Jan 9/10 - on to Jupiter

I didn't do much of anything on Friday, other than get prepped for the ride Saturday.  I did some bike checkout, cleanup and lubrication, installed a new rear tire and organized my clothing and carry-alongs.

Rather than wait for a spate of flat tires, it was time to retire (pun intended) the rear.  Once the rubber in the center of the tire has worn down to a flat strip, you know that it's time.  With these rides, I don't want to wait until I can see cords !

I left the house at 3:30 a.m. and got to Jupiter at 6am.  That gave me an hour to relax, catch up with a few people and prep for the ride start at 7am.  I'm guessing that there were about 50 riders, some doing the 200k like me and some the 300k, which simply continued beyond the 200k turnaround and then came back.
50/50 ?  60/40 ?  I don't know the split of the riders between the two.  John is also running a 200k today (Sunday) so some might have done either of the rides yesterday and then are planning on the 200k today.  Had the ride start been closer to home, I'd have done both.

It wasn't long into the ride before I found myself with Jim Solanick.  We've ridden together many times.  Jim is recovering from a broken hip and, as is typical with these things, favoring one joint has spurred issues with another.  The hip is now mostly recovered and he's having knee problems.

Jim is a Captain by trade; his Venezuelan boss owning an 86 foot yacht that's moored along the Intracoastal Waterway in Ft. Lauderdale.  Sometimes the owner's offspring take out the "small boat", which as I recall is one in the 30-40 foot range.  He does a lot of short trips as well as longer -- they're going to the Bahamas for 11 days in a week or two.  Depending on the nature of the trip it might be Jim only on the boat or one or two other crew, like a chef and maid.

Jim was telling me that they'd just performed some minor upgrades to the yacht ... 250k worth, including 35k of anchor upgrades (2x8k anchors and mechanism).  That kind of thing gives you some indication that there is a lot of money in the world and, if you didn't know it already, not evenly distributed.  During this sort of renovation, Jim's job is like a general contractor, managing the work.

Anyway, we had a good ride with lots of chatting.  Jim is good company.  We have a similar style of riding but Jim is normally stronger than me.  When he's really trained up, he is ultra strong, think a 1200k in sub 60 hours where my typical time is just over 80.  That said, in the last few years he hasn't had time to do that kind of heavy duty training and I've been able to ride with him. I don't have it in me to be that dedicated to training.

We finished up at 3:37 and I was organized and back on the road soon afterwards and home at 6:15.  I called Sandy to tell her that I was going to be earlier than expected.  She was on Canal Street at the time, walking Abby among the old car show who was getting lots of popcorn on the ground. 

Sandy was up early, went to the beach to catch the 4:47 a.m. launch of the SpaceX rocket.  It went up without a hitch; I was kicking myself because I forgot.  At that time I'd have been on I95 a little south of  Titusville, even closer than Sandy, but I forgot to look.  Oh well.  She came back and went to bed, reportedly getting up at 9am so Abby had a late breakfast.  Poor Abby !

I feel good today despite the hard riding yesterday.  We had great weather -- headwind going north and a wonderful tailwind coming south.  I'll have to check the weather predictions to see when I'll next be out but I'd suspect that will be Monday.  With Jeffrey and Sara coming late Tuesday, I should probably go out Tuesday as well.  

Today's must-do chore is realigning the satellite dish.  The signal has been dropping and some channels are not coming in.  That is best done in the morning. 

Onward !