Vero Beach    May 4

Trish and Zack Wobensmith are friends from the ‘hood. We all grew up within a couple of miles of each other in Southeastern PA. We went to the same schools, and while Zack was several grades ahead of us, we all graduated from Central Bucks High School. Spending the night with them was a delightful recall of the people, places and events that helped form the individuals we have become. Also, it was wonderful having some of Trish’s great cooking!

I got Zack to take a picture of me in my riding gear as several people have asked about my equipment.

Clothing: My philosophy in riding clothing is to make myself as noticeable as possible. My Specialized helmet has been customized by Dee with orange “hair” from a lifejacket found on a beach in Mexico.  The orange T-shirt states: Deirdre’s Ride for ALS. To protect my arms from sunburn I wear Pearl Izumi  sun sleeves.  The riding gloves are Spenco. As the Amish affix to the rear of their slow moving horse buggies, so do I attach a triangle to my rear. My mountain biking shorts went cross country with me in 2010 and will likely rot off my body by the time I get to Cape Breton. Under them I wear a pair of well-padded Garneau racing shorts because we Smiths don’t “pack much back,” as rapper Sir Mix-a-lot says. The shoes are mail-order Schwinns that I found on sale.

Bike: Novara Randonee, a touring bike sold by REI. Touring bicycles are usually built out of steel and therefore weigh a lot more than most bikes. They need the strength of steel to handle the rigors of the road and the torque of carrying a heavy load. It has 27 gears (3 chain rings in the front, 9 cogs on the rear hub) to carry big weight up mountains. The seat is by Brooks, an English company that makes a leather seat considered the best bicycle seat in the world.

Panniers: That’s French for saddlebags. Mine are Ortleib, a German company, which makes some of the best in the world. The panniers are held onto the bike by Tubus racks. I have erected a small orange flag that attaches to the rear pannier rack as yet another attention-getter so drivers will notice me.

Maps: Bought them from Adventure Cycling Association. http://www.adventurecycling.org/. ACA has created over 44,000 miles of bicycling routes throughout the United States.  The maps give mile-by-mile information about distance, terrain, and the location and phone numbers of emergency services, lodging, camping, restaurants, libraries, grocery stores, post offices and bicycle shops. All the routes are on secondary, lightly trafficked roads where possible. (US 1, which is the only road to and from the Keys, is a big exception.)

On the way to Trish and Zack’s I was side-tracked by the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum and Memorial in Fort Pierce. I figured such a place would be in Coronado, CA or Little Creek, VA, the two SEAL bases. The museum is there because the Navy’s underwater demolition operations, the precursor of the SEALs, was developed in Fort Pierce. Interesting place.