A Biking Good Day

Today is Sunday, September 19th and being a Sunday, it is a good day to try new roads because the traffic is not as heavy. Also, there are a lot of cyclists on the roads making car drivers more cautious. Anyway, today I decided to bike a portion of the Great Floridian Bike Route (see http://greatfloridian.com). The ride was going great as I traveled my old familiar route to the new territory. Up the hills I went. As I rested at the top of a particular long climb, a group of cyclists came along and encouraged me to keep going and to join their group. We chatted until their path went one way and mine the other. I followed the route down 561A and 27 to Cherry Lake Road. This route along Cherry Lake Road was very picturesque with the rolling hills and numerous tree farms of magnolias and alot of cyclists practising for the triathlon on October 23rd. And then I hit state road 19 and was forced to fight the head winds. The easy ride I had to this point was because I was gently being pushed along by the last puffs of wind from hurricane Ivan. These nice gently winds were now pounding against me at 15 to 20 mph as I fought my way home the last 10 miles. I made the trip of 31 miles but felt like I had pedaled much, much further.

It was great to explore the new routes and now I am anxious to tackle the whole route of 56 miles. The cooler Florida weather must be helping too.