Lightning Strikes!                                                                     

The Wednesday night ride on July 25, 2006 was one to be remembered and will rank right up there with illuminated adventure extreme.  We all decided to ride to Collbran have some dinner and drinks and ride home.  After dinner I asked Ike Isakson if he thought there was any chance we would get rained on going home.  He scanned the horizon and said, probably not.

As we rode down the dark canyon we could clearly see the western sky illuminate occasionally with lightning.  We didn’t dwell on it and stopped at the parking area just  before the interstate briefly to say our goodbyes.  Everyone then made a dash for the barn.  Rain started falling a bit as we rode past Rosie’s Restaurant in Cameo.  We were all in for a big weather surprise as we crossed the Colorado River and headed into the Grand Valley.  It was like witnessing Armageddon at point blank range.  Large lightening bolts were hitting the ground in the distance with ferocity.  The sky was lit up, as though brilliant sunshine was everywhere.  The air was filled with the smell of burning electrical wire.  Horizontal lightening was swirling all around and rain was pouring down creating small rivers flowing from North to South on the interstate.  The rain was coming down so hard and fast that visibility was deteriorating so that we couldn’t see the roadway and we were being pelted by fat rain. 

All who made this ride will probably always remember that scene.  We used more than our five senses on that segment of the ride.  It was an adventure we are all glad to have survived and eventually to have dried out.

Jesús Guerrero Jr.
Photographer/Historian