Last Saturday!

[Hanging at Coastal Kayak]

Today is the last Saturday at the beach before I head back to work on August 8th.  I can't believe that I'm almost back to sitting at a desk all day.  It has been a glorious two months.

Today I jammed in a bike ride and another SUP adventure.

Biking
I hooked up with Lori for a 90-minute aerobic ride along Coastal Hwy.  Northbound we were fighting the wind which was a nice resistance workout.  We knocked out 26 miles.  We would have finished up a bit faster if we didn't get trapped in a gated community.

When we got to the Indian River Inlet we decided not to go over the bridge and head to Dewey Beach since the traffic northbound was bumper-to-bumper and we we nervous navigating the bridge with that much traffic.  Instead we headed out to the point to add time and mileage.  Unfortunately as we tried to exit the community's big iron gates were closed and we couldn't get out.  We looked everywhere for the pedestrian button...and couldn't find it.  UGH!  Lori ended up climbing over the gate, while I pushed our bikes over the fence and then climbed over the gate --- all while wearing bike shoes.  Pretty impressive...and embarrassing.  I'm sure there were folks watching us from their fancy balconies and laughing at us try and get out of their community.

The sad part of the ride was we came upon a group of cyclists holding another rider and pouring water over him.  Appeared that he was suffering from heat exhaustion and had fallen over.  Luckily there were a lot of good Samaritans on bikes/motorcycles/cars who stopped to offer assistance and their water bottles.  We were glad to see the emergency vehicles on the scene pretty quickly.  Very scary stuff.  It is easy to under estimate how hot is out there on Coastal because there usually is an offshore wind that masks how hot it is, but without shade biking on the dark pavement can be brutal.  Hope that rider is ok.

SUP-ing
On to better news, I introduced another person to the wonderful world of SUP-ing --- my dad.  Go Dad!  I brought him over to the folks at Coastal, set him up on a Hobie and we were off.  He got up pretty quickly.  He only fell a couple times, but the wind was also stronger today so we had to fight our way home.

Selfishly, I was able to try out my new Oxbox carbon fiber paddle...and let me just say...it is AWESOME.  Very light and kick-ass looking.

Chris cut it taller than I'm used to so that it's a better set up so that I can use it later in the ocean to surf.  Similar to a carbon fiber bike, it is cut to fit the rider.  Chris wanted to check out this set up before adjusting it any shorter.  It took a little getting used to since it is longer, but it felt pretty good.  I'll plan to keep this set up a little longer to see how I feel after a few more outings.

Wrap-Up
I had grand plans to hit the beach with my dad late in the afternoon, but I got wrapped up hanging out with my neighbors on their boat...and that was all she wrote.

Another day in my personal paradise.  I am bottling up each and every one of these moments.  I am so very lucky and I am reminded of that every day.