Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Riding the Whirlwind

If you have ever watched the big jets in crosswind landings in videos on YouTube then you've got a fair idea what the ride back home was like.  If you hit crosswinds like today on two wheels at 80 kph, you're going to see the Lord figuratively and, if you don't slow down quite damn quickly, you're going to see him literally.  Oh yeah, that was some seriously scary riding (laughs).

(Ed:  Wouldn't it have been a bit safer to stop for a while?)

Geez, there you go with the damn logic again.  Where can I go with that!

Although it was supposed to rain today and it did, I was quite lucky in dodging it.  I needed to see Georgia and I lucked on staying dry riding into town.  Then I needed to go to a copy place to get pictures of my mug for a resident card for Greece.  With pictures in-hand, I rode over to Harry's place so we could go to see the cops and I still stayed dry.  We rode together in his car to the police station and that's when the cloudburst came, complete with thunder, lightning, and hail!  By the time we got back to his place, it had stopped.  Along the way he had pointed out a bike shop that he believes will talk straight about what's happening with the front wheel so I rode over and still stayed dry and even on to the supermarket after that.

However ...

The storm clouds were obvious when I left the supermarket so that's when you start doing your Road Riding Calculus as to how wet will I get if I continue versus how much wetness will I prevent if I stop to put on the rain gear.  This is balanced against how much is the rain changing during the period and how much wetness will be prevented by speeding up and trying to outrun it.

I usually go with trying to outrun it and that pretty much worked but the Weather Gods saw what I did and decided they weren't through with me yet.  That's when they turned up the wind and it was coming in some almighty gusts.  Fight back hard or that wind will blow you to Cyprus!

So all of the above is because I missed the Cool Shot of the Day which was a kid on a motorbike shepherding his flock of sheep down the road.  I guess there were up to a hundred of them and it's cool going around them as they're already accustomed to the kid's bike so the scooter doesn't scare them at all.  You just carefully work your way around the side of the flock and then get on your way.  It's such a charming thing to see that I would like to get a picture of it but I was concerned about being on time for Georgia so I didn't stop.  Next time for sure!

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