My South Florida Adventure

I recently got a chance to take a week off and head down to my old stomping grounds in South Florida.  It was a solo trip without the family.  The weather was great with temperatures in the low 80's everyday except the day I departed back home.

Everyday was spent either heading to the beach,  riding mountain bike trails, going kayaking or both.

Down on Miami Beach they were filming a Orbitz commercial.  It is amazing what an artist can build out of sand. 

I headed out to the Amelia Earnhart Mounatin Bike trails. These trails are very popular for good reason.  There must have been over a 100 people out riding.  No race, no event just riding.  Very popular indeed.

It has been over 15 years since I last rode/raced at Amelia.   The entire trails system has been revamped. I thought the Golden Gate Trail was very cool.  


Back in 1999 the Sandblaster series was very popular.  I enjoyed those event a lot back then. Man have the trails changed. 

Some really cool features have been added and the maintain the trail system very well.  One thing I really like about all of the trails down in South Florida is that they are directional.   It makes riding really safe especially when there are so many riders.

You never know what you will find riding down in the middle of Miami, Florida.  I found this and a few other gems including a boat.

Every park I went to had a bike wash area.  South Florida riders like to keep their equipment clean.

I headed North to kayak the Arthur Marshall Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge.  The lady who owns this canoe/kayak rental place has been there for close to 25 years.  It is a small family business.  Today here nephew was running the place.  One day I would like to have a business like this.

The Everglades are full of all kinds of wildlife.  This little guy paid me a visit while I was getting ready to head out for the days adventure. 

I had the entire Canoe Trail to myself.  When Carolynn and I go we usually do only one lap but I decided to try two laps today for about 12 miles.  The going was tough at times do to the Nymphaeaceae (Lily Pads). I had to take several brakes to complete my journey.

There is a business for everything down in Florida.  It appears that the residents are so overworked that they can not even clean there own BBQ grills.  Actually when I think about what a pain it is to clean a grill I wonder if I should open up a franchise here in KC?

I rode at Quite Waters several times because my parents live only about 5 miles from the park.  Quite Waters used to be the main trail system that I would ride on when we lived in Coconut Creek.   This park was flattened by hurricane Wilma back in 2005. 

The entire trail system at Quite Waters had to be rebuilt.   For a small area that got a lot of trails with most of them double back along each other. 

This little island brought back some memories.  Back in the early 80's before Quite Waters was even built this area was used by 4x4's and ATC's (yes I said ATC.  ATV's as we know them today were not yet made).   I used to swim out to it.  Funny how things looked so large when you were a kid.

Overall I think they did a good job of rebuilding the Quite Waters trail system.  It has  rocky base in most areas as the terrain was drudged up from the Quite Waters lake years ago.

On my last day I visited Markam Park in Ft. Lauderdale.  This trail system as also changed over the years with many new miles of trails.

The soil on many of the trails were a nice black rich soil.  It was very fun to fly along through the trail system with all the traction you could possible ask for.

Of all the parks I think enjoyed Markam Park the most.  They variety of trails there is overwhelming. 

I about killed myself riding down this section.  It might have been because I was riding a bike that was to small for me.  After this near death experience I realized why the park makes you watch a safety video and sign a waiver before you ride.  I never did watch that video and sneaked in on the backside of each course.  Funny all those old places that I used to ride into the park are still there.

It was a good week down in South Florida.  I enjoyed myself and even got a little tan.

Key Lime Pie - Redneck Version

After visiting my parents in South Florida for the week, my Mother asked me what I wanted for my final meal.  I said fried chicken, dumplings, okra, black eye peas and key lime pie for dessert.  I enjoyed a delicious dinner but got a redneck version of key lime pie.

3 basic ingredients: Key Lime yogurt (any brand will do) graham crackers and Reddi Whip. 

Step 1:  Crumble your favorite brand of graham crackers in a bowl.  Be careful not to crumble up too much.  Larger pieces will work better.

Step 2: Add your favorite brand of key lime yogurt. Gently spread the yogurt being sure to cover the graham crackers completely.

You should have the bottom layer of graham crackers with a second layer of key lime yogurt.

Step 3: Add a layer of Reddi Whip.  You can also use Cool Whip if you so desire. 

Your personal Redneck Key Lime Pie is now complete and ready.  The above recipe makes one serving.

Step 4: Enjoy your hard work.  This dessert is very tasty. 

