sky was grey, and the air was thick with moisture. To my surprise, I found Woody, Mignon, Zack and Howard up there, so we headed up the river hoping to get in a decent ride before the weather closed in.  We ended up turning around before reaching the parish line because the northwest sky was looking pretty threatening and we were beginning to feel a few little droplets of rain.  The pace started creeping up as we were all subconsciously trying to stay ahead of the rain, and at some point I saw Zack pull out of the paceline and sit up.  A little while later I came off the front to find only Woody left.  Then, all of a sudden, we felt this freezing cold downdraft hit us like ton of bricks.  Within thirty seconds the temperature dropped at least ten degrees and a 25-30 mph gusty wind started trying to blow us right off the road.  Woody looked back at me and said, "Better give me a little wiggle room!"  After he pulled off I eased up for a minute and Howard caught up, but after the playground I was on my own again and the drizzle was starting to catch up with me.  By then, though, I was starting to pick up a serious tailwind.  I blasted down from the levee onto River Road and flew down Oak Street at 30 mph, arriving home a bit damp and cold but not really too wet.  A little break in the weather allowed me to ride over to a meeting on campus, but on my way back it started raining, so I got pretty wet anyway.