DALMAC: Day 2 - Dogs, Thunder, Heat, Wind

I'm comfortably ensconced in my tent at 12.20am the morning of the second day of DALMAC. I get up to go to the restroom. Weatherman says 0% chance of rain.

I get back to the tent and a dog starts barking, and barking, and still barking. Two hours later [yes, he is STILL barking] I hear a jet engine in the background? A jet...at this hour? Couldn't be. Thunder? But weatherman says 0% chance of rain.

I pull up the radar on my phone. There is a huge line of thunderstorms headed straight for Vestaburg!?! It hits 40 minutes later and what a light show. If I wasn't trying to sleep it would be beautiful. The storm passes through and I get up 15 minutes later. Total sleep 2 hours.

We start off with a southwesterly wind which pushes us rapidly up the road towards our lunch stop. We get there about 10.30, a good time, but now it's getting hot. We turn west and get smacked in the face with a strong wind. We creep along at barely 7 mph. The friendly wind is now our enemy. We hate the wind. Did I say it was hot? Scorching hot. We pass some bikers who have retreated to some shady trees. We think about joining them.

Another leg into the wind, we are creeping along, a little girl on rollerblades could keep up with us.

It finally begins to cloud up. Blessings! But what is this? Now it's raining. Yet another west leg into the wind. Now we are creeping along at 7mph AND getting soaked.

We finally make Lake City. Everyone is exhausted. 92 miles, heat, wind, rain, 2 hours of sleep. Got to LOVE DALMAC.