Saturday, November 30, 2013

Nov 28/29 - walk then ride

The 28th was a walking day, lots of walking.  We went to the Turkey Rod Run at Daytona International Speedway, which is an annual event. 

Amazing !  You have no idea how large that infield area is that's bounded by the track until you've spent a day wandering around in there.  Given that the track length is 2.5 miles, it's probably something that I could estimate.  Google was no help here, at least on a quick look.

This show is part flea market, part car show.  There's an amazing array of cars parked everywhere, many for sale.  They range from hot rods to more recent, kind-of-vanilla cars, like a BMW Z3, but most are antiques.  The flea market part is also huge, not sure how to describe it -- tires, carburetors, bumpers, towing straps ... you name it, you can find it.  Many show attendees come with wagons to pick up their small parts. 

Well, we passed on buying the VW Beetle Convertible that would be reminiscent of Stef, Meg and Vicki cruising for guys.  We also passed on the hot rods, the Lotus (only 10k !), and yes, we passed on the Bugatti, recent vintage since it was purchased by VW -- looked something like this -- Bugatti

I find walking very tiring.  I'd rather bike for 20 hours than walk for one.  A couple of hours of this was enough for me.  What percentage of the show did we see ?  Probably less than 25% but hard to estimate accurately. 

The day had started out quite chilly -- 37F -- and while it did warm up, when there was cloud cover it was still cool.  At least inside the oval we were sheltered from the wind.

For dinner we had flounder on the grill.  Another day was done.

Yesterday was my day to ride 200k.  It started out cool, but not as cool as the day before.  Sunrise was supposed to be at 7am, my start time, and by 7:30 I was warmed up and stuffing my wind vest into my pack.  I never did take off my long sleeved jersey, however.  That was borderline.

The wind was from the NNE and quite strong.  An indication of how hard it was blowing was easier to judge on the way home.  I glanced down at my Garmin and still feeling the wind at my back, I was at 25 mph.  Most of the trip home was 20+mph.  It took me 5 hours to do the trip north and 3 hours to get back home.  While this is rated at a 200k (that's the most direct route), my route was 136 miles.

Once home, I was hungry !  I hadn't stopped for lunch.  I did go through my 10 bars/gels that I was carrying and 1.5 bottles of water.  Yes, only 1.5 bottles of water for 136 miles.  I don't sweat much in the cool !

It was another fish-on-the-grill night -- panko mahi this time with funny shaped zucchini and sweet potatoes. 

Today -- hopefully I'll get some physical shopping done, as opposed to online shopping.  My plan is to hit Harbor Freight for a couple of items and Performance Bike. 

Onward ... December is tomorrow ... I'll do another 200k this coming week and then at the end of the following week we head north for Christmas.  Wow.

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