It has been a very long week. On Tuesday we broke down and bought a new car despite the fact that I still haven't received the money from my insurance company for the totalled one. It was not inexpensive, but we really weren't in a good position to be spending a lot of time shopping around, plus we were planning to drive to Orlando on Friday. The week's riding took a bit of a hit because of work and weather, which was rather frustrating since the prior week hadn't been very good either. The Tulane team was heading to College Station for the A&M race on Friday, but without both Kenny and me. As usual there were some last-minute issues with lodging and transportation. I charged the hotel rooms on my credit card, although I still haven't seen the reimbursement from the Austin race two weeks ago. At least one of the team made it over to Club Sports at the last possible time and got everyone registered online. In the midst of all of that, things got very busy at work on a couple of fronts, which always seems to happen when I plan to be out of the office.
So on Friday we took the new car out for a little ten-hour drive to Orlando. Things were going smoothly until we turned south on I-75 where half of the drivers seemed intent on playing bumper cars with the other half of the cars. I think we sat five separate crashes along the way, each of which slowed us down to a crawl for a few miles. I had brought my bike with me, but whether I would ride on Saturday was definitely up in the air. There was a late cold front that had come through, and Saturday morning was cold and windy. We were scheduled to meet the family over at my brother's house around noon, so I ended up sleeping late and not riding at all. The wedding itself was held outside at a local park near a lake in 25 mph winds and dropping evening temperatures. We were glad to rush over to the reception after the short ceremony. The reception, which wound down around 9 pm, was pretty informal with a DJ, dancing, food, and no alcohol, so naturally we stopped at a grocery store on our way back to the hotel and picked up a bottle of Kendall Jackson Merlot.
Sunday morning I was up early to drive out to the
Windermere Ride about half an hour away. I had a feeling turnout would be low thanks to the unseasonably low temperature and the brutal northwest wind. I hadn't done this ride in a long time, but it was also unseasonably cold that time too. Indeed, there were only a handful of riders this morning, and three of us were from out of town. Perhaps it was the cold, or perhaps the prior night's dinner of olives, cheese, and wine, but I was not feeling very sharp as we headed out around 8:15 am. After the first few miles, this ride gets fairly hilly and it wasn't long before I realized I'd better not get dropped because I had no idea where I was. Fortunately, they were kind of keeping track of the riders off the back and regrouping now and then. We were more than halfway through the 65 mile ride before I started to feel normal again. By then the clouds had broken up and the temperature had risen into the 50s. Over the last few miles riders (there had been only eight or nine) started peeling off to go home and by the time we got back to the cars there were only two of us. Still, it was a good training ride.
The Tulane team had a pretty hard race, I think, but still posted some good results for the weekend despite two minor crashes. I was sorry I couldn't go to that one because they have an alumni race. Tomorrow morning I'll be back on the road early for the long drive back to New Orleans.
Sunday morning I was up early to drive out to the Windermere Ride about half an hour away. I had a feeling turnout would be low thanks to the unseasonably low temperature and the brutal northwest wind. I hadn't done this ride in a long time, but it was also unseasonably cold that time too. Indeed, there were only a handful of riders this morning, and three of us were from out of town. Perhaps it was the cold, or perhaps the prior night's dinner of olives, cheese, and wine, but I was not feeling very sharp as we headed out around 8:15 am. After the first few miles, this ride gets fairly hilly and it wasn't long before I realized I'd better not get dropped because I had no idea where I was. Fortunately, they were kind of keeping track of the riders off the back and regrouping now and then. We were more than halfway through the 65 mile ride before I started to feel normal again. By then the clouds had broken up and the temperature had risen into the 50s. Over the last few miles riders (there had been only eight or nine) started peeling off to go home and by the time we got back to the cars there were only two of us. Still, it was a good training ride. 
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