Ride One - Sunday October 14, 2017
I gotta say, I'm a little embarrassed about my miles I've ridden this year, but as usual, now that I have my friends that ride with me and push me along, I'm ready for team LaCondesa's 5th year of Coffeeneuring on the Emerald Coast of Florida.
We've had a lot of changes occur this year to the infrastructure in our town. A new Three Mile Bridge to Pensacola is in the works and is to be completed in 2020. When she's finished, she'll be a beauty, with 8 foot wide PROTECTED Pedestrian/bike lanes, and easy on and off, crossings, parks, etc--you name it, this new bridge will have it. Unfortunately, the construction phase currently makes the bridge a nightmare, so, in effect, all of our coffeeneuring trips will be done locally, and preferably to the beach also.
We all want to do more coffee without walls trips this year. I'm not a 'foofy' coffee type drinker by any means, and, after checking the wallet on a couple of trips, i'm just fine with boiling my own water and French Pressing my own Folgers, or if I'm feeling 'foofy'--a ground up bean from Dunkin or Starbucks.
So, without further ado--trip one.
We originally planned to ride Friday evening on kick-off day, but re-living horror movies with my now teen-children made for a night at home. Once you start Pet Sematary, you can't just stop it and return to it, if you know what I mean. So the cancellation with the neighbors was not a problem, and we rescheduled for Sunday morning, which is when we usually ride anyway.
Our weather has been really weird this year too. It was a cooler September than October, and we were riding a late heat wave brought on by the aftermath of Hurricane Nate. That lasted a week, until Sunday.
When we rode that morning, there were some scattered storms in the distance, but I was happy to get back on my coveted Electra three-speed. The wind was heavy, but we all decided to do a 4.5 mile loop, with a stop at a local boat ramp to watch the storm clouds (hopefully) work their way out.
I bought about a 5000' roll of Velcro (so i never have to buy it again, I'm hoping) and was able to get my special 'coffeeneuring bag' attached to my recently acquired front rando rack. This bag has been sitting in my garage over the past few years. It's important to me--given to me as a Christmas present by a co-worker who used to ride with us on a regular basis, but doesn't have the time any more due to recent promotions. A canvas randoneur bag, with perfect pockets to hold my travel packs of coffee, and, the bag is just wide enough to perfectly hold my Stanley Stainless coffee pot and MSR burner with a tank of gas. YES!!! The virgin trip with it occurred this morning and it held up and did it's job well!
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| Four years of coffeeneuring attached. #reminders |
The air was damp and humid for today's ride. I had to re-think hot coffee on a day like today but the wind made it bearable--drinking hot coffee that is--there was just enough wind to keep it somewhat cool in the shade, so the 80 degree weather with 95% humidity that made it feel like 150 degrees wasn't all that bad.
A quick cook, a two pack of Folgers in a Yeti 20oz cup and we were golden. We hung out at the local picnic table and listened as the stressed out boaters tried to get their boats in and out of the water. Joe and Amber broke out their very lightweight camping stove and chairs--I NEED one of those chairs! We also caught up and had our 'Sunday Coffee conversations' about past week occurrences and everything in between. A great first ride to start the 2017 season.
4.5 miles to Oriole Beach Boat Ramp.
Coffee Outside, in the Wind.
Folgers insta packs.
Folgers insta packs.
Rob, Jen, Joe and Amber.
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