Apr 17-19 - Where do I start ?

I'm swamped.  I figured that if I even reply to one email this a.m. I'll never get to this blog, so here I am.

Friday -- Chet, Harris and I went fishing in the a.m.; Chet at the wheel.  We didn't have a lot of action -- I lost a few shrimp; Harris pulled in a bluefish; Chet a ladyfish.  Neither of them wanted those, so I brought them home.

Bluefish are considered good eating but they're oily like salmon.  Hey, that's good stuff !  They cook up nice and flaky.  Ladyfish are not considered good eating.  Long and skinny, they fight like crazy.  I have to try everything once though.  Well, the flesh is kind-of like canned tuna or at least that's the best way to describe it.  They have at least two rows of very, very tiny bones running lengthwise so that it's impossible to get a forkful without bones.  Taste is good but the bones make it almost impossible to eat.  The best use of this fish would be in a fish chowder cooked in a slow cooker.  The bones would dissolve.  Canned salmon includes the bones, cooked to the point of softness and edibleness (if that's a word, but at least Google didn't argue).

Earlier I had organized myself for the ride, getting the bike in the car later on, packing for two days.  We had had a relatively early dinner and I set out for Gainesville around 7pm, arriving a little after 9pm.   Soon asleep, I was up at 1:30 a.m. getting ready for the 3am start.  Ugh. 

In a word ... hot.  The bike performed admirably, thank goodness.  In another word, rain.  Big rain semi-late on the first day. 

The route is interesting.  200k out to Cherry Lake, where Jim and Meegan had setup lunch at the 4H camp.  Our drop bags were there and I got rid of the light red jacket.  200k from there and back with the turnaround Control being around 311k.  It was close to the turnaround where we were dumped upon, big time.

I was riding with Terry and a fellow by the name of Larry had joined us.  It's Larry's first year Randonneuring; looks like he's at or around retirement age; reasonably strong rider.  He stayed with us to the Cherry Lake return and then he opted to continue without sleep.  Sometime before that another rider joined us, young guy from Georgia.  He was falling asleep on his bike, practically, by the time we got back to Cherry Lake.

On the outbound, we'd had Rorie and Art on and off with us.  That seemed unusual at the time because they're very strong.  Rorie was dragging a little.  When we got to the end of the ride, yes, the very end, Rorie was there and it turned out that she'd had to be taken to the hospital for dehydration.  Pumped up with a couple of liters of fluid, she was good as new, almost.  We'd been together at the 311k turnaround and left before them; apparently after eating Rorie started getting sick to her stomach and that was the end of the ride for her.

Did I say that it was hot ?  It was shy of 90F but not by much.

Terry, Larry and no-name and I got into Cherry Lake for dinner at 9:30.  It's a great setup with A/C cabins, showers etc.  Terry had agreed to leave at 12:30 and we extended that to 1:00 a.m. by the time we actually went to bed.  I am pretty sure that he'd have been better waiting for the group with the 4:00 a.m. wake-up call.  By dawn he was struggling, sort-of with sleepiness but more so bonked; the two related.  We finished up at 12:34 p.m.  We probably could have knocked an hour off that or more ... but didn't. 

A can of Sunkist Orange soda and I was on the way home, stopping again at the DQ at 326 and I75 for an ice cream cone, shortly after that for a coffee and diet pepsi, shortly after that for a 15 minute snooze, home about 4:45.  Cleaned up, I had a 30 minute snooze and then went to Mass.  Back from Mass, we went to the SYC for burgers and then in bed around about the usual time.

I woke up a little after 6am ... and here I am.  It will be a busy day.

Onward !