Riding motorcycles is a constant education — in addition to being a lot of fun. There have been two prior stories here in the weblog about this: Motorcycling In The Winter and Wind Chill. The latest lesson was about riding in the rain. Lots of rain. Everybody that does much bike riding has probably experienced some rain at least once. Sometimes you see bikes and riders waiting under the overpass along interstate highways. More than a year ago I wrote a story called "Do We Need the Interstate Highway System in America?". As of yesterday I now know the answer — if it is raining really hard we definitely need them! After a thunderstorm had passed, I checked the forecast for the entire route from Pennsylvania to Connecticut. It called for scattered thunderstorms with a 40% chance of rain. Seeded like a reasonable risk. The first 35 miles of the ride was sunny with a blue sky.

The first shower wasn’t so bad. It lasted about ten miles. I got wet but so bad. About 40 miles later, the sky was darkening and looking quite threatening. I could smell the humidity in the air (one of the features of riding not generally available with cars), and could tell it was going to pour. Then the Interstate started grinding to a halt. Barely moving. I don’t know if it was an accident, construction or just really heavy summer traffic. In any case, I had to make a decision. There was an exit coming up in one mile. At the last minute, I took the exit. I was now in unfamiliar territory but thanks to the Magellan SporTrak Color GPS receiver, I was confident that I would find my way home. The New York highway 52 is a really nice road to ride — unless you get caught in a major storm. The first few miles were great and I was feeling good about my decision to take the back roads, but after the next 35 miles of heavy rains and getting soaked through to the bones, I wished I had been under the overpass of an interstate highway.

I got home at 6:30 PM and went to Weather Underground to check if the forecast had changed from the 40%. That would be an understatement..

At 630 PM…National Weather Service radar showed a line of thunderstorms…some packing damaging wind and hail along with frequent cloud to ground lightning…from south central Connecticut through southwestern Connecticut…western Long Island…New York City…extreme northeast New Jersey into southern New Jersey. All the storms were moving southeast up to 30 mph. Numerous flash flood warnings have been issued for the area. Expect urban…low lying and poor drainage area flooding too occur as the line moves into your area. If threatening weather approaches…seek safe shelter immediately. There has already been one lightning death reported this afternoon in Ocean County New Jersey.

I felt very fortunate to have gotten home safe and sound albeit very wet.