Today’s distance / ???????: 54.7 miles / 88km
Average speed / ????: 8.4mph / 13.6km/h
Time on skateboard / ????: 6h 29m
Total skateboarding distance to date / ????????????: 2383mi (plus 266mi) / 3835km (plus 430km)
Ascent / ??: 470m
Descent / ??: 530m
End-of-day GPS coordinates: N30.23.03.6, W096.06.41.5
The weather was seriously dubious today. Will it rain, or won’t it? The forecast was for thunderstorms and all sorts of badness. It did sprinkle a little in the morning, but on the whole, the rain held off all day.
I traveled through the little town of Montgomery today. It has a population of about 480 people, but has one of the biggest high schools I have seen. Ever. The birthplace of the Texas Star, apparently, the city of Montgomery seems to be having some difficulties keeping peope there.
It is also the home of the Lone Star Cowboy Church. How I wish I had been here on Sunday.
Moving right along, and finally hitting some smooth roads out of Montgomery, I was well on my way towards getting to Navasota before dark.
Just as I was approaching Navasota, the forecast NW front arrived with force.
The frigid dry air hit the southerly flow of warm damp air with a vegance, with every intention, it seemed, to push it out of its way with ease. Not so, said the moist southerly. The warm southerly wasn’t giving in easily. The cold dry northwester ploughed on anyway, driven downwards, undercutting the warm southerly, which projected upwards in a massive dark wave. The northwester took one one airborne particle at a time and turned it to the dark side, pushing with all its might towards the south. The southerly continued to resist, stalling the northwesterly in its track. The warm southerly flow rose up and up and up, arcing over the cold air that was rushing in underneath it.
As this battle was raging overhead, I rolled on silently below. Looking behind me from a safe distance, I could see what looked like the underbelly of a massive ocean wave, suspended in the sky. Ten minutes later, I arrived in Navasota to see all hell break loose.
As the air particles rubbed against each other, electrons were lost. Great arcs of energy streaked across the sky. Vertically, horizontally. Flashes of blue-white illuminted the darkness. Ear splitting cracks of thunder reverberated and shook the earth.
I counted my blessings that the northwester was stronger than the southerly, pushing the comotion away from Navasota. I took shelter in the wonderful Brookshire Brothers anyway, just in case the southerly made any last ditch effort to stop the marrauding northwester.
This Brookshire Brothers is a great thing. It seems to be the only major gorcery store in Texas. Or in the smaller towns at least. They have a deli area where you can get fried chicken. Lots of fat and protein, but they are rather thin on the carbs. So…I buy either some of their fresh baked french bread or some tortillas, and have a couple of pieces of fried chicken as filling. Add an avocado and a tomato, and you’ve got a great massive calorific delight for not too many pennies.
I camped tonight at the far end of a half-finished residential development area just outside of Navasota, the lightning lighting my way in the dark.
We were wondering if you managed to stay clear of the tornadoes raging in southern parts of the USA. Those skies look very interesting.
Pity you couldn't get any photos of the storm! 🙂