Hi there!

Oops...it's been a while since I've wrote anything. I'm in Florida again and having a great time, though as usual, missing my bike. I can't say the weather has been very nice this time around though, so I don't think I'd be enjoying it much if I had it.

Simply put, last Saturday we survived what was easily the most scary experience of my life. The boat (Morris) was anchored out on a beautiful piece of water near Jewfish Key. We were perfectly situated to see the fireworks show—along with at least fifty other boats. We saw the storm coming, but I underestimated how swift and powerful it would be.

The calm before the storm

Dan and I were watching the fireworks and lighting off in the distance when the rain hit as if someone turned the hose on at full blast. An instant later, the wind arrived. Small, open motor boats were crashing into us and much larger boats were losing their hold and drifting right past us. Feeling the wind force the boat over 45° degrees is terrifying.

Overall, we fared pretty well—no damage to the boat and no damage to us. That big boat in the photo above nearly hit a boathouse behind us, other sailboats were knocked over so far their windows were submerged, and there was a lot of yelling over tangled anchor line once the storm passed. At least one boat ended up on the beach. I've seen some pretty awesome storms roll in off Lake Michigan, but this takes the cake. We later found out from one of the other boats that winds were in excess of 90mph that night.

Me on Morris

Even now, the weather's not that great. It started raining yesterday evening, and it hasn't stopped since. More wind, more lightning, more water. My Marmot Precip jacket is getting a workout, and I'm beginning to think it's monsoon season.

A few firsts...

I got fitted for contacts yesterday, which means I can finally ride wearing sunglasses. That's right—today was my first ride, ever, wearing actual sunglasses. Contacts mean I have full use of my peripheral vision, and as it turns out, athletic sunglasses are WAY better than regular glasses at keeping wind and debris off your eyes. How on earth did I ride before wearing regular glasses?

Today also marked my first Lapeer County road ride (again—ever!) that didn't result in me getting honked at, flipped off, or otherwise offensively gestured at. I'm not sure if that means the general public of Lapeer is getting nicer about sharing the road, or if I'm just choosing smarter times (like a Sunday afternoon) to ride. I'm hoping the former.

More washed-out road...

It appears I may have brought a little bit of Florida's weather back with me after all. For the past few days it's been solidly in the mid-to-upper 80s here, and today my Garmin read 95ºF (though I'm not sure of its accuracy). These temperatures feel nice to me now, and the other day I joked that 81ºF felt cool. However, I wish the rain would bugger off. As evidenced by the photo above, it just won't let up. I'm itching to ride my favorite trail (Addison Oaks), but I hear it's still in pretty wet shape. Tonight we're due to get another thunderstorm, and we certainly don't need the rain.