Lori S. Maynard, click
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Blogs by Lori S. Maynard
Dirty Chrome 6/6/2005 8:06:49 PM
I was caught in a sever storm yesterday on an interstate while traveling alone on my motorcycle.
Storm produced 91 mph wind gusts, pea-sized hail, torential downpours, severe lightning and a tornado. It was just me and the bike and my will to keep both of us upright and unharmed. OK - yesterday, I took my motorcycle on a long trip on my own. I was looking forward to this trip and watched the weather (because it was very hot and humid). The TV dopplar showed clear skies - no rains and the news sites online stated this love comment "scattered storms???" Yes, the ? was in the forecast.
So, I put on my shorts and the leather chaps on over them and packed my leather coat and gloves in my saddlebags and headed off for the 90 mile one way trip. When I merged from one major interstate to another, I saw the sky getting black in the distance. I pulled over and put on my leather jacket and gloves to be safe...though miserable in the 90 degree heat.
Not long after that, the rain set in. Not a misting, not sprinkles, not even a shower...but full on wrath of God 40 days and 40 nights flood the world rain. A gust of wind came from behind me and I could literally feel myself and the bike being picked up from the road and moved sideways while on the interstate. I thought "Oh, no!"
I fought with the bike and managed to keep the tires down and shiny side up (in other words...I kept the bike right side up).
I stopped on the shoulder and sat on my bike so close to the interstate under and overpass. I didn't have flashers, so I was grabbing the brake handle and making the brake light flash. The rain was horizontal. It was massive. It was hard to sit on the bike but I didn't want to put it on its kickstand because it was so windy.
When the wind eased up a bit, I got back onto the interstate. The rain was really something still.
The rain eased up and I saw this amazing sky. It was totally black to my left (West) and then it was this rusty orange color like the setting sun...though it was five or more hours from sunset. I really thought that I was going to drive out of the storm...I had thought that I had seen the worst of if. Then BOOM - the rain and wind kicks in again. It starts stinging through my leather jacket, gloves and chaps. I think that this was the pea-sized hail the news would talk about later.
You couldn't see anything. The rain was so heavy. The wind was incredible. Fighting the wind, I pulled over again to an overpass. Then, cars started to honk on the interstate and northbound and southboun interstate traffic turned on their flashers, parked their vehicles and then fled to seek shelter under the overpass columns and everywhere else up and down the road. And then there's little ol' girlie me holding my 500+ lbs bike up.
Turns out, that a tornado had touched down very near there. The wind gusts, alone, were recorded at 91 mph.
I got back onto the interstate and made it to my destination. What really made me mad...it was sunny and dry where I was going. It was one of those ironic twists that pull at your strings.
I looked my bike over for hail damage once I got home. Luckily, the worst thing on that bike right now is just dirty chrome. I hope that I'm never in a storm like that again. It was very vicious. Very vicious indeed. I wouldn't have even wanted to be in a car driving through that storm.
RVs and semis were blown off of the same stretch of interstate that I was on. It's humbling to think about...
