Out with a whimper

 

Joan knocked you out?

What kind of relationship do you think we have??  I got out on the motorcycle today: made the run the length of Iron Mountain Road.  It was surprisingly light on traffic - with what little traffic I saw, it was as many cars and trucks as it was motorcycles.

Joan told me, "If you're going to ride, get it done before 2:00 this afternoon."  Yep, more crap weather predicted.  And the crap played out: we had pounding rain and about a half hour of hail.  Fortunately (for us), the hail was pea to marble size.  I got out between the rain storms and didn't see any damage.  During the worst of one thunderstorm, the lightning was hitting all around us, taking out the power in the RV resort, and from the sounds of it, power outage from Rapid City to Keystone, to Hermosa.  And now at 6:00 pm, the pounding rain is ramping up again.

The hail was worse in Rockerville (about 5 miles away)...

 Those are not my photos - these were posted to our Hart Ranch Members group.

This will put a grinding halt to anything to do with the Sturgis Rally.  The next round of storms will move through Sturgis.

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I did shoot some video on my ride today, and will plan to work that up tomorrow.  Probably.  Depends on the weather... right now, the weasels are calling for wind (gusting to 40 mph) and cooler temperatures; might make it up to 70º for a high.  Winds like that will be miserable for anyone who put off traveling earlier from the Rally.

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We are running our generator to be able to check local weather on the over-the-air TV stations.  Looks like this crap will be off and on through about 9:00 tonight.

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For a nice change of pace: Steph called this afternoon; her timing was good, during a lull in the thunderstorms.  She asked, "What would you like to see for photos of the new house today?"  You could tell by the way she asked it that she was leading to something... "Oh my God, the house is almost done!"

Yes, that is a slight exaggeration, but they made a lot of noticeable progress in the past week: most of the roof tiles on on, the house exterior is painted and the rock work is done, the interior has been painted, cabinets in bathrooms and kitchens (just cabinets, no countertops).  Some of today's photos...

Since the bathroom toilets and sinks aren't in, it is fortunate that we still have our orange porta-potty (and green dumpster)...

We had to cut our phone conversation a bit short, thanks to the next round of pounding rain.

The plan for supper was supposed to be burgers (from ground prime rib) on the griddle... not gonna happen.

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Woohoo - at 6:41, our power was restored.  From earlier today, the storm clouds before it hit and the radar...

And just because it makes me happy: the CTX on it's last trip to Sturgis (yesterday)...

It's the good-looking blue bike mid-image.