day one of the weekend - rode hard, put away wet

We got up at 4:45...or I did, and made the first of a few attempts to motivate the youngster, but he finally got there. I packed the last of my stuff, and got everything in the car. He finished with his bag. The wife got up and took 'before' pictures and we were off around 5:30, with a stop at McDonalds for the youngster's version of breakfast.

The St. Augustine airport (the starting line) is all of about a 15 minute drive from home. We were in front of it well before 6:00, but the traffic was incredible, and the lack of organization getting us parked just made it worse. We missed the team picture at 6:30. So did one of the team captains and about half of the rest of us. Would have been nice, but no biggie.

We set off at 7:00, and immediately had to restart at a railroad crossing, less than a mile down the road. Doesn't the railroad know we have a bike ride to do? From there it was pretty smooth sailing. The wind was out of the northeast, and we were basically headed south. The youngster was kickin' butt...first rest stop...skipping the second...third rest stop....we were cruisin', and having a blast.

Somewhere south of Crescent Beach, the drizzle started. I thought, "If it just stays this way, it'd be great, but looking toward the south, I know we really had no hope. It was going to rain. The only questions were how long and how hard. That's about where these pictures were taken, just south of Summer Haven along A1A.

It was pouring when we stopped for lunch. They had PB&J sandwiches and turkey wraps. The turkey wraps were wrapped in foil, which helped keep them dry. The PB&J got a bit soggy. Still, we ate, and by the time we finished, the rain subsided some. I had to wring out my gloves before putting them back on, but it didn't help all that much. Don'cha just love putting wet clothes back on? Something about that just doesn't feel right.

We set out again, and somewhere as we headed south, we discussed the extra 20 mile loop to make Saturday a century ride. The youngster was really doing well, but he decided he didn't want to go the extra 20. At that point, I wasn't going to push. The weather was nasty, and I really wanted him to be as fresh as possible Sunday, so I relented. He said he'd be fine finishing without me if I wanted to go for it, and I saw no reason why he wouldn't be, so we decided to split up when we got to that point.

Then the rain really started coming down. We pedaled through a neighborhood just north of Daytona (Ormond Beach, I think) and the roads were flooded. We were splashing through and keeping moving, but we were drenched.

It subsided when we got to the point where we split up, so he headed on to the hotel and I turned back north...right back into the rain.

Sunglasses are so useless in the rain, but when you're riding in it, it's not easy to get rid of them. I did a lot of looking over the top of them with my head down. That way I could see the line at the side of the road through them, and I could see a little of what was in front of me over them, but I was almost flying blind. I got to a rest stop and ditched the glasses, and made it the rest of the way through another stretch of downpour to the hotel, where the wife and youngster were waiting in the pouring rain. The wife took a picture of who she thought was me, but when we looked at it, it was someone else. To be honest, in that rain, I could probably have kept the picture and said it was me, and nobody would have noticed.