Though I slept on the typical pull-out sleeper sofa last night, it was probably my best night of sleep on this trip. When I laid down, I got about 4.5 seconds of reading in before I was out. So waking up was a treat as I was actually well rested and lively. Breakfast was delicious...bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs...maybe some toast even. We got a late start, about 11, as we just moped around our new home with Liz and Rod (and Fudge of course). But the road beckoned, so we finally got all our junk together on our bikes, took our family picture (see above!), and hit that old dusty trail. It was a little overcast and we had a long day ahead of us. Our buddy (one of my best friends from UMD) is attending the University of Florida in Gainesville for graduate work in aerospace engineering (he's doing some research with flying velociraptors or T-rexes or something...). And he's actually applying for his PhD-ship this fall, so wish him luck! Anywho, Brob, as we call him, decided that if we were going to be biking through his area then he might as well join us for a little ride. Bear with me here as I work out the progression of the day.
We were originally supposed to be spending the night in Flagler Beach, but unfortunately the closest Fire Department was about 9 miles down A1A in a little town called Ormond By the Sea. So we called ahead to the Fire Department and who answers but Manny, a sweet girl with a bubbly voice. She puts me in touch with Phil, the chief, and apparently he's already heard about us. This stuns me because how in the world could he already know what we're about? I just assume there's two other guys who are biking the same route and we're just filching off of their fame...which I have no problem with. So he says to come on in and they would gladly take care of us for the evening. Yada yada yada, we contact Brob and he plans to park near the station and ride up to meet us in Crescent Beach on his sweet Giant racing bike. Little did he know there would be unfavorable weather. Ha, sucker.
So before I get to the awesome weather that accosted us for most of our ride, let me tell you about a little bridge called the Nassau Sound Bridge. This unimposing, 0.9 mile bridge presents you with the opportunity to lazily cruise over the Nassau Sound, 360 degree vantage points surround giving great views of the ocean, beach, and island...ALONG WITH 30 MPH HEADWINDS THAT SLAM INTO YOU FOR THE LENGTH OF THE BRIDGE!!! With the winds and the slight uphill because of the bridge, this traverse rivaled some of our worst hills in New England (if it had only been longer...). All we could do was laugh hysterically as we churned our way over this behemoth. There wasn't even any respite on the downhill, because you actually had to PEDAL down the hill. So that was the first piece of awesomeness in a day full of miserable weather.
Apparently in Florida, "rain showers between 3 and 4 pm" actually means "relentless downpour from 2 to 7 pm". We were able to wait out the first portion of the storm under the porch of a gas station in the middle of nowhere, but the rain was just not stopping and we had places to be so we buckled down and moved out. The ride was pretty miserable; everything we owned was soaked (Esmith's brand new phone...the one he just got during the stop in MD because his last phone died due to water damage...yep, it got water damage again). Luckily all my electronics were well protected with Ziploc Bags (did you know that "These food storage containers lock tightly so your foods stay fresh and your items remain protected."?...I'm shamelessly plugging products here hoping for donations from their respective companies). So we rode on and on, and the rain kept falling...into our bags and shoes and eyes. Cars were dowsing us with wonderfully clean road water and at one point we came over a bridge and confronted a 4 inch deep puddle the ran the width of the road and stretched about 50 yards ahead of us. There was no going around it so we had to just ford the damn thing. Since both my fenders were removed during the course of the trip, my tires took the liberty of dumping any water they picked up right into the heels of my shoes. Oh joy!
So we rode and rode and rode and finally met up with Brob 32 miles from our destination (Brob is a sadomasochist when it comes to working out and being active, so riding the 64 miles that day in the rain was not as awful for him as I would have liked it to have been). The ride from there on out was great. We kept up a decent pace and it was relieving to have someone else to talk to (when you're on the road with the same person for a month, you unavoidably run out of topics of conversation). So the ride went smoothly and quickly with the rain lightening up later in the day (though never stopping).
When we finally got the fire department, it was about 7:30 pm and Phil came running out "Your food's getting cold! Get in here and eat!". Apparently the guys and girls at the department had cooked us a HUGE meal for our arrival (these people were great). We got showered up, Brob started cooking his delicious chicken, vegetables, and pasta meal, and we realized that everyone at the station was pretty much the nicest person ever. I don't know if I've ever met a group of friendlier, nicer, more welcoming people in my life. We had a lot of fun hanging out and chit chatting and also found out that someone, a mystery friend who may or may not be a fire chief from one of our previous Station sleepovers, had sent an e-mail to all the fire chiefs that he knew down the coast of Florida letting them know about our trip and that we may be coming through and needing help (sorry about the long sentence). So they were well aware of our adventure and astounded us with their capacity for assistance. There was Phil, the chief (runs triathlons and does all kinds of crazy physical activity), Manny (the sweet one who I talked to on the phone and was all smiles), Mike (never saw him without his hat on or a smile off his face...he was also a big fan of the olympics), Jodie (he showed us all around the trucks and let us play with all the gear...then showed us all the tracheotomy equipment and the drill to put IV's into people's shin bones), Courtney (Jodie's exuberant girlfriend who is a beach lifeguard and a cheerleader at UF...I believe), Mary (the mother of the department...such a sweet gal), and Joe (I didn't get a lot of interaction with Joe, but from what I saw, I imagine he was the jokester of the group).
So the day ended very well; we got to meet a bunch of new friends and meet up with an old one. We were able to watch the men's 4x200 free relay race (and I use race lightly) and got some good sleep. It was a 96 mile day, but that just meant the next few would be a little bit shorter!
Special thanks to the Ormond By the Sea FD; you guys were awesome hosts and went above and beyond what was necessary for two ragtag ruffians like ourselves. Thank you.
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