Two weeks and still no mountain bike riding

Most times I go ahead and bring my bike on family vacations, and it just sits in the corner reminding me of how lazy I am. This time it was going to be even harder since I actually have a laptop now AND there was internet in the room.

But The Pie chose our location wisely, and I made a proper equipment choice. We had stayed at Amelia Island before in 2007, but that time I brought my mountain bike. There are mountain bike trails on the island, but the technical features are spiders, snakes, sandy corners, teflon coated leaves, and humidity.

Nuts to that.

Friday morning I broke out the road bike and the new Bike29 team kit.

I told you it looked better on me than the rest of the team. Here's the view most of you will see this year.

The ride was typical coastal fare complete with crosswinds, except there were bike lanes and wide shoulders the whole way. Despite the fact that it was spring break, traffic was at a minimum.

A "climb" (also known as a "bridge") looms in the distance.

Friday's ride was an out and back with a few detours. I spent some time trying to get some Kerkovian shots, which managed to entertain me for fifteen or so odd minutes.

Heads...

or tails?

I detoured down a gravel road looking for a wildlife sanctuary, but found nothing open to the public aside from a trail that said "bikes and walkers only."

Amelia Island single track.

Although I now own two pairs of the best sock ever made (which I haven't talked about yet), I opted for the Performance Dual Colors since they matched my outfit so well. Road rides are 95% looking good, 4% feeling good, and 1% riding good (not well).

BTW: Camelbak Chill bottles... the best thing to happen to road riding since Fignon's pony tail. No opening/closing a sticky bottle, just grab it and drink, and my beverage stays cold twice as long, but unfortunately not four times as long.

46.something miles ended with beer and frustration. The hotel bottle opener was lame and mostly useless, but thanks to my TSE Timbuk2 Hemlok's built-in bottle opener I was able to fully recover.

Optimal chow location.

There was little point in going beyond this point.

On Saturday I went for a repeat performance. A 40 mile out and back turned into a 45 mile out and back when I pushed my turn around point out by 2.5 miles. All was well until I realized it had been four hours since I ate breakfast, I had brought only water, and I was still 18 miles from the hotel. Luckily I found this lying in the road.

Open?

Yes.

3/4 eaten?

Yes.

Bugs?

No.

Yes, I ate them, and I was thankful that somebody was kind enough to drop them where I could find them.

Thanks for letting me take a vacation. I have to say it was one of the more pleasant non-cycling oriented trips I've been on.