Py-rain-ees

According to Wikipedia, Andorra has 300 days a year of sunshine. This was not one of them.

I had set some pretty lofty goals for myself, riding-wise. They would have been nearly impossible to meet due to the slow nature of the mountain roads. And that's before it rained. A lot.

Things are still awesome at this point. Very awesome.

The morning was glorious, per usual. The roads continued to be ridiculously awesome. And I sat aboard my bike, thinking for the first time all trip 'hey, I haven't been rained on yet... maybe I won't be.' Hand to God, I honestly thought those very words. Then, sitting in a quaint Spanish cafe for lunch, not a care in the world, I heard it. Karma personified. Thunder.

I finished up my food and made haste to where I had left my bike, feeling the occasional droplet of water as I went. The once pure blue skies were turning dark, and I quickly prepped my bike for the inevitable onslaught. Err... 'quickly' maybe isn't the right word. Let's just say, luckily it wasn't raining. Yet.

The calm before the storm.

Finally, confident that everything would stay dry, I mounted the bike and continued riding ...and continued riding. And, well, you know those sweat suits professional fighters wear so that they can lose all their water weight prior to a weigh in? That's essentially what my rain gear is like. And when it doesn't rain, one tends to perspire. And it was starting to get very wet inside my suit, yet with not even a hint of it outside. So, I changed back, thinking, once again, because apparently I hadn't tempted fate enough last time 'man, all that work, I almost would have preferred if it had rained.' Seriously.

Finally, having been mocked enough, the heavens obliged. With a vengeance. Luckily, due to my practise run earlier in the day, I was able to swap back at a much more respectable rate. Now, crawling along the roads, not making much time, I was starting to question where I would make my new destination for the evening. I had been riding in the rain for a good hour, when in the middle of nowhere I came across a pretty swank looking mountain spa. Granted, it was a touch outside of my usual price range, but in these current circumstances, one doesn't think about such things for very long. Looks like Andorra will have to wait until tomorrow.


Oh, and a little advice for anyone that is planning a similar motorcycle trip. When packing your panniers, having the exhaust pipe really close to the section that your rain gear is packed in... not the best idea. Also, rain pants with holes burned in them... not waterproof.

Not waterproof.