The "Half Marathon" Ride!

Our ride was rained out last week but we more than made up for it this week. Hi everyone! we rode our second "official" bike ride today. Eight of us made our way around the pristine town of Celebration sans our "Leader," Pete. Last Wednesday, Pete underwent surgery to his right shoulder. He's doing very well but his bike will be under cover for some weeks to come. You know he's "chomping at the bit" to ride.
Yours truly (with reluctance) took the lead position. (Actually, Jim was my back-up.) As usual we gathered for our "pre-ride" briefing....

Left to right, Buzz, Jane, Joe, Judy, Jim, Maryellen and Dave.

We set our cruise control at 8 to 10 m.p.h. and headed out.

Our first stop was the Hospital. (That's our usual first pit stop. Not for any medical services.)

Now that we've "stretched" our legs on this leg of the trip we can press on.

You can always count on lots of conversation during stops (and while riding) with this group.

As we head out from the Hospital you can feel the "seriousness of purpose" take hold and the pace quickened...to 10 and 12 m.p.h. But, no one complained. (At least I couldn't hear it from the lead position.)

Although, I notice that no one is paying attention to me taking the picture! Hmmm, is this a hint?

Anyway, onward to the best part of the ride, the winding, wooded ride over the "boardwalk."

When on this stretch of the ride, you enter thickly wooded area basically untouched by "residential creep."

Sorry, not any wildlife to report as our tires bumped over the wooden plank walk/bike way. However we did encounter many beautiful birds, a hawk and this surprise as we passed a clump of bushes by a pond...

This fine specimen literally stopped us in our tracks. As I past him I asked our brave riders to get closer for a photo, but he bolted into the water. I thought I could hear some protests in the background about getting closer to him. At least he posed long enough for another photo op...

We trudged onward and began to make our way back....... for lunch. (What did you expect?)
I guess I can't fault Pete if he gets turned around on a ride anymore. I only took us three miles out of the way!
Yep, our 10 mile bike ride turned out to be 13.4 miles... a "Half Marathon" as Judy said.

All was going well, I just missed the right turn that I was looking for. Jim, my navigator, never gave it a thought. He was in the zone... the ride zone! Jim was lost in the ride and running in a trance and loving it. We only had to see the same scenery for a half a mile before we were on track once again.

I have to give credit to all our riders today, they rode along at a good pace and except for the brief rain we rode through, I didn't hear any complaints. (I think that's because lunch made things all better.)
The "Market Place" suited every one's taste buds. The most popular plate was the "Veggie Burger."

As you can see a few more Palm Tree Bikers members made it to lunch.

Pete, Joan, Darlene and Pat met up with us for a terrific lunch after a terrific ride!

Now its time for Ben-Gay and a nap!