While most of you have ended your triathlon training seasons, ours are still going on.

We got to Florida Tuesday at noon and stopped at my younger brother Bob’s house in Hudson. The real estate closing took place at 4 PM in Hudson on the condo I bought with my mother. We went halvsies so both our names are on it but she’ll be the one living there full time. We wanted to get things settled at our other condo on the beach in Venice so we were on our way by 5 and got there at 7:15. We unloaded the car immediately and carried things in using miniature grocery carts that were bought for next to nothing when a hardware store went out of business. It seems like for the $325 a month we pay in maintenance fees they could have afforded something big enough for more than one suitcase.

Since Jean didn’t feel like cooking, which is happening more and more, we went to Marker 4, an outdoor seafood restaurant on the intercoastal waterway. I had to wear a disguise since my friends and I had been there one night on our golf trip. We had just enough to drink for a couple of the guys (not me, of course) to get a little unruly and one of the guys to toss the root end of an onion onto the deck of a $50,000 yacht. We were tired, but I managed to choke down Red Snapper Strips, french fries and two Bud Lights.

We slept in a little the next morning, which turned out to be a big mistake, and didn’t get out for our training run until 8:30 AM. By then it was 76 degrees with 96% humidity, something we really weren’t used to having come from fall weather in Michigan. Jean and I ran a six and two third mile loop from our place to Caspersen Beach. There was little or no shade at the beach and very little on the way back. We’ve decided to mend our ways because now we know how hot Hell can be.

After the run we went to the grocery store and then had to lay in the sun by the pool for a couple of hours to rest. We were too tired to cook at dinner time again so we went to the Myakka River Oyster Bar. They have a great training table for athletes so we settled on grilled blackened grouper, rice pilaf and I switched to two Miller Lights.

We slept in again this morning so we didn’t get out on the bike until 8:30. I guess we’re slow learners. We drove to a strip mall parking lot off the island and left from there on a 52 mile bike ride. The first half mile was on US-41 but it has a bike lane. It’s six lanes wide with heavy traffic and is like riding on 28th Street in Grand Rapids. We turned off US-41 onto Florida Highway 776. It has a bike lane too and generally light traffic. It was a little congested when we went through built up areas but all in all we felt really comfortable and were happy to be back on the road.

Jean maintained her string of flat tires every time out with one around 18 miles into the ride. She was considerate enough to have the flat in a spot with shade and a sign to lean the bikes against. We fought wind all the way but rode with a tailwind coming back. Of course, Jean rode faster than I did so I played clean up just in case she had another flat. We only felt hot when we stopped for traffic lights. By the time we finished the temperature was 86 degrees and it was humid.

We went to the open air market on the 41 bypass to get some fruit and veggies including some great asparagus. Shopping made us so tired we had to rest by walking on the beach and lying in the sun for a couple of hours. We ate in tonight as the charge card was starting to melt from overuse.

Will keep y’all (do I sound like a hillbilly yet?) posted.

Jack & Jean