Apr 8/9 - eggs !

The fleche went well.  We managed to get my bike and Wayne & Melanie's tandem into the trunk of the rental car with a little overflow into the back seat, leaving room for Melanie.  We drove to Paul's in St. Petersburg, unloaded and re-assembled (both bikes are S&S coupled) and I headed over to the Avis to meet up with Paul. 

On the way back to his place we stopped at the school to drop off Sally's dose of insulin (she's diabetic) as they were staying late for "movie night".  Back at his place we (Paul and I) had a glass of wine and then the four of us went out for dinner.  His wife Susan was at a school function (She's dean of law, I believe, at Stetson).  After we got back to Paul's he headed out again to pick up his kids.  Whew.

Melanie, Wayne and I had gone to bed by the time Susan got home but we saw her in the a.m.  She was taking kids to some sort of camp and of course we were getting ready for our 24 hour ride.  John Ward Smith arrived while we were having breakfast -- bacon and eggs -- and as 7:30 a.m. rolled around we rolled out.  That was two eggs.

We mostly reversed the Dave to Paul route this time, riding Paul to Dave.  I'd varied the course a little on purpose and a little by accident, but by the end we all agreed that this worked out well and some parts of the course work better west to east, especially the south end of Tropical Trail on Merritt Island. 

The logistical arrangements also worked out better as I only had to drive one way where in prior years I'd driven both ways prior to the ride and then back home from the end of the ride.  I'm sure that Paul was drowsy on the way home yesterday; hopefully he made it ok.

My eggy day did continue, with an omelet at Waffle House and at the finish at Jason's Corner in NSB.  That's six.  I also had four hard boiled eggs from 7-11.  Unless I've forgotten something, that's 10.  For the other meals, there were no eggs involved -- fried catfish at The Catfish Place in St. Cloud and a salad at Denny's in Titusville.

It got cold at night, as cold as I expected, but I was prepared.  Paul and John weren't quite prepared for the cold but made it through. We finished up on time even though I made it more difficult by assuming that two gas stations between here and Mims were closed.  That meant that we had 27.5 miles to cover in the last two hours which doesn't seem that difficult except that we'd already been out there for 22 and any mechanical issue like a flat would have caused us to miss our ride credit.

26 others joined the 5 of us at Jason's Corner.  That may be a record.    All in all, great success.

Then I had a mostly quiet day, after, that is, getting Paul to Daytona Beach airport to pick up his car rental and back here, helped him load his and John's bike in the rental.  Melanie and Wayne were still here; everyone cleaned up nicely.  They were heading back to SC, planning on stopping in GA last night.

We ate at the Tiki; that too went well.  The kids are growing up.

Whew.

Onward !