January 21, 2017 -- What A Great Country!

Current location, inside a McDonald's:

At 4:00 p.m. Central Time, I couldn't take it any more. My wife was watching the CNN coverage of the women's marches in Washington, DC, and around the world. I don't know if there was a march in Williston. Whatever.

I couldn't take it any more.

I thought bicycling on the interstate was better than having to listen to CNN. And then I got a two-fer. I did not check the weather. About 40 minutes from home, a huge lightning - thunderstorm brok out. I had the very good fortune of increasing the odds that either a car would hit me or lightning would strike me -- anything to put me out of my psychological misery.

As luck would have it, my favorite -- and I'm being serious here -- my favorite McDonald's appeared on the horizon. I ducked in just before the worst of the storm hit

I see on the weather map I have about 40 minutes before another cell hits, so this will be quick.

But what a great country! This McDonald's is one of my favorites. It is my favorite one in the lcoal area. Since no one was here -- they were all home watching the women's march, I suppose -- except the manager and the employees, I had some time to talk with the 48-year-old African-American manager who runs this McDonald's.

Apparently this "corporate" McDonald's was hemorrhaging money (mostly stolen by employees up front) and she was brought in to "fix things." Sort of like the Donald Trump of the McDonald's franchise.

At the time, she was managing another McDonald's, one of 25 McDonald's owned by the corporation, in the local area. She said the one she left was not making any money due to location and McDonald's closed it, sending her here. She has been with McDonald's for 29 years. You can do the math.

I asked her how this McDonald's is doing now. She said it was now #1 of the 25 corporate McDonald's restaurants in this area.

Much more to write, but the weather is clear for a bit, so I'm going to try getting home in the pitch black night before it starts raining again.

Hopefully my lights will work after the downpour.

*************************

Sporty Ride Home

Due to nighttime construction on the four-lane divided highway, I had to take an alternate route. That highway had a narrow shoulder and at one point, no shoulder. It is well after dark by this time, and there has just been a downpour.

Because there is no shoulder I off-road which is fine until at one point I needed to cross a small stream. I was actually able to ride the bike through the stream; there must have been a fairly compact gravel base, otherwise I would have been ankle deep (or worse) in mud. But I got through and then popped back up on the shoulder of the highway.

I passed on Texas highway patrolman who waited for me to pass, and that was it.

Home safely. The bike is too muddy and wet to bring inside tonight.