Today marked the beginning of our biggest trip this year. This time we will be spending almost two weeks on the road riding to North Carolina for annual SEVROC gathering, then Combermere for the long weekend, and many places in between. And it always seems like the days leading up to a big trip are too short and hectic. This week was no different as Heather and I were at soccer on Monday and Wednesday. This is the second year of our coaching experiment and this time it's a team of U-15 girls.
We packed last night and tied up some loose in the early morning before leaving to pick up the motorcycles. With luggage in tow, we set off at 7. Unfortunately, we only booked Friday off which means that we had to put in a full day behind a desk before starting our vacation. The morning weather was pretty good for 6C. It wasn't too cold and the wind was virtually non-existent. We made a quick stop at the Waterloo Library and an ATM before arriving at Heather's office just before 8. From there I went back east on the 401 to my office.
As expected, the rain started to fall at 11 in the morning with even a small patch of torrential downpour in the afternoon. The rain subsided well before 4:30, when I left work. The skies remained overcast though, and I encountered a couple of sprinkles during my 15-minute ride to Heather's office. We made a decision to rain-suit up for our ride to Windsor where we decided to stay tonight.
Our trip officially began at 5:25. There were a couple of sprinkles of rain here and there but nothing major until we passed Iona Road. From that point, we were underneath a dark cloud that unleashed very heavy rain. It brought back memories of last year's ride to Richmond, Kentucky. And just like last year, the visibility was drastically reduced and we were riding a little below the speed limit of 100 km/h with our emergency lights on. All of a sudden, trucks that we passed several minutes ago were now passing us. The heavy rain lasted for good 15-20 minutes after which we were drenched. I thought of stopping somewhere along the side of the highway but Heather was determined to get through it while riding. We actually considered stopping for the night in Chatham but since it stopped raining we only made a quick stop there for gas. Unfortunately to get to Chatham we had to go through a 2-km stretch of Highway 40 that was dirt and gravel, or more specifically mud and gravel. It will take a lot of work to get the motorcycles cleaned from this mess. Our stop in Chatham was nearly 200km after departing Ayr.
We got back on the 401 and made it straight to Windsor in under an hour. But along the way we went under another cloud that was starting to resemble a tornado. As we were directly under, the wind was so strong that it took all we could muster to keep the motorcycles upright. It only lasted 15 seconds but I could feel my helmet getting ripped off my head. As we cleared that cloud, I told the GPS to take us to the Best Western in Windsor. As we rode by, the hotel was now a ghost town. We kept going and found a Comfort Inn. Our room was, conveniently, the first one from the lobby on the first level. We had supper in the adjacent Golden Griddle, where we learned that this hotel will also be shutting its door in a couple of months. We settled back in our room at 10pm trying to relax before tomorrow's second leg of our trip.
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