TMI too bad, fact of life

So I'm going to be 54 this year.  For the last eight months I've had no menstrual cycle but have had abundant hot flashes, sleepless nights... and then 2 months ago the hot flashes just stopped.  I mean, not one since right before Christmas.  I was thinking it was celebration time - that I was officially done!!!  Then 2 days ago, the floodgates opened and here comes the old menstrual cycle with a vengeance.  Saving up from the last 8 months, it seems.  I keep wondering, has my diet changed in a way to restart the hormones or is this just a stray last gasp of menopause?  I preferred it when it was in PAUSE.  Well, riding a bike when in such a gushing state is no picnic.  You cannot get off the seat.  No tampon or pad can contain it.  So you just start to cramp from it and stay on the seat for the ride home because what else can you do???  And then you get home and you know you have to get off the bike, but the moment that pressure is released, catastrophe.  Oh yeah.  I had to actually go out and buy feminine supplies today for the first time since last May or April.  Not even sure.  This is why I simply cannot go on a cross-country trip until I know for sure that it has stopped... and now I have to start counting again, because supposedly I have to have 12 dry months before I'm officially on the other side.  Ugh.