69 miles today. This was the first day we delayed our departure because of weather. It was raining when we got up, but by 9 AM it had stopped & the rest of the day turned out to be sunny & warm. Our route out of Odessa involved a bunch of turns through residential neighborhoods, which was really kind of interesting. The rest of our ride can be summed up with this sign:
I’m quite sure this is the same Hy 41 that goes past Kettle Moraine Hardwoods way up in Wisconsin. Down here it isn’t a limited access freeway. It has a wide bike lane, and is a 4 lane divided highway. We were going around Tampa today, didn’t really see much of the gulf. There were a couple of bridges over some rivers that flow to the gulf, but they weren’t too steep. Still 69 miles is a lot in the heat & a bunch of folks were suffering.
We also are trading out some riders. 2 of the women from Canada are headed back & 1 guy left for Virginia. All of them had to get back to work. In their place are 2 guys from Pennsylvania & the spouse of one of our riders from Chicago.
As usual, we had a good group go to dinner tonight & what a surprise - there was an ice cream shop right near by. We commonly go for ice cream & tonight was no different. They have something down here that I would like to see come to Wisconsin - Waffle Bowls.
I enjoy my ice cream in a waffle cone, but even in Wisconsin I often end up with a good tasting sticky mess. With the waffle bowl, you get the best of both worlds. Probably an innovation born from the hot climate where no one could finish a waffle cone without a mess.
That’s all for now!