Off to a rough start - Blue Ridge Parkway End to End (BRPE2E) - CycleBlaze

Off to a rough start

By Josh

I knew something bad had to happen because things were going too smoothly. 

It started with me realizing that my front tire seemed low on air. I had just replaced it Monday night with a fresh tubeless tire and had ridden exactly 0 miles with it. I pumped it up and heard a  hissing sound and saw white sealant coming out of two small pinholes on the side wall. After a few attempts I realized the sealant wasn't going to be able to do it's job and it was probably prudent to just replace it with my spare tubeless tire. That left me with zero spare tires for the trip though. I called George to see if he could check out the local bike shop on his way out (there are no bike shops near our house). Being a good friend he did but unfortunately they were out too. Team mom, Danielle, took the initiative and called a bike shop along the way in Warrenton, VA, and confirmed they had some tires and so we stopped and picked up two. That's when things got worse...

Our phones started buzzing that there were some storms in the area...and they were right! We'll have to confirm later but I swear we were near an F1 tornado. It started to blow and rain so hard we had to stop in the middle of road because we couldn't see. I pulled to the median as far away from the trees and telephone poles as I could. Rain started blowing horizontal across the windshield and then the fully loaded truck started rocking side to side while debris started loudly slamming the side of the truck. Electric wires came down next to us and that was followed by trees and branches. Feeling like we legitimately may be in or near a tornado we opted to risk it and drive forward despite low visibility to try and get out of danger. We maneuvered around other stalled cars and trees and eventually it got a little better and we felt like we could proceed a little more safely with the 4-ways   on at a slow speed. Needless to say everything in the back of truck, including our clothes, are now completely soaked! That's fine with me though as tomorrow's forecast has rain. As I always say to Danielle, I've been wet thousands of times and I've eventually dried off after each one! (cue Danielle rolling eyes). Oh yeah, our 5 year old daughter handled the whole thing like a champ and just kept licking her lollipop the whole time while acting cool as a cucumber!

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