Faster than a speeding temporale

It was partly sunny this morning so I headed out towards Vivaro, intending to return via i magredi and San Foca.  Before I knew it, I had turned at Malnisio and was heading toward San Leonardo instead.  So much for living intentionally.

After San Leonardo I rode to San Foca and turned toward Vivaro, thinking I would do the route antiorario.  As I was leaving town, I encountered a man on a city bike chasing a dog.  The dog had gotten loose and was escaping.  The man kept calling but the dog was having fun- "Oh, we're playing fox and hounds!"  Finally he got in front of it, but instead of stopping, it turned to head back in the opposite direction, toward me.  It's not a busy road but the cars go fast so I tried to help so the dog wouldn't get run over.  I hopped off my bike and kind of used it like a barricade to steer the dog away from the road.  The man caught up with it in an irrigation ditch.  Aww, happy ending.

Now I looked at the sky toward Vivaro and it was black as coal.  It looked like one of those midwestern skies in a movie right before twisters start tossing trucks and mobile homes.  And it was headed my way.  I looked back at my house and it was still sunny.  Change to the change, I turned around and took the back road from San Foca to San Leonardo.  It's a farm road with no cars, and several long stretches of galleria verde where the trees have grown across the road.  Very cool on a sunny day, and helps block the wind when a storm is bearing down on you.

From San Leonardo to Malnisio the road is exposed and windy, with occasional splashes of wind-blown rain from the big storm to the northeast.  The Trek rode great, and seemed as eager to get home before the storm as I was.  At Malnisio I turned toward home and stood to accelerate.  I noticed a bit of chainring rub, which I don't get with the Merckx.  I don't know if it's the alloy cranks instead of carbon or the skinny aluminum bottom bracket area instead of the beefed up on one the Merckx.

I got home in the knick of time and got the clothes in off the line, wound in the tende di sole, and battened down the storm windows.  Just as the storm hit.