May 8

I was about due for a bad day.

Journal got wet in the rain... Everything got wet in the rain.

I was woken up at 4:00 am by some hammering thunder. Next the wind started. Still no rain but I knew it was coming. The tent was getting blown around. I was set up under a gazebo, I knew there was a chance of stormy weather so figured this would give me shelter. The bad thing about the gazebo was I couldn't stake down. My tent is self standing so I just popped it up on the concrete. I didn't attach the rainfly, I didn't think it would be necessary with the roof over my head. The rain started coming down, with that wind it was coming in sideways. The shelter did nothing, and without the rainfly my tent is basically mosquito netting. I ran out and threw on the fly. Without stakes it isn't very secure and it acted like a sail. The tent was taking too much in the wind, I was sitting with my arms extended for a while holding the walls out. the wind was so strong I thought the tent might rip. I decided to get out and take it down. I threw on my rain gear and broke down the tent. I sat there under that useless gazebo until 7:00 am. I sat there with my back to the rain, I didn't even try to keep anything dry anymore. I wrapped my sleeping bag in the rainfly to try and salvage that but it didn't do much. The rain covers weren't on the bike so all the panniers were soaked. The wind was blowing so hard I heard my bike crash to the floor. Again the gazebo has provided me with no shelter.

Once it all stopped and I went to pick up my bike, It had a flat tire. I pumped it up to see if it would hold air. Lucky, it was only a slow leak. I headed out for a laundry mat to dry my clothes and then my plan was to hit up a motel room and mope all day and all night before heading out in the morning. All I could think about was a relaxing day off after this awful night. I Packed up my soaking tent and sleeping bag the set out of this campsite. All the roads out were flooded, I had to wade through mid shin water to get out. When I got thought all of that I asked a local where the laundry mat was. I got there, and threw everything in the dryer. It felt nice to be in a warm dry building. I popped my tent up outside to let it air out, and repaired my tire inside. Sitting and waiting i strung up a conversation with an older gentleman. he was stuck doing laundry today, his plan was to go fishing but he said that the boat launches and most the roads to his lake were all flooded. He asked about my bike trip and explained that most the roads out of town were flooded. I accepted the fact that I'm stuck here tonight and was looking forward to a motel room until he offered to give me a ride out to where he thought there would be no more flooding.

Leary Townsend gave me a ride about 10 miles out, He was a real swell guy. We stopped at a McDonalds to get a couple burgers and he told me about his kids and his ex wives. He has two ex wives and each of them got a house out of him, poor bastard. Now he's retired, lives on a lake in Kansas and goes fishing every day. He's living the dream, except when he cant get his boat out. We eventually got to a road that was so bad he didn't want to try plowing through it. Leary and I had been blasting through puddles in his big old truck for 10 miles now, but this one was just too much. There was an abandoned house nearby so he dropped me off and we said our goodbyes. It seemed like a good place to sit tight until the water got down to a safe lever. It was going down pretty quick, I figured I had a bout 30 minutes before I could ride across.

I was on my way in no time, I made it to Toronto and had a quick bite. Eureka was my goal for the day. Just outside of town I got another flat, different puncture same wheel. Bad luck with that rear tire today. Again it was a slow leak so I pumped it up and muscled my way to town. Updated some blog at the library then fixed the flat. Quiet park in town I'm looking forward to a good night sleep

Mileage: 58+13 with Leary = 71

Total: 876