Bike Across the U.S. Day 12

What a crazy day! I left the motel at 7:00 a.m. after a great night's sleep. After going 40 hours with almost none I needed the sleep. Maybe not enough sleep, though; instead of looking at my map I knew that I would just turn left, oops! Should have been right. Anyway my first turn was at 3.5 miles on the map which I now was looking at. The turn had no markings so a car came up and I asked the route number, she did not know but confirmed the town I wanted was 20 miles in that direction which was what the map said. I passed a cross route and river check point and the mileages were close. After a very fast 24 miles in less than 2 hours the mileage for the town was wrong and so was the name. I pulled out the iPad and yup I was heading west but on a different route and was now about 10 miles south of where I should be. Did I say that I was racing to get 85 miles to beat the severe thunderstorm warning, again, for later in the day? So I called in my support team (Michele) and she helped me plan a route. Then while I was riding she looked for accommodations in 2 towns that were short of my goal. She called 2 B&Bs to see if they had rooms. In the meantime I was peddling to get there and beat the storms. As luck would have it, I got my first flat tire, the rear one as usual! Being out of tire change practice, I replaced the tube and was on the way in 45 minutes. About 2:00 the thunder started and in the middle of nowhere there was an old building with a front overhang; the building seemed to be abandoned. I pulled under and the storms let loose. I followed the storms on my iPad and called the B&B that Michele had called and made a reservation and explained I was stuck. I was there for 2 and a half hours with amazing close lightning and thunder. I have not seen it rain that hard that long. After awhile the Innkeeper called and asked if I wanted them to come pick me up, which was amazing. I said I would hold out as long as I could. So after many cars passed by and just looked at me, a good samaritan pulled up, rolled down the window and said "Is my gas tank on this side?" I said "no, the other side"; he rolled up the window and drove off. I laughed so hard! There was finally a break and I rode the 12 miles in an hour to a wonderful Inn, the Wild Flower Inn, in Clinton LA run by Annette and Glen Brady. I had the whole house to myself as they do not live there. I found that it had rained 3.5 inches in that storm passage and then rained another 1.5 inches through the night. Observation from the road: a large sign that said "Don't wait to go to church until six strong men carry you into church".