Sunday, April 19, 2009

Florida Bike Safari Day2

What a great ride this is! I cannot believe it. But before I get started on that, and turn this whole thing in to a giant rant. Let me give you the facts. Don and I started the ride at about 8:00 Am and then promptly got lost. Luckily we recognized our error relatively early and were soon back on track. At 15 miles out this group of boys from Tennessee blew pass us and not to miss a good thing we jumped on the back of their pace line. We followed them into the first SAG at 22 miles and I asked if they were doing the century and they were. So I had a ride for the Century as Don was only doing the 65 mile ride. They set a blistering pace and in a blink we were at the second SAG. Don went for the 65 mile ride and myself and the boys from Tennessee went the other. They were averaging around 20 mph. Luckily I brought the Giant so keeping up wasn’t a problem. The miles flew by and I was thinking we would break a 5 hour Century. However the Florida head winds picked up and that dashed any hope of a sub five hour Century. There isn’t all that much to tell when you are in a pace line. You know the old story about dog sledding. Unless you are the lead dog the scenery never changes. This one fellow had one of those electronic dog chaser devices and this great big dog came out to chase us and he pulled it out and gave the dog a blast with the device. The dog hit the brakes and made for the bush. It was hilarious. So we rolled into camp with a 5:48 for the Century. I got the bling and everyone lived happily ever after.

This afternoon was corn on the cob and beer with a band playing in the park. After four cobs of corn and four beer and I realized I better get this blog done, or it was going to be a runaway.

I am sitting in the stadium where they serve supper and it looks like tonight is going to be prime rib.

What a great ride! It just doesn’t get any better than this. Sorry about no pictures today I kind of ran out of time.

To answer questions about the ride. The food is great. Tom was not lying this is the best food of any organized ride I have ever been on PERIOD. Camping is good however Cherry Lake is suppose to be better.


Terry

1 comment:

Jurg said...

Terry
thanks a lot for the news !
“The Florida Freewheelers” seem to beat TDA organisation ;-)
The dog chaser reminds me of Romania-Turkey.
What about Jim? not joining.No time? Too busy?? Too cold??
Good idea to do some Giant brake testing before the Rockies ;-)
Enjoy it !!!!!!!!!!! Jurg
hello to Dan