Florida February 13, 2016

We were on our bikes at 7:30 this morning, on our way to Chain Wheel Drive bike shop parking lot to ride with Dianne's bike club. This was trial by fire for me, since I had not even sat on my bike or turned a pedal since putting it together Thursday!  All was well.

We saw Stan and Barbara right away, and moments later Ed arrived. I was thrilled to see them all! We made plans for dinner next Tuesday.

Dianne had already promised to ride with her friend Pat on the "slow" ride and I was OK with that, having not ridden much this winter. We started off with the wind at our backs, doing 18 miles an hour. They call this slow!!!??? Stan and Barbara were with our group, but we did not see Ed after the start of the ride. He was ahead of us (along with about 80 other riders).

We rode "the bridges" ride today, which is the only way Floridians get to ride hills! We rode to Clearwater, up and over 2 long bridges, rested at Sand Key Beach (where we swam with Delia last year), and turned around and came back.

We caught up with the rest of the riders at the rest stop, but let them go on without us because we'd decided to take the Pinellas Rail Trail back to Palm Harbor in an effort to escape the brutal headwind.  Pat and Anthony chose to go with us on the trail. It was plenty windy, but it's always pleasant to ride separate from vehicle traffic. We rode 37 miles today, quite enough for my first time out!

We rode home, showered and ate lunch, and recovered with a few games of Scrabble. Then we went on a special errand to Bell's department store to get a pair of women's size 12 orange Nike shoes... unfortunately they did not have them. Dianne found a plaque that she liked.

Ain't it the truth?