54 miles or so

Last year my brother and I discussed this crazy idea that we wanted to ride our bikes home. (Home=Mims, FL=about 140 miles from Gainesville). Once I decided I was doing B&B, this no longer seemed like a crazy idea. Except that my brother is a bit of a masochist, and wanted to do the whole ride in one day. (Estimating it would take us somewhere between 10 and 15 hours at an easy pace, with rests to eat/stretch, and possible catastrophes like flat tires).

Last week we decided there was really no better time, as we had some free time, I needed to get home and I wanted to do a long ride. My parents of course weren't cool with the idea unless we had a sag wagon, and my dad was happy to oblige. He came up to Gville to pick up all our stuff (including a cat, a dog, and a sugar glider) and gave us a head start; My brother and I left yesterday morning, did 37 miles until my dad caught up with us. Sadly, I had already shipped my awesome new bike, so I was riding my Specialized Sirrus. While this is a nice campus bike--flat-bar road bike hybrid-type thing--it is not exactly made for long distance or speed. It was a gorgeous day and I definitely enjoyed the scenery, but I decided I really had no problem not doing the full 140 miles home.

My brother and dad switched spots, my brother driving the truck 20 miles up the road to wait for us, my dad riding his super awesome (though few decades old) road bike, and me riding my mom's Trek (again pretty awesome, somewhat old). We cranked out the 20 miles pretty quickly, I got more experience drafting, and fell completely in love with riding a stretch of road I'm only used to driving. Going over a bridge, legs burning, lungs gasping, but eyes taking in the amazing view of treetops and blue skies. And it was even more rewarding because it got my dad back on the bike he hasn't ridden in far too long.

As for the rest of the preparations, I have gotten my finances in order and meeting the $4000 come orientation shouldn't be a problem. I am in the midst of packing up, labeling clothes, drooling over my sweet new camera and obsessing over my GPS that I just loaded all the maps onto for the summer.