Loop The Lake - Good Morning & Getting There...

(Post 1 of 9)


4/2/2011

Loop The Lake For Literacy, Lake Okeechobee, FL 

(A.K.A. – My first organized ride & my first Metric Century)

Good morning…

The alarm went off at 4 am.  I was hoping that would be the most unpleasant part of my day.  I’d find out hours later that would not be the case.  I was tired.  But, with each passing moment as we prepared to leave, I got more and more jacked up on nervous energy.  Got all my gear?  I think so.  Road ID on my wrist in case I crash, fall, bonk, pass out or croak?  Check.  Bike secured on the rack on the back of the car?  G-d, I hope so.  My hubby programmed our destination into the GPS and we drove off. 

Getting there…

Lake Okeechobee is inland from where we live.  It only took an hour and fifteen minutes to drive there, but it’s a totally different part of South Florida, called the Glades.  Yes, that’s because it’s basically a human populated part of the Everglades.  The small towns of the Glades are in sharp contrast to the overpopulated, overdeveloped, fast-paced chaos of the cities on the eastern coast of South Florida.  And so, when the GPS told us to make a turn onto a desolate looking dirt road, we questioned it.  The paved roads may have taken us a bit out of the way and a few minutes longer, but eventually we got where we were going.