I don't recall what I actually did on April Fool's Day. I know that I was home, read the paper. Perhaps it rained that day ? Yes, I think that it did. I should have been able to blog for that day on Thursday, the 2nd, before heading to Paul's place, but didn't.
Melanie and Wayne showed up around 9:15 on the 2nd, unloaded their tandem bike and a small bag and we headed to Paul's in St. Petersburg leaving at 10 am. It's a good three hour drive and I stopped along the way to meet up with John, who handed me a bag to leave in the car for the end of the ride. I had clothes in the car as well, along with a towel, so that I'd be able to shower and change before heading home.
M&W got to Paul's a few minutes before me. No one was home. I called Paul's cell and sure enough, he was enroute and arrived a few minutes later. Leaving my car, we loaded Paul's into M&W's van and drove to the Enterprise car rental place. They had a Camry for me and we put Paul's bike in the trunk and then headed back to Paul's in the two vehicles. Traffic was heavy. I stopped for gas. By the time all this was complete and we hit the road back to NSB, it was after 3pm. M&W's van and my SUV had been left at Paul's, ready for the end of the ride.
We -- Melanie, Wayne, Paul and I -- were back to our place around 6:30. Sandy ordered pizza online and she and I headed over to the local Enterprise location with two cars to drop off the rental. It was closed -- I knew that it was going to be closed -- and the plan was that she was going to go back there the next morning with the key to check out. There's a funny postscript to this -- Enterprise called the house the next morning to say that they'd seen the car there and wondered if the keys were locked in it ? Nope.
Back home again, we had dinner -- pizza for four of us; soup and rice for Paul. He has celiac disease. We're not just talking about gluten intolerance, in fact, he's asymptomatic. He'd had severe malnutrition and after much testing and scoping they realized that gluten was damaging his intestines. Luckily stopping the gluten allowed the intestines to recover. Melanie doesn't eat meat, so we had veggie pizzas, which is what we order anyway.
So my "pizza and beer" menu didn't quite work out. Melanie and Wayne don't drink; Paul doesn't eat pizza. He does drink wine, so we consumed some of that and then had some scotch. There's no gluten in those.
Breakfast didn't really work out either. Paul brought some of his own cereal -- rice chex -- and Melanie and Wayne don't eat breakfast. I think that she did have a banana and everyone had coffee. John showed up around 6:15 a.m., with his wife Nancy as chauffeur, unloaded and was ready to go. He had coffee as well.
We hit the road at 7am, over to Lil Sammy's gas station / convenience store for a receipt and then headed south on Riverside. The ride was underway.
As usual, or at least as usual for the Flèche's that I've organized, it was an eat-fest. Our first food stop was Subway on Merritt Island. That was close to noon. Before that, we'd stopped at the Visitor's Center in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge -- our first on-road Control. Everyone had enjoyed the ride on Tropical Trail after the Kennedy Space Center; it's not an area that the existing brevets traverse.
Soon after, we were on familiar territory as a 300k ride hits Tropical Trail north of Melbourne. We crossed to the mainland on 404, now heading west.
We'd had a slight SW headwind through much of the ride to this point. We were sheltered on Merritt Island so it wasn't too bad. The ride back east towards the Space Center was treat with the wind at our back. By the time we were heading west on 404, that wind had switched to SE, pretty typical as the land warms up and the thermals send the warmer air skyward.
Our next Control was a Waffle House. No one was very hungry but we all had something. M&W ordered grilled cheese sandwiches and that sounded good to me; reasonably light.
Now hitting 192 heading west, we had a good 30 miles where we expected to cook. We were on my schedule but picked up time, hitting the restaurant in St. Cloud about an hour early. We were extremely lucky on that stretch because a) we had a tail-wind and b) it was more than 50% cloudy, so it helped temperature-wise. When in the sun, it was in the high 80's.
The Catfish Place (I think that was the name) in St. Cloud was a local hang-out. Light traffic when we arrived at 5:15, it quickly filled. It's an institution in St. Cloud -- the staff and their tenure are listed on the back of the menu with the longest serving being 40 years. I'd say that makes it an institution !
