Day 20: Covington, IN to Urbana, IL

Total Distance: 43.2 mi
Moving Avg: 8.9 mph
Moving Time: 4:51
Climbing: 900 ft
Elev: 100 ft

Route Summary:
US 136 to 
US 150

Well, I've arrived at the house of Ben and Amy, two APO folks from
UIUC. They have a really nice place and are very very friendly. I'll be
taking a rest day here tomorrow, and it seems like I couldn't have
picked a better spot. 

Today was a short day, because yesterday was so long. I don't think I
really understood the meaning of "Scattered Thunderstorms" until
today. I mean, the last few days I sorta got some hints about what it
might mean, but today really drove it home. In the early afternoon, some
rain clouds passed overhead, I put on my rain gear and it promptly
stopped raining. This repeated once more later in the day. Then, at
about 4pm, it looked like the same thing was going to happen. I toyed
with the idea of just not putting the rain gear on this time (putting it
on and taking it off gets kinda annoying, as you might imagine). I'm
really glad I did. 2 minutes later it started raining so hard I had to
pull off the road. I couldn't see more that 10 feet in front of me and I
knew a driver would hit me. 

So yeah, I pulled off in a cemetary to wait it out. A minivan had also
pulled off the road, and they invited me inside to wait out the
storm. They were a nice family who had just dropped of one of their
three kids at camp, and were driving home. Anyway, about 10 minutes
after it started, the storm let up and the sun came out again. The road
started steaming as the sun hit the water.

I guess the part that really made an impression on me was the sheer
volume of water and the suddeness of the transitions. Wacky. And about
15 minutes after the storm, the radio tells me there is a severe
thunderstorm watch in the area of the radio station, 20 miles east
(downwind) of me. Gee thanks!