It’s Not A Race…
As best I can recall, Britman reminded us of that each time he led a group ride I was on. His message is obvious, but I agree with him that it bears repeating each and every time folks choose to ride together. For what it’s worth, I also think it would be wise to remind ourselves anytime we ride!
Having said all of that, there are, like with all rules, an exception or two. The first one to pop into my recollector muscle is avoiding bad weather! Many, many times I’ve found myself speeding up and skipping ‘breaks’ now and then and shortening them in other cases in order to outpace approaching rain. An all too frequently recurring theme lately, especially down here in dear ol’ Dixie, the region in which I’ve been primarily confined due to non-riding issues…
Troutdude finished putting the fine touches to ALI, and I had to make my hasty expressions of gratitude, praise, and all the other appropriate niceties, and all well-deserved for sure, fitting at such times. I hate to ‘hit and run’ but some nasty looking stuff was showing up on the weather radar, and it was bearing down on us and my path home! I hit the road and made miles in great haste!
Since it was late morning by the time ALI’s side stand moved into the ‘up’ position, we’d already consumed precious time… So much, that we had to modestly abbreviate our stop at the Waffle House for breakfast! Oh well, life is just full of compromises and unpleasant adjustments we all have to make…
We rode on into the late afternoon… It was right at sundown by the time we called in quits in Mariana, FL, and got a room. We were just beyond the halfway point, so it appeared on the radar by then, we could make the remainder of the ride the following day without much strain… The race was being won! So far, anyway…
The next morning we were up and stirring before sunup, as is usually the case. By the time the big red eye had made its appearance, we were loaded and heading out… in an unplanned direction… Nothing new there, but since the radar had indicated the rain’s progress had not been as robust as it had appeared when my head met the pillow the evening before, we had the luxury of a bit more time available, and… why not?!
Besides, it was the day before Thanksgiving, so traffic would probably be heavy, and scary, on the boring slab, and… you know… Riding down back roads I’ve ridden many times over the years, but none recently just had much appeal… Slower pace, more scenic, and who knows what adventure just might lurk around the next bend… I had forgotten one detail, however…
Well, I hadn’t actually forgotten it, I just hadn’t connected the dots in my data scrambler and visualized what lay just ahead… I was riding along basking in the wonder of it all, letting my thinker apparatus free-fall along any lines of thought it might randomly stumbled upon, when it occurred to me… Dang!
Lots of trees down through here, some roofs missing… looks like a storm or bomb had hit here lately! Oh, wait, there was a major hurricane that traveled right through here only a couple of weeks back!!! I rode for a couple of miles before thinking, “I should probably get a few pics of this…” I didn’t know then, of course, but by the time we’d ridden out of the storm’s path, the best pics would have been at the very beginning… Not one to double back, particularly with rain heading our way, I just chose to let it slide…
Area just north and then east of Blountstown, FL.
photo host sites
Lots of blue tarps on roofs covering missing shingles or worse. Hard to see all of that and not feel for the folks impacted… harder not to whisper a silent prayer of thanks that my family and I had been spared! Older structures seemed to suffer much more, but many newer, and rather expensive, homes were also damaged… Everyone in that area has been impacted by this natural calamity, and all will feel the effects for some time to come… For some, it will be a speed bump, for others, I’m afraid, it will be a brick wall…
Soon enough, we were through that swath of destruction, and a return to more leisurely riding ensued… I kept to the two-lane roads nearly the entire way home! I’d figured on a lunch stop in Williston for some BBQ, but then changed my mind, as we rode into Newbury, FL. There had been a good Q place there years ago, but it had been sold then closed. The owner of the original place had opened up a new place out on the main road, I soon learned, and the goodness of his offerings were as I remembered! Dang good call on my part!!!
As we cruised into Ocala, we had to pass under I-75, the route I might have taken had we been in more of a hurry… Stopped at the light there, I gazed in delight as I congratulated myself on the route selection that day! Unwittingly, or perhaps just fortuitously, I had avoided the cluster-snuggle I’d thought might occur on that route! The three-lane highway was crawling along overhead bumper to bumper and at a noticeably slow pace, as our girl and I scooted under it and made our way to the house… and the recliner… and a much-deserved nap!
DDT
