Thursday, May 23, 2019: Day 12, Ft. Belvoir, VA to Fairfax, VA’s Patriot H-D
Thunderstorms are forecasted for later in the afternoon, so we decide to sleep in (not a hard decision to make after yesterday’s walk-a-thon), and later embark on a quick ride to Patriot H-D to find an uber-patriotic souvenir shirt to wear for The Ride and to plug into the dealership’s 21st annual support for Rolling Thunder. We were not to be disappointed!
After obtaining a few more items (like Guard Dog photo chromatic goggles vs sunglasses) we met Gentleman Gene Eaton
who kindly invited us to participate in an Honor Guard ride for a fellow veteran scheduled to be buried at Arlington National Cemetary the next morning. What better way for Lori to experience the sacredness of hallowed ground! We readily accepted.
After a delicious late lunch at Chick-Fil-A we readied for our quick ride back to Ft. Belvoir. Dark clouds were quickly moving in from the southwest, but I miscalculated how quickly we could move ahead of the storm. As we transitioned from the I-495 onto the southbound I-95 during rush hour (sloooow) traffic, the promised thunderstorm cut loose on us with a microburst to rival any in Arizona: gusting winds, torrential rains, blowing dirt and grit…Mother Nature was going to teach us a juicy lesson! Within 3 minutes we were soaked into next week! We arrived at out hotel after being passed through by an equally-drenched Army gate guard who knowingly smiled at our predicament.
We immediately put the hair dryer into double duty, we drained our boots of about a cup of water–each shoe, and proceeded to dry parts that hadn’t been nor should be wet.
Oh, my new goggles? Perfect performance compared to Lori’s sunglasses which fogged up and ran rainwater on both sides of the lenses. Seeing the roadway is pretty important at times like a deluge, and running 4-way emergency flashers during limited visibility was a great feature that allowed our fellow drivers know we were intentionally driving cautiously. Everyone gave us a safe, wide berth and we were grateful! Now to get dry!
Raven Tales 