o-h-i-OHHHH MY GOD!

"Carolyn, pedal faster!" The charcoal gray clouds churned behind us. Spinning in our lowest of low gears, the head wind was warm but fierce. We were in between storms, and a lady in downtown Liberty Center, Ohio mentioned something about a tornado warning, but what do two girls from Utah and Maine know about tornadoes? Answer: nothing. So we just kept pedaling.

If I ever mentioned in my journal entries or this blog that we had been caught in pouring rain, I lied. Yesterday, in Ohio, it POURED, twice! Every piece of clothing was dripping, sticky wet, and that was the first round. Thanks to the luxury of bicycle touring, a lunch stop, hand dryers, and a change of clothes later, we were back at it trying to beat the second lashing.

We made it out of town and across a bridge. Turning east, the wind was with us. It felt like we were flying! It's amazing how fast we could go fueled by fear and a tailwind.  Ahead, I could still see lighter colored clouds, but everything in my rear mirror was nasty (and I swear the sky was green, Carolyn insists it was). I thought we were clear until the wind shifted. In seconds, we decided to call it and ran to the nearest house, and not a moment too soon! Huddled under a stranger's garage alcove, we watched the apocalypse and wondered if the people in the house were already taking shelter in their basement. Were we going to see these country homes start swirling around in the air? I made a dash to my phone in between deluge and almost-hail where I found six missed calls and two voicemails from three different WarmShowers folks, whom we had contacted earlier to set up a place to stay that night. They all wanted to know if we were safe and if we were warm.

Twenty minutes later, we were riding in Russ Frye's car over to his house in Bowling Green with promises of chili, quiche, and soft beds dancing around in our heads. It rained over an inch that day, and the tornado sirens wailed even after laying down to sleep. Phew! What a day! We are so thankful to Russ and Sherri Frye who came to our rescue during an absolutely torrential storm. This thanks goes out to Tom and Jim too, who were also there if we needed them.

Wow.

The weather today called for a high of 59 degrees and mild. Mild. I can do mild. Today was great circumnavigating small county roads and gravel bike trails all the way to Norwalk, Ohio. My college friend Kristy hooked us up with her uncle and aunt, Kris and Juli, who live in Norwalk and opened up their delightfully cozy wood home to us. It's filled with plants, books, fun artwork and bowls of delicious butternut squash soup. Kris even met us 5 miles out of town on the bike trail to guide us to their spot. THANKS!

Next stop, road 303 to Peninsula, OH, along which we hear is the biggest hill in Ohio. Word on the street is that we need pitons...

Much love,
Emily

p.s. Thanks for everyone's well wishes and encouragement. It's very much so, soooo, so much appreciated!