We ate well. Too well, I think. Heading out from there, we soon were on Florida Trail parallel to a roadway but out of the traffic. The trail wandered around a lake at sunset; it was beautiful.
Our next objective was a Hess Express just before a road junction and also before we got on the Van Fleet Trail. Looking at the Google Map below, it seems pretty hard to miss. I'd called the station early in the week to ensure that it would be open and yes, it was going to be open until 11pm. We got to that spot about 9:30, give or take.
There's no Hess Express there. That address is somewhere else in Florida. My Garmin confused me at that point and we couldn't figure out which road to take but we eventually sorted that out. We found another gas station further on that became our Control. That was my lone snafu on the route.
After the now-new Control on Ronald Regan Parkway, we were onto Dean Still and then on the Van Fleet through and past Polk City. None of us had ridden the trail south of Polk City, so that was interesting.
About a half-mile short of the end of the trail I hit something that sounded like some metal and almost took me down. Behind me, they saw that it was an armadillo that had darted out from the side of the path and between my wheels. My rear wheel slid sideways but I managed to stay upright. Had I gone down, John would have hit me and our Flèche might have been over. We were lucky. The armadillo kept moving, so he/she must have gotten lucky as well !
A few miles later I had a flat. We were rolling through a small town so I had light to change the tire, never did find out what caused the small hole. It was too far after the armadillo for that to have been the cause.
We then had another Waffle House Control, hitting that around midnight.
Rolling, rolling, rolling; keep those wagons rolling ... we were half-way through the 40 mile section from that Control to our 3am/22 hour control. That's a key control, cannot get there too early. Paul knew of a Hess Express about half-way but guess what, no Hess Express. There was a Marathon, however, and we stopped there.
We got to the target Denny's at 3:45 a.m., which is perfect timing. The transit of Tampa to that point had been slow with cobbles and lots of turns. We all had something light and left there at 5am on the dot, our cards completed for the 22 hour control.
Paul was concerned that we might not be able to do the 25 miles from that point to his house, the end of the ride, prior to 7am. We certainly didn't want to DNF after all this. Flèche rules stipulate that we have to cover at least 25kms between the 22 hour Control and the end; we had 25 on the card. A fall-back was to finish up north of his place downtown St. Petersburg. Timing didn't become a problem. We finished up around 6:40. Another Flèche was on the books.
It was a good ride. That Hess Express was the only fly in the ointment and still annoys me. The weather was great. Paul said that he'd never had so much down time on one of these rides, but this was typical of the three that I've organized.
John and I showered and changed. Melanie and Wayne had a hotel booking nearby and were going to be staying overnight before heading back to South Carolina. Paul's wife Susan was soon up along with his kids -- Sally and Joe -- and we had breakfast.
Hitting the road again, this time in a car, John and I drove back through Orlando. I dropped him at a parking lot where his wife was going to be picking him up shortly. I was home a little after 11am. I felt fine, had some lunch and went to bed. I slept for three hours and got up feeling like crap. That wore off, however, before we headed to Orlando.
Yes, we had more on the agenda. Pilobolus, a modern dance group. Sandy had found a Sushi place close by and we ate, took in the dance and headed home. I actually stayed awake. Of course the cappuccino with extra espresso that I had before the start and then during intermission helped immeasurably.
Easter Sunday ... up early ... Mass on the beach at 7am. The wind was blowing like a hurricane, it seemed. It was very hard to hear but a great experience. The sun made its appearance through the clouds on the horizon about 7:20.
Back home, I did some work on the new bike, installing the front rack with integrated decaleur. The decaleur is something to which the front bag attaches, keeping it from rattling. I'll post a picture at some point.
Ok, it was time. I've looked at it long enough. I put a chain on the bike, moved pedals form the Lynskey, adjusted the derailleurs on the work stand and then went for a ride ... just around the cul-de-sac. Wow do those brakes grab ! The V-brakes, with their long pads, are amazing. I adjusted the saddle and went out again, still in the cul-de-sac, but his time with cycling shoes. Perhaps I'll get out for some riding today, weather permitting, checking things.
Sandy did shrimp and spinach, always good.
Onward ...
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