Play with fire and....

Everyone knows the old saying, if you play with fire you're going to get burned, well it applies to mother nature as well. Yesterday, the sky was black as storm clouds hovered around the area for most of the day. Only one thought was in our head, to ride or not to ride. I (Jafer) was the first to head out around 2pm for another great ride through the rolling hills. The further I rode away from home, the darker the sky became prompting me to ponder if I should turn around. Like a pilot, I turned directly into the darkness hoping to evade the rain long enough for a 2 hour ride. Around the one hour mark, the rain started lightly and only lasted a few minutes as I took cover under the canopy of the forest. Luckily, I had missed the brunt of the downpour because for the next 20 minutes the road was soaked, as I rode away from the storm. Once I reached the other side of the ridge, the temperature warmed up and the clouds disappeared as I once again settled into a steady rhythm. Slowly, my route traversed back over the ridge where the sky looked like a scene from Twister. I thought that I could avoid the downpour by taking a detour around the ridge by heading towards Trexlertown and then heading east to Kutztown. To my dismay my two hour ride came and went as I was still a long way from home trying to avoid the lighting and downpour in the background. To make matters worse I didn't bring any food along since I planned on doing a short ride. Finally I saw a sign that said Kutztown was only 5 miles away. I thought that I had successfully avoided the brunt of the storm! Unfortunately, a few minutes later I rode into a light downpour and thought to myself this isn't so bad. By now I was only 15 minutes away as I took a left to head into Kutztown, when the real rain started. As soon as I made the turn I was greeted by strong winds and heavy rain, rain so hard that it pelted my skin like bbs. On the plus side I had anticipated rain and the cold, so I had on 3 layers and a hat. Another, great 3 hour ride in the bank. Joey and Thomas were the next to head out at around 4pm, but they were a little luckier, as they barely felt the rain.