Tri Gramps: Taking shelter in Harrison's tomb

Yesterday, I joined my brother and some of his friends on his 100 mile bicycle "Le Tour de Hamilton County". Much of the charm of these long distance rides is in dealing with the unexpected, like getting lost (which we do at least once in every ride) or dodging thunderstorms. The weather around Cincinnati yesterday was characterized as "isolated violent thunderstorms". Ok, sounds interesting. Intrepid bicyclers that we were, we decided to go for it anyway.

Our first downpour hit at around 25 miles and was very quick, just enough to get us thoroughly soaked in time for breakfast. For the next 50 miles or so, the weather was ideal. We thought, mistakenly, that we had pretty much dodged the thunderstorms for the day. Not so...

We were about 80 miles into the ride near North Bend, Ohio, when it hit. The sky darkened quickly and shortly after that the rain began to pour. The tough thing about rain like that, besides the fact that it makes the road rather slippery, is that it reduces visibility for those of us who wear glasses. Anyway, when the lightning started hitting a little too close, we took shelter on the side of the road. As the rain continued to pour, making us ever more cold, wet, and somewhat miserable, we noticed that about 200 yards up the road was the tomb of William Henry Harrison (9th president of the United States). Harrison has the dubious distinction of being the president to have served the shortest term in office - 32 days. He died after contracting pneumonia on his inauguration day. Bummer!

Be that as it may, his tomb now served as an excellent shelter for 3 weary, wet, and cold travellers. Once we were safely inside, I called my daughter to say we were safe and to get an updated weather report to see how much longer we might be delayed. 20-30 minutes later, the sky cleared and we were on our way.