It was a rough night in Hope. Around midnight, seemingly right after finishing the blog post, the sky opened up and started dumping water on us. It honestly sounded like someone was spraying a hose onto my tent on the high pressure setting. Amazing.

It was nice for an hour or so when we woke up, so at least we did not have to pack up in the rain.

TJ stayed dry. Roger just had some mist getting in his tent, the girls and I had some minor leakage. Overall it went pretty well, but the noise of the storm didn't let up for a few hours.

In the morning we laughed and joked, and still were in great spirits because it had stoped raining by then. The radar still looked bad though, but we hit the road anyway. I have not ridden in the rain as much in my life as I have in this last week or so........it is getting old.

After breakfast, we hit the road and ran into a wall of water after only 5 miles. The rain was blowing right in our face, making it hard to see. Laura was concerned it was going to blast her contacts out. We pushed hard against the storm for a couple hours, plugging away at a solid 6 miles per hour....drenched but still okay. Then the hail hit. All I can say is ouch. Roger was 30 feet behind me and couldn't see me, even with my flashing reds (which are normally visible for a mile or so back). It wasn't safe, it wasn't fun, but there was no location to stop. Stopping there meant freezing. A rainsuite only serves to keep you warm in situations like this, it does nothing to keep you dry.

We pulled into Cooperstown at 2pm, shivering, soaked, looking like drown rats. A check of the radar showed it was going to continue for several more hours. The people at the gas station were very friendly, and the hot drinks were well recieved.

Seeing that this town had a hotel (something we had not seen in 2 days) it was an easy decision.

The hotel room looks like a suitcase exploded.....clothes hanging to dry everywhere. Best 50 bucks roger ever speant.

The girls took hot showeres the instant we got into the room, and cranked the heat in the room. Within a half hour, it was a sauna in here.

We found food nearby for dinner, and went back to the room to crash. At least it was nice walking back from dinner.

The girls fell asleep before the sun went down. TJ soon after. Roger and I stayed up late trying to find some workable routes through all the flooding. More details on that later......it is not going well.

As I type this, it is still pouring outside. This poor state is so water-logged, but it just does not stop raining. The field look horid, every dip, ditch, crack, valley, and hole is full of water. When it rains, the streets fill up quickly, and you cannot see the potholes when biking. Rough conditions to bike tour....to say the least.

As for getting past the Minot area, with flooding on the national news, all options are on the table. We are weighting severl possibilities. As it stands, we are going to try and bike towards the nearest city of any reasonable size, and see what happens. Our options are more flexible nearer to the major highways. The rivers are supposidly dropping, maybe the roads will start re-opening befor we get to them and it won't be a problem. Fingers crossed.

We have not seen any West to East riders in a couple days now, that isn't a great sign. The last one we met was a few days ago, he said he was one of the last people allowed through the flooding area. He also said that he Going To The Sun Highway, in Glacier National Park, was still closed with something like 15 feet of snow on it.....sounds chilly.......I am going to go wake the group up now and see about finding some brunch. The rain might stop this afternoon and we can put on some miles.......in the 25 mph headwind.

27 miles (669 total)