Today was a perfect day for cycling. The temperature dropped below 76 degrees for the first time since May, all the way down to 59 degrees. The temperature quickly rose into the 80s.Wind gusted out of the northwest as the first cold front of the year made its way through central Florida. The air was cool and dry. Normally the wind is out of the south bringing tropical moist air from the Caribbean Sea. We rode northwest for the first half of the ride, and then turned around. We had the wind at our back on the way back, really a nice ride under cool blue skies.
At the north end of the trail, we scampered around some barriers that blocked a closed part of the bicycle path. Last year after 26 inches of rain in a just a few days, the Suncoast Parkway flooded in this area. So now they are raising the road 20 feet to prevent the road from flooding again. They are using dirt from the retention pond that drains the road for the dirt to raise the roadway. Closing the trail prevented cyclists from riding through the construction area.
Trapped in the flooded area while cycling south along the parkway last year, I wanted to wade through the water. My friend I was with said that we needed to turn around and go back and find a route around the flooding. He was correct, as you can see in the photo. We never would have made our way through the flooding. The water was simply too deep to wade through. The flooded area was also probably infested with snakes, alligators, and other critters flooded out of their homes. If my friend had been with me a few weeks ago, I would not endured the fiasco in the thunderstorm. He would have stopped me from crossing the same highway in the thunderstorm and trying to climb the fence to reach the bike trail.
On the way back, we ran into a husband and wife cycling together. The woman had a flat tire. They were struggling to fix the flat. We stopped to help. She rode over a sand spur, puncturing her tire. I told them when I lived up north, we did not have sand spurs, and could walk barefoot on grass. Laughing, I also said that we did not have flying cockroaches either. While helping them change her flat, they told us that they had vaulted ceilings in their home. When the cockroaches would fly up to the top of ceiling beyond their reach, they would get out their BB gun, give it one pump and shoot the cockroaches. She said they had popcorn ceilings, so you really couldn’t tell where they shot the cockroaches. They told us they only pumped the BB gun once, so as to not leave marks in the ceiling. One time their son pumped the BB gun ten times and fired at the cockroach leaving quite a few holes in the ceiling. I smiled as I visualized them sitting around drinking their Bud Lights shooting cockroaches on their ceiling. You got to love interior part of Florida where Citrus County is located and the true southern parts of Florida.