House guests

Friday I finally decided to partake in the happy hour at Bruninas. You may recall that weeks ago Meghan the bartender told me there was a woman that would come during this time period that she thought would be good for me to meet. Since then this woman has stopped coming so that was not a factor. I did have fun however just sitting there drinking Miller Lite for a couple hours. A 63 year old woman sat next to me and was talking to me. At some point she asked how old I was. When I told her my age she was in disbelief. She said I need to find myself a woman in her 30’s, I laughed and thanked her.

When I got home I got a hankering to live stream. I did the entire hour and 45 minutes on the lanai, just talking about both PEV and non-PEV topics.

Saturday morning I wanted to get tasks out of the way as George, Enrique and Adrian were coming to my house to meet up to ride. Enrique and George live on the east coast, Adrian lives up in the Fort Myers area. Adrian and I have been FB friends for awhile but I never met him in person. Enrique I have known for a few years as he came over to ride with me once before. I met George when I went to the east coast with Dawn.

Our plan was to go ride the swamp, even though I was just there the week before with the ET Max. We drove our vehicles out to the park near my old house and launched from there. I let Enrique borrow my Sherman S since it has suspension. He has an original Sherman that has no suspension. The terrain there would have punished him.

It didn’t take long until we sighted our first gator. We saw one just after leaving the boardwalk entrance. I was riding my Veteran Patton which is my favorite wheel for the swamp although it has one weakness. The street tire on the wheel is great on hard surfaces which I ride almost exclusively however in mud/sand conditions it quickly gets slippery. I came off the wheel a couple times. One of them resulted in my getting a small cut on the inside of my ankle as well as wrenching my right knee a bit.

We saw a BUNCH of gators. I did not do an official count but I am sure we saw at least 50 including this beast in the picture. The water hides his body but if you look closely you can see just how massive this guy is. We wound up riding the entire loop and doing so at probably the fastest pace ever. There were fewer mucky spots than when Wayne, Dawn and I did the ride in March. The guys all seemed to enjoy the ride.

After we left the swamp Enrique wanted us to ride to the original Dunkin Donuts that I used to go to. This was his one week belated birthday ride so I couldn’t say no. The 9 mile ride there was fast as we had a strong tailwind pushing us. I crossed 40MPH a few times. However we paid for it on the way back. The tailwind became an absolutely oppressive headwind, making it difficult to keep the wheel in the bike lane at times as it smashed relentlessly into us at an angle. That part of the ride was definitely unfun.

After the ride Adrian had to head home but George and Enrique followed me back to my place. The plan was for them to charge their wheels and then the three of us would ride around Naples later. We wound up hanging at my place for awhile before we headed out, not leaving my place until 8:30 or so.

I took Enrique and George to the Cabana where I hang out pretty regularly. We all drank a beer and then the plan was to grab dinner. Unfortunately all of the restaurants in the area close their kitchens around 9:30 so we couldn’t eat there. Instead we rode around some more before heading home where I just made us a frozen pizza instead which they were fine with.

Originally their plan was to drive back to the east coast Saturday night but by the time we ate it was getting very late. I told them I didn’t care if they stayed the night but they would have to fight over sleeping arrangements since I only have one queen size bed. George surprisingly offered to sleep on the sofa on the lanai. He said he would actually prefer sleeping out there as I also have an indoor sofa. He said he didn’t need a blanket or conventional pillow either. I brought out an oversized beach blanket just in case. It was late by the time we went to sleep, approaching 2 AM.

Sunday I woke up around 7:30. Enrique was still asleep but George had been up for awhile. We drank coffee and chatted for awhile. Once Enrique woke up we decided to do one more group ride over to the nearby DD to grab breakfast. Once we returned they packed up their stuff to head East. Both of them thanked me for the rides and hospitality. They both seemed to really enjoy themselves which I was happy for. It was a pretty packed 24 hours.

During the afternoon I was doing some video editing before I headed out to go pick up Elsa who spent a long weekend with Ali and Shuggs. As usual she was a perfect angel for them and they were sad to see her go. I don’t think Elsa was thrilled to leave either.

When I got back I finished up the editing. In total I posted three videos this weekend. I managed to stay awake long enough to catch the finale of Shogun but felt exhausted while doing so. I am hoping to rebound this week. My knees took a beating from the riding, replacing the abuse they take during pickleball. I am hoping to get on a more solid platform physically in the upcoming weeks. It would be nice to not feel like I am being held together with rubber bands and scotch tape.