Friday, June 20, 2014

Friday, June 20, 2014 1:29 pm

10 miles 90°/ FL 103° 65% Humidity

Just as we walked out of the house, we noticed a dark cloud above us. Although this meant the chance of an afternoon thunderstorm, we decided to continue on and give it a try.

We walked toward Government Street and at Memorial Park decided to cross over to the service station on the other side of Government Street, because they sell the great little granola bars we like. It was nice to have a treat so early in the walk, but we continued walking as we ate them.

We walked to Ricarby and there we walked through the parking lot behind a church where Glen used to ride his bike as a child.  Along the way we passed the pink house with purple bushes I had saw and liked on a previous walk. (Michigan Ave & Elmira.)

We then walked along Breamwood to Lamar to West Street at the fence we went through on our wedding day. We continued on the backstreets to Cream & Sugar where we shared a cup of coffee and one of those delicious Mobile Bay Breeze cake balls. (This is a dreamscicle cake ball with a beautiful blue icing.)

As we started back, it was noticably cooler. The breeze was even cool. It felt wonderful and I guess it was inevitable that when the cool air met the warm, moist air a thunderstorm would develop.

As we were walking fast to avoid the lightening, we passed what I think is one of the biggest trees I have ever seen in this town. We also passed some of the worst sidewalks.

The storm was to the east of us, moving in a south-south-west direction. We had walked to Broad Street after leaving Cream & Sugar, then headed down Dauphin. At the old Dauphin Way (where we always remember to share a kiss, since that's where we were married) we started heading toward Government Street, not realizing the storm was headed South. It rumbled on behind us until we got to Catherine Street.

We stopped at the Starbuck's parking lot to see what it was doing. When we turned to the east we were surprised to see the storm was much closer to us than we thought. We decided to duck in Starbuck's to wait it out. 

When the thunder seemed to be past, we headed out in the rain. It was actually very cool and pleasant walking in the rain. The rain was not hard and a nice breeze would blow every now and then.

It makes me think of when we first started walking together in the winter. If it even looked like rain, I would carry my rain jacket. But in the summer when it rains it is very refreshing to feel the cool drops on your arms. However, I don't like the resulting mud puddles we must walk across, around and even sometimes, through.

By the time we were close to our "hot spot, " the sun came out. I could almost feel the steam coming up off the asphalt. I was so glad my Frogg-Toggs were still frozen. It helped a great deal having them to cool things off.

After our walk, I finally finished my cannibalized backpack. I took parts of several gym bags to make a new two strap bag (my current teardrop bag has only one strap and puts a lot of stress on my neck.) I finished it, and I hate it. While I won't be using it as a backpack, it was a great learning experience for sewing these types of materials. It should come in handy when I make our sleeping bags soon.

End 84°/FL 93° Humidity 75%

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