Meteorologist Molly

The title of this blog entry reflects my husband's belief that I am the expert meteorologist between the two of us. As a former science teacher and weather enthusiast, I happily accepted that role. It involves checking weather apps multiple times a day (my preferred app is Windy) to triple-check the wind strength and direction, cloud cover, and temperature. The most important factor for cyclists, of course, is the wind. It can quickly make a ride fantastic or extremely challenging.

Over the past few days, I’ve been watching the wind direction shift slightly each day to align with the direction we happen to be riding, providing us with a tailwind. After observing the winds in this area for the past few weeks, I’m amazed at how fortunate we’ve been to have had a tailwind for so long—even as we changed directions from heading east to north, back to east, and then south. I have a hunch that we have a few souls in heaven helping to direct that wind. We keep saying, "Thank you, Barb and Al," in reference to Andy's mom and my dad, both of whom would thoroughly enjoy our journeys.

Today was magnificent. We woke to bright sunshine and a strong wind from the northwest—exactly what we needed. We knew the ride would be long and challenging, as the two biggest hill climbs of the entire tour were on the agenda, followed my miles of hilly terrain. Sure enough, our wind angels, Barb and Al, were with us almost the whole way! It was only after we finished the two biggest hills, circumvented the northern section of the Cabot Trail, and started heading due south that the glorious tailwind turned into a swirling monster of a side and headwind, blowing at up to 35 mph. To make matters worse, there was a significant amount of road construction in this section. Between the broken, rocky road, the swirling wind, and the steep hill we were desperately trying to climb, I found myself unable to keep it together for the first time. The wind shoved me to the side, and I had to stop, get off the bike, and walk for a few dozen meters.

Meanwhile, dark clouds were gathering and swirling above us, threatening to release their watery burden. I had noted this possibility, in my role as meteorologist, but it seemed the rain might hit a bit early (we had hoped to outrun it). When the first drops began to pelt us, we pulled over, and I immediately donned my jacket. Andy, however, said he would wait to see if it was really necessary. It turns out, this time, the meteorologist got it wrong—the sun returned, and I had to strip off the jacket. Maybe he should be the new meteorologist in the future!

Our location tonight: Ingonish, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island

I have so many photos from today. As I said, it was magnificent. Here are a series of photos from the day. The first are from the west side of the island, followed by the scenes from the east side of the island and the Atlantic Ocean!