Who'll Stop The Rain

Hot delivery

Since the Victory Ride it has been a hodge-podge of weather related issues that has kept me out of the country. Thunderstorms, heat, and flooding. Yes.....flooding. After two years of severe drought we are back to flooding around here again. 

I did a delivery to the Collective again on Thursday when we had 90+ degree temperatures and high humidity. I haven't ridden in that for a while. First time this year, most likely, and it showed. 

I purposefully went slow to minimize the heat build up in my body, which I think I did well enough. The thing was that even with the easing on the pacing (loaded up, mind you, for a good portion of the ride), I still came home zapped by that heat. 

Look, I've drained the tank in hot weather while riding one two many times, times five. Maybe times ten. A LOT of times, okay?! So, heat isn't something I'm good at anymore. Not that I ever was good at that, but now? It's bad. 

Then the thunderstorms have been many and at random enough times that you only get these short, super-humid windows of time to race around the neighborhood to get in some testing or just to blow off some steam. Saturday it was the same. Only adding in tornadoes in the area. Then there is the flooding, and we're just getting started on that here, although compared to Northwestern Iowa, which has already suffered too much as it is now, we've gotten off easy.  

NOAA flood prediction for the Cedar River at Waterloo, Iowa.

We are not going to get slammed, but this will mess up the soft trails for quite some time, and make mosquito factories out of the backwaters in the area. That'll be nice. Anyway, gravel travel usually is not impacted too greatly by this, but there may be some damage out there, and the dirt roads will be gooey for a while. Best to stay off those for a bit until we get a stretch of drier weather. 

I hope to get out there soon to investigate. I bet this humidity has super-charged the corn growth!

Weather Changes Plans

Scene from Butler County on Wednesday (Image courtesy of KWWL socials)

Well, darn it! I had plans to do something with N.Y.Roll this weekend but now those plans have been washed away like the Iowa topsoil is washing away right now due to flooding across the region here. 

Scanning some social media posts mid-week, it was easy to see that Iowa was going to be flooded, remain wet, and cause me a lot of problems when it comes to gravel travel in the near future.

Six plus inches of rain in one 24 hour period, plus whatever came last weekend and after Wednesday adds up to swollen creeks, rivers, and waterways. Those cross Iowa gravel roads all over the place. Normally you wouldn't notice this, but when it floods? Then you realize how many places are vulnerable to heavy amounts of precipitation in a short amount of time. 

So, instead of doing some bandit camping somewhere along the Cedar River with N.Y. Roll I am probably looking at piecing together some long gravel ride on something - or some things, I should say - that recently showed up at Guitar Ted Headquarters that I cannot talk about just yet. Pretty exciting stuff, but stay tuned.... The reveal will happen coming up in July. 

Of course, then I have to get ready to leave on Tuesday morning so I can go to the Gravel Cycling Hall of Fame induction ceremonies where I will be doing a speech for...... Again, I cannot say just yet. It will be something fun though. Nothing too serious or earth-shattering here. And there will be a report as well once I get back, so don't fret. You'll all get to see what the deal is with my appearance. 

I hope everyone is off to a great weekend!