I woke up to discover we had the day off due to the storms that hit us early this morning. Tried to ride around 10 but the rain moved back into the area so I puttered around the house until 12:30. The radar showed a line of stroms off to the west and I estimated it would take about two hours to get here. I jumped on my bike and headed out to enjoy my free day. An hour into the ride the rain started falling - not bad but you knew it was there. No big deal I thought boy was I wrong. The skies opened up and the wind started howling, unfortunately I was stuck out in middle of nowhere and 15 miles from my house all I could do was keep riding and hope for the best. At one point the wind was so strong I was literally being pushed clear across the road. A short distance later a huge gust came up and I found myself literally hanging onto the edge of the road - a drainage ditch filled with cold, muddy water waiting to greet me. All I wanted was to get home and get warm. I did make it, drenched, cold, and miserable. The hot shower felt great and the cup of hot chocolate helped to warm me up as well. Of course the sun is now shining but the wind is still blowing at 35 mph. The upside was I covered just over 30 miles and even with the wind I ended up averaging 15.6 mph. What a ride!