Road Trip Therapy Time (VI): Racing the Rain, Returning home... (Vunam to BBCT)

4:00
Enough sleep.  I want to get an early start today just in case those predicted sprinkles really materialize.  And after being gone for 5 days, I'm also a little anxious to get back to the people and waters at Bai Bien Cua Toi ;-)

Those cloudless skies of the last few days today have changed to something different.   The first messengers of rain to come.   I'm glad I decided to head South early.

Preparing to really engage those long-stretching curves along the ride ;-)

By 6:30, I'm pretty much packed and ready to go.... but there are fresh water drop imprints in the sand outside my hut.....

 6:45
An sang. Mot trung; Khong hai trung !

The owner is not here yet.... too bad; he is easy to talk to and I wanted to know where he got those presumably prefabricated huts from....

7:00
I might as well go?

The Buddha is CLOSED AGAIN ?
Good thing I went up there the time I did ;-)

And it starts sprinkling just after passing Buddha ....

Not just sprinkling, it starts RAINING !  Time to get out the Smurf-Cape !

pretty in purple...

I'm already on the long-stretched highway part when the rain REALLY starts and I decide to turn around and maybe take the more inland route...

I stop under some bamboo trees for a bit..... and then decide to bite the bullet and to take the originally planned route after all.

Superbug from outer space !

Holy Construction;  the old bridge is being dismantled..
I still rode over that old bridge 4 days ago and now it's already half gone !
In Canada they'd still be busy putting up warning signs, LOL

It's when I stop at Coopmart for a wine resupply mission that I notice that the rain poncho I have been wearing has been reduced to SHREDS by racing through the gusting wind...... and my shirt is wet in many spots....

....

I just rode over the mountain pass just North of Quy Nhon.  In front of me: An 18-wheeler presently passing a slower truck.   The 18 wheeler has a flat on its right rear tire and whenever he brakes, smoke comes from the axle.   I pass both the slow truck and him on the right.   When I'm in front of the 18 wheeler, I turn in my seat, point at his cabin, point at my own rear tire, and mimic a tire loosing air with my thumb and index finger.   INSTANTLY, the driver puts on his indicator and pulls to the right.  
He might have suspected something before, but at that moment it feels as if I'm making a difference, LOL.

The first white person I've seen in 4 days..... and it has to be Steve at Life's a Beach.  He just thinks he's SPECIAL, LOL.

It's a good thing I decided to stop here for wine, cigarettes, and new ponchos.  5 minutes after I arrive, the sky RIPS open.  

The village street turns into a river !

9:30
It's POURING....... NO WAY I'm going to leave here until it lets up .....

I have a roof over my bar stool, Wifi, smokes, and white wine....  I can rough it here until the rain ends ;-)

10:10
My ears are telling me that the rain is letting up..... 

The PERFECT Pee-Stop !

4 minutes later I realize why this ride feels different.   I forgot my helmet at Life's a Beach, lOl.   
When I ride back to collect the helmet I realize that there is another rain front coming and I"m getting the first sprinkles......... stay and drink more OR ride like hell to be faster than the clouds? 

I'm faster than the rain !

11:30
I roll into the yard and I'm HOME.  Mot ngay qua so'm.
WTF?  There is no indication here that it ever rained or might ever rain.  Maybe the owner's talk about a local micro climate ain't that crazy after all?


12:30

16:30

21:00