Hail...

Plink pa-plink plink PLING! That was the sound of my ride yesterday. It was kind of dark and rainy in the morning when a group ride I was thinking about was leaving - so I decided to trust the weatherman (bad idea) and ride after 10am. No rain after 10am - all done... Stupid weatherman...

Anyway - rode up rist. Actually not too bad. A little cold, the batteries on my watch died, but a nice climb. Got up to the top and saw a few gray clouds, but they didn't look bad. Had a little to drink and screamed down the back side of Rist. Maybe 20 minutes later it starts raining. Not too heavy, but enough to make me slow down a bit going around the curves. Then tink. Uh-oh... Tink. The incessant reminder that something potentially bad was going to happen. Tink ... tink - tink, tink, tink, tink, plink, plink, pa-plink... These little bombs being hurled from the sky kept getting bigger and more rapid. Hiding my fingers under the bars, hating all of the vents allowing little pieces of ice to zap me in the top of the head, keeping my glasses pushed up so I wouldn't lose an eye!

Eventually - I did hide under a rock/bush alongside the road for the worst of it. It was too much... The rest of the ride, well - it sucked too. A mile or two of slushy ice on the road and just couldn't really seem to get the engine going again after that. Maybe another 45-60 minutes of slow riding in the rain. Builds character, right? Stupid weatherman...