Real Florida Plan

Impossibru to cover all my bases at this point.  6 Hours of Warrior Creek this weekend and a chance for you to win a set of Industry Nine hubs WHILST helping me support the PA Interscholastic Cycling League (more information on that hopefully next week).

I wish I could jump right on that, but let's clean house first.  If you found yourself donating before I get to announcing the raffle, I promise that I would sort you out proper like.

I headed to Florida with the family.  Convinced them to pull over at Santos on the way to our final destination so I could hit The Vortex solo while they ate lunch.  Got in a lap and then some... when my rear tire started feeling mushy.  Yeth, the rear tire that isn't available yet and as such, is not replaceable (or so I thought, thanks Tumas).

Banana Hammock, mandatory wooden feature photo from Santos.

Death knell.

Big tear on the outside, small on the inside.  Enough to lose air in a slow'ish manner.  Pumped it up in the parking lot, road as fast as I could to the Greenway Bike Shop where they have burly tubes (I was carrying a Maxxis Welter Weight... my only one) and beer (to take away the sting of defeat).

The Pie scoops a sad me back up, and we're on our way to Ruskin, FL... where I take a shower with my rear wheel and then get with the tubing, patching and insertion of a Rice Krispy Treat boot.

Family times doing family things (I'll write about those on my upcoming family blog that I'm working on...), and then Joe "The Real Florida Man" Freeman scoops me up on Sunday to ride at Alafia.

A most excellent, albeit shorter ride as I needed to get back to family time (on the other blog, not here).

Alafia has a lot to offer, and plenty of steep gnar burger bits to keep it interesting.  It's a good thing that someone decided that sharp rocks were a great resource to dig out of the ground, as all the holes they left behind make for some great riding (although they obviously missed some of the sharp rocks tho).

Next day, The Pie has plans in Orlando, so I make all day plans with Joe and a Watts that happens to be van-lifing his way all over Florida. We join forces and head over to the Balm Boyette Scrub Preserve Mountain Bike trails to meet up with Mike.

Once again, Florida does not disappoint.  So much variety, flowy then chunky then swoopy then steepy.

I have to admit, Watts and I hit Ridgeline at least three times... or was it four?

Not Ridgeline.

I did a terrible job taking pictures.  We were either moving or we weren't.  The one time I rode ahead to get some, I set my bike down in an ant pile and then stood in the same ant pile... so all photo opportunities were lost as I danced all about trying to rid myself (and my bike) of biting intruders.

After a whole lotta riding, Joe took us out into Real  Florida World.

That's actually Cuba.  For real.

It was a mostly memorable evening of beers and beering establishments... with an occasional view of Ikea.

The next day, the Dillen family said good bye to Watts and his Adventure Van...

and then went off to see Florida Manatees (we saw none), famous dolphins in an aquarium, and not-so famous dolphins who just happen to hang out about a hundred yards from our front door.

The Sunset Tiki Bar was not poorly named.

Groovy time indeed, and much kudos to The Pie for finding another family happy place with mountain bikings and creatures and comforts and adventures.  Look into Ruskin for real.