Thursday, June 28, 2012

Day 25 riding ...

Ft. Lauderdale By The Sea, FL to Homestead, FL
Staying at Homestead Mennonite Church
67.11 miles today, average pace 14.9 mph
Flat
Like a fickle friend, she left me. She sneaked away in the middle of the night, like a tenant who can't pay the rent. Debby was a no-show this morning, so no more wind, and of course no hills here at sea level. I will miss her! It seemed strange to be leaving the church this morning with no wind and no rain. But, as they say in Colorado, "sea level is for sissies".
I forgot to mention yesterday that a rider joined us about 15 miles from the finish yesterday. Scott said he had been following us on the Internet, hoping to meet up with us. And he did catch up with us at the last van stop. I saw he had his bike on the back of his car, so I invited him to ride with us for a while. He drove ahead to find a place to park, and rode with us all the way to the church. He seemed to have a good time riding with us, and I enjoyed talking and visiting with him. He talked with Allen a while, and ended up writing a check to the Fuller Bike Adventure, which he told Allen to put to Carmen’s account and my account, since we are both going to ride the West Coast.  
A short day today, with only two van stops. Near the end of the ride we were on something called the Dade Trail, which consists of about 14 miles of a wide sidewalk, with a long traffic light about every 3/4 mile. And of course we caught almost every one of the lights, which made for a long and slow 13 miles, when we were actually trying to hurry and finish the ride, all the while it was getting hotter. 
We had a list of 42 turns to make today, and with that many turns to caulk, I was able to ride with the first group almost all day. We got a report from the sweeps at the end of the day that they had seen some wild monkeys during the first 20 miles this morning; Kelsey has some pictures of them.
***Since we had short mileage most of us went out for a late lunch. We enjoyed very good pizza, but the malt was only another 6.5. Again good flavor, but not nearly enough thickness. 
I have not been rolling my IT bands, and they were screaming when I finally got to it again after the ride today (I’ll get lectured, for sure, by my PT/yoga instructor at home).
We have the run of the church tonight, with a number of rooms for us to use; I grabbed the one with a private bathroom (old man’s privilege). The church served a pot luck dinner for us tonight, and just to make sure of the malt rating, a few of us went back for more ice cream after dinner. ***The rating has now dropped to a 6.0!!!

It’s raining again tonight; we got wet coming back from ice cream. Wondering if we’ll be back riding in the rain in the morning. Only two more days of riding, and then home for a short while, before heading out for the West Coast.
Peace ...

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