May 5-8 - that many days ?

Wow.  They are slipping by !

May 5 - I rode again; Marda arrived in time for dinner and we celebrated our Anniversary at the new restaurant on Riverside.  It was very good; upscale from almost everything else in NSB. 

May 6 - that day seemed to fly by with lots of little things to do.  I did start some hitting-the-road work, emptying the trailer of the snow tires etc., stowing that stuff in the garage.  We'd forgotten that we had Surfscape dance that night and ultimately I decided to skip that.  Debbie filled in for me so the three of them went.  I looked after Cassie and had a quiet evening.

May 7 - leaving here at 5am, I got to Tavares in good time for our Audax ride, the first official Audax ride in North America since 2001, I believe.  23 were signed up; 1 had decided to cancel; 2 were no-shows; 20 rode off; 20 finished together.

This wasn't just "Audax style" it was actually an Audax ride.  Everything is timed, i.e. every turn.  Captains at the front lead the way; if you pass the Captain, you are a DNF (or DQ).  If you drop off the back without permission, you are a DNF.  That said, a captain can hang back with you and bring you up or, if you have a flat, a couple of riders hang back and bring you up (that happened three times) but the peloton keeps rolling. 

The minimum finish time for an Audax ride is quite a bit longer than for our normal rides.  That meant longer times at Controls -- like 20 minutes -- and 1.5 hours for lunch.  I had arranged the group booking at the Smyrna Yacht Club -- Tiki with Rose -- and that worked out perfectly.  Lunch was included in the ride price.  Some of us had a beer (or two) or a glass of wine (or two). Yes, that's quite a departure from my normal ride !  Quite civilized !

We started at 7am and finished about 6:45 p.m.  Scotch / Champagne / Beer awaited us -- not in excess of course -- a little celebration. 

That day was done, for me, other than driving back.  Arriving home before 8pm, Patti Himes was still there as she'd joined Sandy and Marda for dinner.

Monday the 8th swung around, back to semi normal.  Sandy and Marda did errands; Sandy had a massage; Sandy bought a dress for Gavin & Amanda's wedding.  Heaven only knows what I'll wear as I think that everything is too big for me.

I took Cassie over to the island but not before I did some mangrove trimming.  I tried to chase down my lab results at the hospital but some are still outstanding.  They were supposed to call me back but have not. 

Today we are supposed to go boating.  This will likely be the last time before we head north, so I will pull the batteries.  If another day works out, I can bring a battery with me.

Onward !