Mar 3-6 - a busy few days

In brief:

- March 3 - dinner at BOMA, drive to Arcadia

- March 4 - ride 400 kms, battle 30 mph winds

- March 5 - ride 200 kms, battle winds again, drive home, visit Cassie

- March 6 - recover

BOMA, the African buffet at Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney, was great.  We took three vehicles so that Sandy could come home afterwards and so that Jerry could head north to Eau Claire WI after the ride.  Jerry and I left Jason, Lorraine, Kim and Sandy still sitting at the table when we headed off to Arcadia, two hours south.  It's not a pleasant drive, basically 50 miles of city with short breaks.  The Garmin took me a slightly better way north back to I4 on the way home after the ride.  The next time that I head down that way I will do a little better planning.

The weather was great for the ride except for the wind, which was brutal.  I'd expected a NE wind and we started off going north, so it could have been perfect, but the NE changed to a blistering E for the trip south.  Not fun.  Jerry does much better in that kind of wind than me, getting himself into a "zone" and just motoring along.  I fall behind and do the best that I can; he waits for me every once in a while.

However, we were finished that first 400k by 9:30.  Jerry wanted at least 4 hours sleep but I gave him more and we pulled out the next a.m. before 4am.  I was really hoping that we'd push the wind going north and then sail back but that east wind was even worse on day 2.  Still, we finished around 2:30, thanks to Jerry doing some pulling, the first riders off the course.

Why were we first ?  Well, that comes from starting earlier !  Well, not entirely.  We were faster than most other riders except for the Ed Bennett "Superman" group.  On Sunday that group left at 7am and reportedly weren't far behind us at the finish, even though we'd left 3 hours earlier.  Yes, he is strong !

So, by 3pm Jerry was headed west to pick up I75 and head north.  I was working my way up to I4, planning on 417 / 528 / I95 home.  However, that evolved.  I called Sandy to give her an ETA and she was on the way to Emergency -- Vet Emergency.  Cassie wasn't well; even her walking suffering.  I decided to stop at home, shower, have dinner and then go for a visit.  417 went so well, however, that I continued onto I4 and to Daytona Beach, since the Vet is close to I4/I95 on International Speedway Blvd west of I95.

I had along talk with the vet who was talking about all sorts of possibilities for her "random lameness", things like Lyme disease etc.  Knowing Cassie's propensity to chew sticks, however, and how active she is, I sincerely doubted such sudden onset Lyme disease.  She was also much better by the time I got there, having had an anti inflammatory injection and a dose of charcoal, in case it was something that she ate.  From not being able to walk properly before, she was on the floor getting her tummy rubbed, head on my lap -- she couldn't even lie down before, apparently.

Early the next a.m. I picked her up - this is the overnight emergency and animals have to be "on their way" by 7:30 the next morning.  The tech mentioned that her eyes were still partly dilated, an almost sure sign of chewing on some sort of fungus.  They gave me the partly used IV bag; her injection site still in place, and pain pills.  Once her regular vet, Dr. Cox, opened up, we took her in and he gave her a brief exam, removed the catheter, also discounted the notion of Lyme and said that we needn't use those pain pills.  By dinner time, she was normal Cassie, fetching.

Whew !

Sandy had dinner with Patti Himes on Saturday night; good for them to catch up.  Pizza at Patti's ... but it worked.

That's about it for those days.  Enough indeed !

The painting is still ongoing.  Right now many windows are covered up as they're painting the metal parts of the windows.  I expect that they'll be here most of this week.  It does look good.

Onward !