Rain Delay
It's one thing to get rained on when you're already underway...quite another to leave when it's already raining.
The NOAA weather reports for this area are a bit of a crapshoot. Everywhere I've been in Virginia, people have said how much they need the rain...it's dry in the valleys, with fire hazard warnings everywhere. Generally, the weathermasters have put the odds of rain at somewhere between 30% and 50%, and it hasn't rained on me yet.
This morning, though, it's actually raining, with a chance of thunderstorms later this afternoon. Thunderstorms around here are brief, intense showers that dramatically reduce visibility. And they hurt: big, pelty drops that sting. Tomorrow, it will also rain, but the worst of it will be happen before 8AM and it will clear up by the afternoon.
I was planning to stay in Christiansburg for a couple of days anyway, so if I stay another day here in Daleville instead, when I leave tomorrow I'll at least know that the weather system is moving off and I won't have to spend all 48 miles in the rain. Also, it'll be safer to ride into town at the end of the day when the weather's cleared a bit and visibility is better.
That's the thing about motels: they tend to create inertia.
Not that staying in a warm dry room with cartoons when it's raining out is a particularly hard decision...