Veterans Cross Report

This years Veterans Cyclocross race was one event that I was actually looking forward to and had on my calendar as a must do event.   Last year Roger said he wanted to bring back racing to the University of Saint Mary campus.  I remember those old races there from the De Stad Cyclocross Van Kansas Series.  Sadly Roger was not able to secure Saint Mary and moved his event across the street to the Leavenworth VA Medical Center.  

Last one?  I have heard this many times from my good friend Roger Harrison.  He says that this will be his last cyclocross race that he ever promotes.  I would not bet money on it.   This year Roger teamed up with Big D Cycling to promote the 2014 Veterans Cyclocross race.  They did a great job together and put on a very fun event. 

Carolynn and I were out taking some photos: 2014 Veterans Cyclocross Photos .  My photos of the Cat 4 was taken after consuming several beers but after reviewing them they actually came out great.  Maybe that is my new secret to great photos.

Prior to the race Roger announced that I had won a special award for the best looking racer with the longest hair.  I can not argue with that award and happily accepted a haircut  and style from Tom and Ann's in Leavenworth, KS.   Also got a free wax job.  It has been a long time since I got a Brazilian.....

Big D Cycling provided the food.  Post race I had one of the brats.  Very tasty if I do say so myself.

It was fun racing with my teammates today.  Doug Stone had a lot on the line with the KBCXR series title.  He got off to a fast start ahead of Rick Moseley.

There was a little crash in the first turn.  During warmups I just new someone would go down and it turned out to my by teammate Damian Almanza along with a few others.  I narrowly avoided the pileup.

I settled into a comfortably hard pace early on.  I wanted to ride strong for the entire 45 minutes and have my last 3 laps my fastest.  This season I have been along side David Romisch several times.  He paced me on the second lap just before the barriers.

I decided to pick up the pace mid race and actually brought back David and passed him.  The effort was short lived and David got back by during the last few laps when I burped my rear tire and had to slow the pace. 

My main goal for the day was to try to place in the top 3 in the 45-49 division.  My second goal was to beat David and Damian.  Both goals were reach  :-)

Roger put a $50.00 bounty on Steve Songer's head.  Any rider who beat him took home some gas money.  Steve worked his way through everyone except overall race winner Moseley. 

Overall I liked the course.  It was a bit fast and very bumpy in sections, but I did well on the tight corners.  Heck I even liked the very narrow course - no one could pass me there :-)  This course would have been great if it was muddy or snowed. 

I was happy to see the finish of the race.  The last 2 or so laps were hard.  I had burped my tire and lost about 10 psi.   The low pressure smoothed out the rough course but the turns were very tricky.  I should have just came in for bike change but the low tire really was not slowing my down much so I rolled on to the finish.

It took an act from Roger Harrison for me to actually win an award.  Roger gave out awards in 5 year age groups for the Masters.  With the competition this is actually a good idea.  An even better idea is to have a Masters A/B class.  The A class for Cat 1/2 masters.  The B class for Cat 3/4 masters.  

Doug Stone had another great event and took home the the series championship. 

Christopher tried to race the Kona single speed in the Men's Cat 4 class.  He got off to a strong start and looked good.  This lasted about 2 laps when he came in for a bike change and grabbed his old flat bar MTB bike that we built up for him.  Still unsure what to do for a bike for him.  He is about 6'1 now and needs a larger frame bike but his lack of training does not motivate me to spend the money on a new bike.  I was hoping that he would "earn" a new bike by putting in an honest effort to train some and not just show up on race day. 

I put my award to good use and consumed about 3 beers.  That is a lot for me but since Roger got Bud Light just for me and I was lucky enough to win an mug I just had to.

Time for some Gravel Grinding

I have raced 5 cyclocross races so far this year.  I started off the season a little behind on form but expected to slowly progress.  Well that has not been the case.  Saturday's Colavita Cup brought the same disappointing result - mid pack.  Even on a flat course the best I could do was 10th in the Masters 40+ class. 

I looked at myself in the mirror really hard over the weekend and came to the realization that it is time to call it quits. I saw no fight in my eyes.  There is no use paying $30.00 (or $60.00 if Christopher races) to riding around courses when I am not having fun nor getting the results I had hoped for.  It appears it is time to begin the Gravel Grinding Season. 

Roger's Veterans Cross is this Sunday.  That will be my last "planned" cross race of the season.  I might attend some other events if some true cross weather shows up or the course is fun.  I do like playing in the mud and on frozen turf.  That is something I would gladly pay for.

This Friday is the Full Moon Monty Gravel Grinder.   Weather is looking awesome for this year's event.