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Last night’s storms woke us up multiple times with some of the lightning strikes too close for comfort. There were a few drips from the roof of the tent, but nothing major and while some things at our feet got wet, we woke up mostly dry. We made coffee and packed up, after cleaning sand off the tent and trying (in vain) to dry a few things out. The bikes were covered and made it through the storms pretty well. We headed out to the main office and dropped our rain jackets and donned sunscreen before we headed out.
We knew better than to take the same trail as yesterday, so we opted for the parallel and busy, but fairly good-shouldered, US Route 12. By 10:30, we had made it to Porter when the radar said it was time find a safe place to hunker down. We went to the Porter Library and were greeted by three lovely librarians, one of whom was born in Kittaning and had Penn State connections. Of course.
We jumped on the Wi-Fi and I checked about getting on the train vs. waiting for the next couple of hours and still having 60 miles in front of us before we made it to Chicago. The radar said we still had a 1/2 hour window or so before Armageddon hit. Dana wasn’t in favor of riding back the train station we had passed a few miles before, but I did win out and we hi-tailed it back and made it to the station just in time to watch the train loading and the doors closing. I was trying to buy a ticket at the kiosk when a train worker came up to us and said that we should get into the station as high winds were expected soon. We did so, but then saw that the train wasn’t moving and decided to take a chance. The train was being held because of the storms and was disembarking anyone who didn’t feel comfortable waiting on the train. We got on and got our bikes secured and waited out the storm with the rest of the passengers.
When we finally got moving after about 1/2 hour, it was very stop and go: a 40mph speed limit for the train, a tree down near the tracks, non-working signals, and police cars at crossings. The conductors came through and offered to refund our fare, but as it was only $10 for two seniors, we just kept the tickets and will send them to the lovely librarians in Porter.
As we headed to Chicago, we saw the damage the storm had caused — two tornadoes had touched down and there was a lot of straight-line wind damage. For miles, there were trees down in yards, on houses, and between and on cars. We had definitely dodged a big bullet, but the storm had passed and the sky lightened and we were feeling bad about the mere 10 miles we had ridden and decided to hop off the train as soon as we could easily get to the lakefront bike trails. We jumped off the train at Hegeswitch and navigated to the Marquette Trail which eventually led us to the Lakefront Trail heading into Chicago.
We checked into our hotel, showered, and watched the reports of the aftermaths of the Tornadoes that hit earlier in the day. And watched every weather for tomorrow as is our custom. Looked OK — maybe a few passing showers.
Unfortunately, all the Blues clubs are closed on Tuesdays so we walked around, had a drink at the First Draft and dinner at the Italian Village. We walked dinner off with a stroll through the lakefront park and went back to the hotel and hit the sack.
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