March 2 -- my soul for a 3mm allen wrench !

Today is the day that we're going to visit Bev & Bruce -- Sandy's cousin and husband -- who live in Sebastian, just 100 miles south of us. The plan was for me to bike down and Sandy to follow by car, arriving ahead of me so that I'm able to take a shower as soon as I get there. The other alternative was simply to go for a bike ride in the morning and then leave together.

The weather was going to be iffy -- watching weather.com it looked like we were going to have heavy rain and strong winds -- 20 mph from the SW -- yes, a headwind for a southerly bike trip. The wind did not put me off -- it would only take longer -- but heading out into heavy rain did. However, the night before I packed my stuff so that I could decide in the morning.

I checked the doppler and it looked like most of the rain was northwest of us, gradually pushing down to our area and not due to arrive until 9a.m. So ... I decided to head out, packing my jacket in case I ran into rain and packing my cell phone in a zip lock -- the worst that could happen, I figured, is that the rain got so bad that I would call Sandy to pick me up along the way.

Well, I never saw any rain. In fact, I was in the sun most of the day -- and I had not put on enough sunscreen. The wind was as advertised, in fact stronger than advertised -- I was getting gusts up to 30mph which made for a slow ride. I kept Sandy in touch with my progress and expected an arrival time of around 2:30 pm, having left at 7:30 a.m. -- this depended on the winds at the tail end of the ride and the actual distance -- I knew that Sebastian was at least 95 miles from my last trip and was not sure how many extra miles it would be to Bev's once I hit Sebastian.

By the time that I got to Melbourne, 76 miles down, I was expecting that I might arrive around 2:15, again depending on the wind and the final distance. Well, it probably would have been closer to 2:30 since the final distance turned out to be just shy of 102 miles, but for a plastic grocery bag ...

I saw this grocery bag flying across the road and as bad luck would have it, it got caught in my chain. I immediately stopped pedaling, but too late. For every half-stroke of the pedals the derailleur cogs go around many, many times and the bag was jammed into the upper cog. Even after I did my best to remove the bag the cog would not move. I had to disassemble the rear derailleur. This is when I discovered that my little multi-tool does not have a 3mm allen wrench -- something that I had known from before but thought that I would never have to take apart a derailleur on the road -- wrong !

I walked back to a gas station, thankfully just a half block back away and asked if I could borrow a metric allen key -- they were very helpful, but could not find their metric set and the SAE set did not work. They pointed me at another gas station a block down the road and away I went. The mechanic at this one said that his metric set was stolen by a homeless person on a bicycle and he had not made enough money to buy another one (unquote).

What to do now ? -- they suggested that a bike (motorbike) store a couple of blocks down the road might have the requisite wrench. At this point I called Sandy who was about to arrive at Bev's and told her that I had a disabled bike but that I would call her once I got to the next place and let her know if I wanted a rescue.

So ... I went to the bike store and the very helpful guy supplied the 3mm wrench and in another 10 minutes (I've now spend more than an hour) had the thing apart, cleaned out and back together. I called Sandy and opted to continue riding -- after all, that was what I set out to do and it would have taken her some time to get me what with all the construction in the area.

Once in Sebastian, I called and talked to Bev and found that they were at the extreme south end of town -- I knew what street I was looking for but lacking a map wanted to be sure that I didn't overshoot. I arrived around 4pm, tired and dirty -- lots of grease.

I felt more human after a shower and a couple of diet pepsis, waiting until dinner for a glass of wine. Bruce spent considerable time showing me their plantings -- he has become quite knowledgeable in species that grow in the area and has done amazing things in the short time that they have been in Sebastian -- 5 years. He also cultivates orchids. On another front, he has a beautiful MG that he restored along with the his corvette, the boat -- yes, man's toys. His three car garage has no room for the two cars that they drive everyday. He bought the boat on Ebay but has not used it much -- it's always pretty choppy out on the ocean on the east coast and he doesn't like anything over 2 foot waves.

We had a good visit, dinner, and then left at 8:30 -- I forgot to mention that Sandy had dropped off Abby at Kelly's before heading south. She would have enjoyed the trip but it's also important that she get used to spending the occasional day with Kelly.

Back to the ride -- nutrition -- I really blew it today -- 2 bottles of water and 2 big bottles of gatorade. This is not nearly enough liquid for this distance in this heat (over 80 degrees) in the sun. It was so windy that I had both hands on the bars all the time -- that's just an excuse, I should have forced myself to drink more -- and I could feel the effects in those last miles -- I was getting chilled. Also, I did not use the restroom the entire day -- very bad sign. Food -- 1 cliff bar, 3 gels and a bag of pretzels. I ran a deficit on all fronts.

Ride stats -- 101.8 miles; 14.4 mph -- the biggest factor here was the wind.