Round Valley Reservoir
18 July 2015
Laura, Tom-
I’m looking at the T-storm forecast; the mass of storm cells currently sitting in the middle of Pennsylvania is heading our way..For Lebanon, NJ, the precip. probability is 11-39% during 8 AM - 1 PM. Any advice?
I didn't see his message until 6:35. I was on the floor, doing my morning round of back PT. I wrote,
You're asking us, the two rainiest riders you know? I'm dressed and ready to go.
Ed replied,
Just checking. See you at Harlingen at 08:00.
Tom chimed in:
This is just my opinion but according to the forecast the current storm is going to move through fast and should break up as it gets to where we are riding. Either there will be a brief shower as we start or it will be over before we start. I think we can do the ride and have a good chance of getting back before any major rain. If it is raining when it starts we can just wait it out because after that it should be clear for rest of the day.
By 8:00, four of us were ready to go, the fourth being John T, one of Ed's colleagues. The only problem was the sky over the Sourland Mountain, a few miles away from where we were, at Montgomery Veteran's Park.
"Yeah, it's raining over there," Ed said.
I heard a rumble, but with my bad hearing I needed confirmation. "Was that thunder?"
"Yes."
"Check the radar," Tom said. I passed my phone around so that everyone could see the mass of red and yellow moving toward us. We decided to bike down to the bathrooms and playground, where we could take shelter and wait out the storm.
We parked our bikes. Tom wandered over to the playground and I followed. I watched as he did five very smooth chin-ups. I had to do five too, because I'm not competitive or anything. Ed sat at the top of the short sliding board. We watched the sky.
There was lightning, but there was no way I'd catch it with my camera unless by chance. We watched the sky some more as the storm drew closer.
"Here's the rain," I said. We scuttled back towards our shelter and got there just in time.
There was plenty for us to talk about as we waited out the rain. Every so often, Tom would stick his head out and we'd tell him it was still raining too much to ride. I checked the radar a few times. The storm was moving through quickly enough that we could wait a little longer.
When we finally got going, it was 9:30. Somehow, we'd waited an hour and a half.
As we approached the Sourland Mountain, the sun came out, if only for a minute.
"I wonder," Tom said, "How many rides you and I have done together this year where it hasn't rained."
"Does this morning count? We didn't actually get rained on. We hadn't started."
"It counts," he said. "It interfered with our ride."
One, then: our trip to Sergeantsville two weeks ago. And the two days out of four in Virginia. And the handful of mountain bike rides in the snow, I guess; the precipitation doesn't count if it's already fallen.
Ed led us up Hollow and Long Hill, then down Lindbergh. At the bottom we stopped to look at what used to be Peacock's General Store.
The only thing to remind us of what was there before the fire is the new porch, in the same spot the old one used to be.
We took a quick bathroom and water break at the Wawa on Route 202. Ahead of us the sky was metallic gray, but there was no rain on the radar.
As we approached Pleasant Run, we passed one of Transco's Leidy Southeast Expansion Project's Pleasant Run Loop construction sites. This beautiful scenery is on Barley Sheaf Road, uphill from Pleasant Run.
This isn't the same gas pipeline I've been going on about on these pages. This is a different line, one that slid through the FERC application process like a greased pig. PennEast isn't going to be so easy.
There was more of the same on Stanton Mountain Road between Dreahook and the general store:
Look how far this stretches.
We'd gone somewhere around 30 miles before my favorite puddle came into view:
"I have so many pictures of Round Valley," I said. Yet I take a few more each time I'm there.
Our rest stop was at Jerry's Brooklyn Grill at Whitehouse Station. Today's muffins were big. Not Stanton General Store legendary big, but big enough that I felt full after taking the top of one. Nobody wanted the bottom; they'd all had too much food as well.
Before we left I checked the radar again. All clear.
We had a headwind on the way home, because of course we did. Today was one of those rare days where the wind isn't out of the northwest (which would have pushed us home, of course).
We picked up some speed on the flats near Neshanic, and we were booking down Blawenberg-Belle Meade Road when we were stopped because of even more pipeline construction:
By now, the sun was out and the air was thick and gross. This is summer air. We'd better get used to it.
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