(Postblogged on Sunday, 10/9)Work was work, finished up loose ends before I dreaded leaving at 3pm to drive towards Ocean City, MD to do the Seagull Century (in Salisbury, MD) in the wake of Tropical Storm Tammy. It did not hit me what a horrible thing it would be to not have left earlier - when I was slapped with the realization that it was a 3 day weekend (for some - Columbus Day...I never get silly holidays like that off). Well, let me just say - that was the worst driving experience I've ever endured. I left at 3pm for a reasonable 3 and a half hour drive ...tops. Suffice to say, I hate driving at night...and especially in horrible rainstorms, and especially for more than 4 hours. I want to give out a heart-felt FUCK YOU! to the reminants of
Tropical Storm Tammy for making the most white knuckled 8 hour drive. It rained like a mother fucker - cats, dogs, elephants, rhinos, blue whales. It just dumped and dumped and DUMPED rain. For all 8 + hours of driving, I had my windshield wipers on the super high endurance speed. There was nothing but bumper to bumper traffic between my office and Ocean City (except the last 7 miles). The wind gusts were horrible, I never made it above 40mph at any time, there was massive flooding and hydroplaning was a mess. Grrr!
I checked into my hotel, a semi shady but a nice place right on the bayside of Ocean City - 2 blocks from the ocean (the bay is also the ocean). I had an ocean front view (never to really be seen thru the rain and darkeness). I had to quickly settle in, unpacks, and prepare for the (what was going to be a VERY wet 100+ mile) Century ride the next day. I slurped down 2 beers, while preparing for the Century, to help take the edge off all the curse words that were stored up in my head after such a stressfull, shitty drive. I called for a 5:45am wakeup call then jumped into the clean sheets and went to bed - I had to get up early the next morning.
 photo by d. scott gregory Shitty Drive 1 click on photo to enlarge |
|  photo by d. scott gregory Shitty Drive 2 click on photo to enlarge |
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 photo by d. scott gregory Prepared for Seagull Century 2005 click on photo to enlarge |
|  photo by d. scott gregory Prepared for Seagull Century 2005 click on photo to enlarge |
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