The Not So Perfect Storm

We all felt very worldly and mature as we climbed onto our saddles. None of us .....(well Margaret might have).....had ever sworn an oath before. It is a very mature thing to do.

We are off and riding toward the superstition mountains (I am allowed to mention that) we talk back and forth into our bike mikes. Weezle@ and Weezle* sing dragon rap songs for us and we try to rhyme along with them.We know now that we have to do mile after endless mile in the hot sun and we are going to be mature about that too!

Uh oh...in the distance we see a storm brewing; the sky is black and heading our way. The wind is picking up and dust is swirling around us.
Wrexel orders us to dismount and take cover. There is no cover!! The lightening is all around us and the thunder so loud we think the entire heavens will burst apart.....and then the rain comes! I always thought rain came down from the sky but this rain is coming sideways in sheets.
Dusty yells into my ear to look at the dragons....they are steaming! They are getting so wet it is putting out their pilot lights. OMG do they know how to re-light them?

Insects and scorpions come out of the ground now......spiders almost as big as CC scurry by. Tansy is not impressed.. she and Margaret sit on their bike with their feet up. Hurley offers to chase everything away for the ladies....he is so gallant.
Rivers have started running and the water is rushing around. How quickly everywhere floods! I think we will need a raft or maybe an Ark!

I climb up on Weezle@... Tansy climbs onto Margaret's shoulder......Dusty and Hurley jump on the bikes.
Four Javalenas and a couple of coyotes ask if they can hang out with us until the rain stops. We say yes, but only until then......the coyotes make CC too nervous!

The rain stops as suddenly as it started. We are all so relieved. CC has been busy and has put aside a stash of spiders....enough to last him for a couple of weeks. He wants to put them in Wrexel's saddle bags but Wrexel says ' no way Man'.... So CC wraps them in his Lawrence of Arabia headdress and ties them on a stick. He looks like Huck Finn with his stick on his shoulder..

We boys chase the Scorpions back into their hiding places...Tansy and Margaret dry their hair and wring out clothes. The Dragons cough and cough until they light their pilots and we are underway again (I had no idea that was how they got their pilot lights going)

We hear on our bike mikes that there are tornadoes heading our way. I feel a shiver of fear andI know the others do too ... We remember what happened to Dorothy and Toto in the Wizard of OZ. Will WE be picked up and flown over the rainbow??

To be continued