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thursday, while at home with the boy, i took some spare moments to pour over google maps looking for a route to ride the coming saturday. at the time, i wrote out about three quarters of it and decided i would complete the return route on friday.

friday, i got the return route finished and two different sized cue sheets printed and ghetto laminated with mailing tape. i was ready to go.

saturday, i woke up. after a couple cups of coffee and a granola bar i grabbed my pre-made jersey sandwiches and supplies, loaded up my jersey pockets and rolled out the door. i chose to take the smaller half-sized cue sheet, which proved to be a mistake since the micro-font was almost impossible to read while riding. scenic highway looked pretty cool that early, there was a thick fog high in the trees that would have made for some nice picture taking.

the route i had mapped was going fine out to pace, then left on quintette road. wallace lake road and renfroe road were both nice, smooth, and mostly traffic free. then i swung right onto ten mile road. this isn't the same ten mile road that's out by the trails in pensacola, this one is different. around 4" of sand in varrying waves covers a red hardpack for about two miles, the one minor, minor climb is covered in golf ball sized gravel. the road then returns to sand. as the sense of adventure wears off i return back to the pavement.

this is where a series of out-and-back, back-tracking events takes place as all of the roads i am slated to take are quite deep and loose dirt roads. i turn back, defeated. i'm not going to make it to my destination today.

the ride home is hot and stressful. lots of too fast traffic on too narrow roads in the middle of nowhere. i stop at a church to refill my water bottles from their spiggut and send a few texts. just north of the road prison i see a couple of the weber team. on blue angel a lady rolls a stop sign and comes incredibly close to running me over. she does manage to successfully receive a few the foul words that i am muttering.

finally i get home. a little sunburned, a little dehydrated, kind of tired, and pretty stressed. shea's mom came by and brought some leftover shrimp pasta and some red stripe. shea made some baked french toast monte cristos and blackberry no-bake single serving cheesecakes with the blackberries MROK and i picked on thursday when i wasn't mapping out this route.

an awesome end to a less than stellar ride.

maybe i'll go ride the trails this weekend.