Missed the Rain but Not the Water

Sunday was yet another Giro Ride for me.  With The Daughter still in town, and since it was also Easter, I figured that would be the best I could do anyway. As one would expect for such a holiday, the group was quite a bit smaller than usual. A small group can be a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, it means there usually fewer strong riders to sustain the pain. On the other, there are fewer wheels behind which to hide.  As it turned out, this was not one of those easy sightseeing training rides.  There were more than enough riders intent on getting a workout to keep the exertion level high throughout. One of them was me.  Anyway, I don't really remember much of interest about the ride.  It was just another nice Giro with a good group on a nice Easter morning.

On the way back, as we were flying along the I-10 service road around Crowder Blvd., I suddenly heard behind me the "whack, whack, whack" sound that a broken spoke makes, followed immediately by riders shouting.  I looked back and saw Woody at a stop with a number of riders inspecting his rear wheel.  I thought, "Wow, I can't believe Woody broke another spoke!"  He'd broken one earlier in the week at the Arena criterium.  It turned out, however, that the sound I'd heard hadn't been made by a broken spoke at all. It had been made by a nail that had embedded itself in his tire.  The amazing part was that the nail had gone through the tread sideways and somehow had not punctured the tire.

The rest of the day was a blur of turkey and wine with entertainment provided by The Daughter's little dog.  After taking Monday as a rest day, I headed back out to the levee this morning under a cloudy sky for the regular long Tuesday ride.  The weather forecast had been calling for only a 20% chance of rain, so I wasn't expecting to get wet.  Well, somewhere out in Kenner we started feeling some big old raindrops, and when we got to the parish line about half of us turned around while the other half kept going.  The sky wasn't looking too good, so I didn't feel bad about turning back early.  Within a couple of minutes the raindrops stopped, but a few miles later we found the road was soaking wet.  There must have been a pretty good rain shower somewhere behind us as we were riding upriver.  The rain was gone, but the wet road and wheel spray got us just as wet as if we'd been caught in a downpour.  Oh well.  I guess we needed a little rain around here anyway, although the Corps of Engineers is already predicting some very high river levels over the next month, cresting on May 17 at the highest level in over ten years because of all the rain up north in the Mississippi river valley.