I work Friday morning to the sound of rain on the tent. Still half awake, I got up for a run to the bathroom and to put a plastic cover over my bicycle seat, then snuggled back into bed.
Then woke up. The rain was light, but the weather forecast showed more rain inbound. I prefer packing up when everything isn’t wet. I scrambled to pack. By the time the rain began in ernest I was tucked under the shelter at the campground, eating breakfast and charging my phone.
I spent a while intently peering at the weather forecast and weather radar. By my best calculation, a gap in the weather would occur at, unsurprisingly, 10:00 a.m. Destiny.
I started out on dedicated bicycle path, but with the weather as it was, I took a shortcut onto a heavy highway. Too heavy. When I passed a ” bicycles are not permitted here ” sign I detoured off to a smaller road.
That worked great until it didn’t.
A little bushwacking later I found myself back on the road, and finally on Eurovelo 14.
Thursday I ended up at a beach without Linda. Friday I saw a camel (and a llama) without Linda as I passed by a circus. I don’t do these things on purpose, but she’ll be sad she missed them.
I stopped for lunch at noon in a shelter with signage suggesting bathrooms, water, and a shower. All locked, but an active charging station let me top off my phone — not a complete loss. By the time I had finished lunch a storm had rolled in. So I waited. Then the weather radar showed thunder storms and hail. I finally rolled out about 2:00 p.m.
However, more storm cells were moving south to north south of me. By my best estimate I could move west fast enough to cross in front of the next one. That worked.
For the NEXT storm cell, I think I’d have to call it a tie. But, moving hard and fast I managed to mostly stay ahead of the rain. Same for the next one.
At one point I passed a German cycle tourist headed the other way. You shouted something to me, and I stopped. So he stopped. His question was effectively, what’s the weather ahead of me. We were both racing against the rain!
I crossed over the hills to Lake Balaton in sunshine, a gentle ride along the southern edge of the lake. I passed by my originally intended campground to add an additional 15 km my planned day (and 15 km fewer tomorrow).
Arriving at the next campground in Zamardi, I could see what would have happened if I had been caught by one of those storm cells. Tree limbs had fallen across multiple campsites. Heavy rain had left puddles of water everywhere, although they pointed out a dry spot for my tent. All told, it’s a dinky little campground, on a lot in a residential neighborhood with only about eight sites. The bath house has only one shower, which is jury-rigged off of a sink!
They had lost power, and they informed me in broken English I wouldn’t have hot water for 3 hours. Skeptical, I set up before heading out to grab a bite to eat.
When I came back, jury-rigged or not, I had a hot shower. After they rebooted the Wi-Fi I had internet. All good!