Might be best if we just forget this day ever happened. Clear it from the calendar and purge the memory of it all together. I have no pictures of this day at all - had the camera wrapped in a plastic bag the whole day. Woke up storming - pouring rain and by 11am there was no sign of it letting up. The Hippies here in Woodstock DO have good wireless broadband internet access, though, and I could see Weather.com predicted rain for the next 3 days.

Kim took the little umbrella and walked the 1/4 mile up to the main road where all the shops are and I told her I'd meet her up there one way or the other at noon, while I packed the bike, trailer and watched the skies darken further. By Twelve I was riding down Main Street looking for Kim, already wet from the steamy heat in the wet weather, and resigned to just sloshing through it to get to our next destination - western Massachusetts - where we have old friends from our Yellowstone days (Summers of '81 & 82 we worked out in Yellowstone Nat'l Park at the Lake Hospital). We still keep in touch with several friends from that time and these were close friends, although we only see them once every 6-8 years.

25 miles out of Woodstock, we found ourselves in a one-horse town under a gas station canopy, waiting for the relentless downpour to subside. Spent an hour there checking maps, and calling home for my daughter to re-check weather.com for me. No end to it in sight. I'll admit I was not a happy camper at that point and had almost decided to just grab a motel there, and head back in the rain to Philly, get the car - and haul the scooter to another part of the country not inundated with rain for the remainder of the vacation.

Came real close, but glad I decided to just slog it out - get to our friend's house and wait there, if necessary, for a few days and continue later. One concession I made was to hop on the Mass Pike over to I-91 and up to their place - riding the small back roads is sweet in decent weather but in the drenching rain it is safer on the Interstate because of the visibility problems and lack of side roads and driveways to get you in trouble... just hunkered down and rode.

By the time we got to Gill, Mass., the rain let up to a sprinkle and we got inside to dry off, do laundry, and ate a wonderful meal out in their gazebo by the bend in the Connecticut River. Life was looking better. Glad I decided to keep going.

Weather.com was beginning to back off of it's prediction of gloomy weather to come.