Riding through the storm

Cal's dad got some new medication prescribed yesterday. In case you are wondering what he has, we are not sure. We know that he is anemic right now which is causing headaches, sore feet and overall weakness. He's been a bit better the past couple of days, but not back to his old self.

Anyways, I thought that we had agreed that Cal would go to Limbe to get the medication yesterday after lunch, since we didn't have it in the pharmacy in the clinic. However, when I called Cal at 3:30, he still hadn't gone so I asked him to come pick me up and we could go together.

It had been super hot and sunny yesterday. I took a quick shower when I got home and was contemplating taking the laundry off the line before we left. But it was just 4 pm, and we still had at least 3 hours of daylight left, so I left it on the line.

Cal showed up, I hopped on the bike and we were off. We got to the national road intersection and I looked to the right and noticed some very dark, menacing clouds - as if they appeared out of no where. We were going to have to make a very quick trip if we wanted to beat the storm.

Limbe is just a few miles down the road from us, takes us about 10 minutes to get there on the moto. We arrived as the wind was beginning to pick up. We turned down the street with the pharmacy and pulled up in front. Just as we got inside, the wind REALLY picked up and some rain started to fall. Cal was in discussions with the pharmacist as to whether they actually had what we needed. Apparently they didn't have the suspension prescribed, so we called the doctor to see if we could get pills instead. Yep, that was okay.

All the while I'm looking outside, seeing branches and debris flying by. People running down the street home. The sandwich board in front of the pharmacy toppled with a big bang. Calls of "siklon" or hurricane could be heard.

As Cal was finishing to pay up, I asked what our plan was - do we wait it out in Limbe or make a dash for home? He has a cousin in Limbe that we could visit, but once we got on the bike and started going, he decided we should just try to go home. I let him make the decision as he knows best and knows that Limbe is infamous for flooding quickly when a storm comes.

So off we went. It was raining, not a lot, but what was falling was very cold and hit your body hard because of the force of the wind - I thought hail was hitting me!

We weaved in and out of debris and got on the national road to home. I basically held on as tightly as I could and closed my eyes! The worst parts were in the open areas where the wind could really push you around. Cal kept asking if I was scared. I said yes and he just laughed and said everything would be fine.

By the time we were half way home, things started to lighten up. Apparently the storm had passed through Haut Limbe first. When we arrived, the streets were bare and there were branches everywhere. We arrived at Cal's family's house and delivered the medication and then Cal went to check on our laundry. Thankfully, there is always someone in our yard, so they had taking down our laundry before it was blown all over town.

The temperature dropped quite a bit in the evening - unfortunately it wasn't enough to cool down the concrete walls, so it was still a pretty warm sleep when the power went off. But oh well! We made it home safe and that is all I was concerned with!