June 18 - reprise

Well, since I already covered most of yesterday in my afternoon blog, I figured that this one should be called "reprise" ... however, I won't do much reprising.

I pulled for 137 miles yesterday ... no, not really, since Judith wasn't always drafting. You're only pulling if there is a pullee, right ? I asked Geoff Swarts once why he would take such long pulls when we were crossing the country and his response was "self preservation" -- that was me yesterday. I wanted to go my own speed. It's also cooler being out front because you get more breeze.

The route yesterday is one that I chose -- north via the streets close to the intracoastal waterway to Ormond Beach; Old Dixie Freeway, a pleasant tree-lined residential road; through Tomoka Park; Old Kings Highway through Palm Coast; US 1 to St. Augustine. The only unpleasant part of the route north was the tail end of US 1, where the shoulder is rough and chewed up in places.

The route south is even simpler -- Beach Blvd in St. Augustine Beach, A1A to Ormond Beach, across the Causeway, south on US 1 to New Smyrna Beach and then across the North Causeway. US1 is ... we'll it's US1. I've ridden it a trillion times it seems. You hit a lot of lights. With a tail-wind it's very quick and you don't hit as many lights, but yesterday the wind was not as behind us as the forecast; the long section along the ICW through Ormond to Daytona might have been quicker.

If I set this route up as a fixed-route Permanent, I'll probably do less of US 1 going south. I could even set it up so that it follows A1A all the way down, but that's not much better than US1. The advantage of being a fixed-route is that you get full mileage credit, rather than shortest route. It's not a big deal -- the shortest route mileage is 202km; yesterday's mileage was 220km.

Today I/we are going to explore routes south. I have an idea for the preferred route south, but want to drive it and see about the turnaround point. The approved Permanent is to Palm Shores. ps -- our exploring south will be in the car ! If we were staying here for a few more days I'd do it by bike, but not this time.

Sandy just left for the hospital lab. When she had her physical a while ago they missed a test and so she's bringing in a urine sample and donating some blood at the same time -- not a lot of blood. When she gets home, I think that I'll do the oil change. The car will be hot -- not that it takes much to get hot in this weather. I've also got an air filter that I'm not sure that it needs and a light bulb for the driver's side brake light. There must be more than one light because it's dimmer than the other side.

We're here today and tomorrow and then head north. The weather up there looks like summer has finally arrived. Sandy's worried about her garden -- she intends to get hold of Lorraine to see if they're going up and have Lorraine turn on the water if necessary.

We've finished cooking here for this trip. We planned on eating out twice -- once at the sushi place and once at the SYC for our free dinner. It's "free" because otherwise we'll pay the minimum monthly amount anyway. So -- tonight at the SYC; tomorrow at Shiki on the Beach -- sounds good to me.

There are no other projects planned. Sandy will likely do some cleaning, naturally. I've got car packing to do tomorrow, naturally. However, there are no stairs to climb. With everything on one level, packing is quick here.

Well ... I expected this blog to be only a couple of paragraphs, but as usual my fingers have taken over and nattered on. I'll stop now ...