“The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the [camper]. All that cold, cold, wet day.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat
Actually, we've only had to bike in the rain for about a half an hour (near Brainerd, MN). With as much rain and water as we’ve had back home, we were feeling quite fortunate when we started the Tour because everyday brought sunshine and summer-like weather wherever we went!
But the further down river we go, the more we see the swelling Mississippi, flooding riverbanks and low-lying areas. Everywhere we bike, we see trees sticking up out of the water and standing water along ditches and farmlands. The national weather service has issued severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings from Prairie du Chien to the Quad Cities, pretty much directly on the TORCH tour route.
Thankfully our friend and neighbor, Larry Sharpe, is supporting the Tour by pulling our camper to each night's campsite and setting up. The torrential rains come at night or in the morning so right now we are inside and dry. But tent trailers and even big 5th-wheel RVs can get flooded out, or evacuated out, by the local authorities, as you'll see in the video below.
Once the rain passes and we dry out, we start riding again. The other day, we didn’t get going until 3pm, but it’s all good. We actually had a pleasant evening of riding and managed to squeak in 35 miles! Here’s a pictorial summary of the last couple of days – Of course, some images deserve their own blog spot – so we might have to expound on them in a future post.
Because God is Good, and with your love and support and prayers, we've biked 648 miles so far, through 4 states. We've seen some spectacular scenery and met lots of people. We've been able to tell them about the work of Hope Station and the plight of orphans in Chengdu. And, this makes it ALL worth while.
Embracing Life, Mike