I took a self-proclaimed holiday on Thursday, and then never bothered to write on Friday. I am only remembering to write a post now on Monday. Could my motivation be waning?
Fucking Rain
If there was one thing that could have altered the course of this past weekend it was rain, and boy did it ever rain.
I arrived in Madison on Friday with overcast skies above and having driven through some pretty heavy rain on I20 to get there. With no precipitation falling I set up my tent, in not the best place I would come to find out, and made myself part of the gang. I really didn’t expect to ride but a motion was put forth to ride to Rutledge for lunch, so I rallied.
The ride to Rutledge was fine, though it spit rain often. Those of us who could ride had lunch in town at the Caboose restaurant, and then returned back to Madison for the happy hour. I had three beers at the happy hour and hopped on my bike for the trip back to camp and it started raining again. It was a fairly miserable two-mile ride.
It proceeded to rain.
And rain.
And rain.
My tent area was muddy, but not as bad as some of the nearby marshes that were being created.
When I went into my tent, which wasn’t the most waterproof around, the plan was to wake up and pack up my gear because Saturday’s forecast wasn’t looking good.
At 6am I awoke to the sound of someone knocking water from our pavilion tarps, and I realized that at that moment it was not raining. In the dark I put all of my wet camping gear into the M6 (hurray for rubber floor mats!).
I contemplated riding Saturday morning because there was a “window” of opportunity.
And then it proceeded to rain.
And rain.
And rain.
It let up for a little while but by that time I had resigned to drive home after lunch because while the company was a lot of laughs, the thought of riding in the rain all weekend provided none.
I drove into Rutledge on Saturday afternoon, had lunch with a couple of the campers, and then said my adieus. I was home in Atlanta by 3pm and spent the next hour reconstructing camp in my basement and hanging things up so that all of my drenched camping gear could dry.
Apparently the rain subsided on Saturday night, which I am sure was a relief for those who remained.
When I saw the torrential rain move in on Sunday morning I was certain that I made the right decision to cut my losses.
My proposed 70+ miles of weekend riding turned into a mere 20+. So much for losing weight this past weekend…
When Life Gives You A Soggy Sack Of Shit
I took advantage of yesterday’s unexpected day in Atlanta by visiting the crowded lavenderia and then meeting my bossy at Lucky’s in Brookhaven for dinner. There we watched the Hawks (basketball?) game and consumed beer and food.
I was home by 8:30pm and exhausted. I was probably asleep by 9:00pm.
No Spoilers Please
I have both The Amazing Race and Mad Men downloaded and will be watching them tonight. I would have already watched TAR but I realized that last Friday’s was a “two-hour” episode and I didn’t want to commit the 87 minutes (when the commercials are removed) to watch it.
It amazes me that a 120-minute program on broadcast television has 33 minutes of commercials.
If The Rain Stops Today
I need to get exercise.
Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]
Wet, wet and more wet.
We (Debbie, mostly) prepared 5 dishes of Mac and Cheese for an expected 70 folks for the going away party for the huntsman and his wife Sunday afternoon. Besides that event and a couple of trips to breakfast, we were homebodies.
Congratulations on even showing up to Madison. Considering the forecast, I don’t think anyone would have anything had you bailed (bailed- get it!)
-FP
Well- the gang really enjoyed having you join us Paulie – they hope you will come back. I love hanging with those guys, they always make me laugh.
You failed to publicly tell my poor packing, so lack of cycling shoes, story.
That purchase was the main reason I insisted on riding Saturday, had to make my roadtrip purchase worth it. And I had to ride once, since I didn’t get to ride Friday. It wasn’t too bad, more of a drizzle type of rain, but 26 was a good amount.
We packed everything up Saturday afternoon/evening, and went & checked in to JoAnna’s paid for hotel room that would have not been used. Then we went back out to Happy Hour & dinner, then back to camp to actually see a sunset???!!!! The bands were pretty good, we could hear them perfectly from our gathering site, so we didn’t have to go any closer. I’m sure the BRAG folks weren’t happy with that, I’m sure they would have liked a bigger crowd up there closer to the band.
We considered for about 5 seconds riding on Sunday, as it wasn’t raining. It probably would have been a good ride, but loads & loads of wet dirty laundry were calling our names.
BTW Steve – it was a huge crowd considering the weather, I was shocked that it looked like so many that pre-registered actually showed up.
I saw they had 855 paid somewhere. I bet there were at least 400-500 people around.
Ugh! This sounds MISERABLE. But then, I’m a total wimp when it comes to bad weather when camping. I get grumpy and entirely unpleasant to be around. Kudos for you for giving it a whirl — I would have canceled completely. Glad y’all managed to have some fun no matter what.
Speaking of fun… I’m throwing this here in case any other ITP readers want to join too. Next Thursday, 4/30, we’re planning a one-week hiatus from trivia night to go do the brewery tour at Monday Night Brewing instead. Been trying to do this with a group for a while and someone from there came in to Orpheus Friday and we got to chatting so I remembered it. So far it’s me, Aron, Jonathan, Angela, my (whaaaa?) non-hasher friend Michele. Hopefully you, Paulie? Barb? Anyone else? Hours are 5:30-7:30 there (so technically we still could make trivia afterward if we really wanted!). Think about it and I’ll remind y’all next week?
I certainly enjoyed the company and would definitely return. Everyone made me feel welcome.
Had my tent stayed dry I might have considered staying Saturday, but it was a lost cause once I woke up in wet.
I’ve been to Monday Night brewery and always like to go back. I will put this in my calendar. I’d suggest that we skip trivia that night and eat dinner somewhere afterward.
Good idea! I’ll make a FB event you can be sure not to see. 😉
🙂
I also forgot to mention that I went to REI to get a solar charger for my phone. When I found out that they were $120 I changed my mind.
Stacy – Allan works 4/30, but I might be tempted to come ITP.
We are tempted to go to Lake Hartwell for the Memorial Day weekend ride up there, but Allan has to work Sunday. It was 4 years ago Vern had his heart attack up there. He said he may be ready to go back. If we can get it together, we may go up friday evening, ride Saturday & come back that night. Maybe.
Paulie, we bought a “charger” for our phones that is simply an external battery- might get you through for a weekend if you remember to turn the phone off when not using it. Solar chargers are great when the sun is out.
I have no plans for Memorial Day weekend, please keep me in mind.
Steve, I have an external battery too; it gets me almost one recharge of my phone. I was thinking of getting the solar charger in hopes that some day when I go camping again I will see the sun.