the road trip to florida was pretty fun. i got to drive through several states that i had never been in before (pennsylvania, ohio, west virginia, north carolina, south carolina, georgia). sadly we didn’t spend too much time looking around because we wanted to make it to our final destination before christmas eve. we ended up driving through some of the most beautiful areas (like the west virginia/virginia mountains) in the dark. i didn’t get my Trader Joe’s pitstop because the only day it would fit into our plans was New Year’s Day, and they were probably closed. i didn’t really take pictures of any of the places we stopped at/drove through before and after florida. i also didn’t get to meet up with anyone because as it was during the holidays, none of the people i knew/would want to see were where they were supposed to be!

i got to celebrate my birthday (27!!) at universal studios with jon. roller coasters are my favourite! the last time i went to a theme park was back in the summer of 2003. i was at canada’s wonderland on the day of the big east coast blackout, so our day was cut short. in 2009, i made up for that with 2 solid days of riding all the best rides at universal, many twice, three times, and one even a whopping four! i love the thrill of being upside down and accelerating down huge drops around corkscrew turns. universal has some really excellent rides, and i thoroughly enjoyed my two days there.

hollywood rockit, the mummy, the simpsons, ET, shrek 4D, duelling dragons, and the spiderman ride were the tops. i don’t enjoy waiting in line, and we were there at one of the busiest times of year. our first day had wait times of upwards of 90 minutes per ride! on the second day, we splurged for the express plus passes to terminate the lines: it was TOTALLY worth it. we waited for 15 minutes at the most for any ride and it meant that we could jam pack the day with adrenaline rushes instead of boring lines. i didn’t take many pictures because we quickly realized that having my camera was going to be a pain in the ass. so it went into the car.

other florida adventures: hiking in the ocala national forest. little did we know that in the US, hiking and hunting go hand in hand in national parks. we had to be careful, as we were NOT wearing neon orange vests. i didn’t see any gators, sadly. we learned about sinkholes and heard shots from across the lake.

walking around in my parents’ neighbourhood. everyone there has a golf cart and this is how they get around (not just the greens, but also to restaurants, the grocery store, and other shopping). although the area isn’t super pedestrian friendly (things are just too far apart to be able to feasibly get around on foot), because of the golf cart lanes, biking is a much better option. we had taken our bikes down with us, and we got in a few nice morning rides, which i likely won’t get to experience here again until april.

the orange grove. i wanted grapefruits, so we drove around until we saw some signs advertising fresh citrus. the farm we stopped at was a small organic farm + grove, also selling rabbits (we were unsure if they were alive, for being pets, or skinned, for eating. decided that you could likely have it either way). i told the guy i wanted some grapefruits. 70 cents each. he asked how many and i decided that 10 would be good. he grabbed a knife, some plastic bags and went off into the trees. citrus does not get any fresher than that!

st augustine and walking on the beach. i love the ocean, and someday, i will live near one. walking on the sand and picking up pretty shells was how i spent the last day of 2009, and it was a lovely end to a pretty good year. we had lunch at a little caribbean cafe in st augustine beach (that had some AMAZING salt scrub in the bathrooms) and it really felt like a tropical vacation.

st augustine the town was pretty cool too. there was this crazy angel guy wandering the streets ranting and raving. there was also a really cool lift bridge to get into town. in retrospect, this would have been a good place to spend new years but we drove on to savannah.

we planned to spend a whole day exploring savannah, but when we got there, the weather was grey and crappy looking, and i felt like i was coming down with a cold – popping tylenols and blowing my nose. luckily my body fought off the illness quickly. we decided to just plug on home. the I-77/I-90 were rife with snowstorms, and the drive back was interesting. our bikes were so caked in salt when we got home, that the only way to get rid of all of it was to totally disassemble, soak, wipe, re-lube, reassemble. my bike hasn’t run this smoothly since i got it! sadly now it is just hooked up to the trainer because taking it out in the salty snowy slushy mess here would be stupid.

  yay salt! well that’s it for today. tomorrow is a busy day! (i’ve got the morning off from work to take care of something and i’m working from home in the afternoon). more to come.

cyclocross!

on saturday, we went to go watch our friend jeff in a cyclocross race at a local conservation area. i’ve been wanting to go see a race for ages, but we just haven’t had the time. when jeff told us about a race in the city (at one of our favorite hiking locales) on halloween, i knew it would be fun times.cyclocross is kind of a crazy sport. the bikes are road-like, but much more rugged. they run knobby tires because the majority of the course is grass or dirt (with only the occassional bit of paved area). the courses have run ups and barriers, where you have to dismount, throw your bike over your shoulder, and keep moving. races in ontario run from september to beginning of december, with 1-2 races per weekend (insane! i can’t imagine racing that much). cyclocross was originally designed to extend the roadie season into the fall in europe. it’s quite big in belgium. the ontario cross scene is still small, but it seems to be gaining in popularity.
when i was shopping around for my commuter bike last spring, i was looking at road bikes and hybrids. jon pointed out that a cyclocross bike was exactly what i was looking for. i wanted the sleekness of a road bike, with the drop bars for going fast down hills, but something a little more heavy duty. the average hybrid is just a mountain bike with 26″ wheels that are slightly slick- wouldn’t be useful for doing much offroading or racing (in tris or distance cyclocross races like paris to ancaster). after a few test rides, i found that indeed, the cyclocross was light enough to be fast (i mean, you have to be able to pick it up and run with it) but still durable enough to deal with the runaround of potholes and poorly paved toronto streets, so that’s what i bought. i never actually had any intention of doing any *real* cyclocross racing – races are about 1 hour long, on a course of a few kilometres. you do as many laps as you can. the winner is the first person to come in at the end- i see it as similar to a 10k run effort. now that i’ve been to an actual race, i might just be reconsidering! it’s much less dangerous than i thought – especially on slower courses like this one. the field is more spread out and there isn’t the same potential for crashing as in road racing. granted the race we went to, on halloween, costumes encouraged and prizes for winners in the form of beer and cash, was a little more laid back than most, it seems like a fairly casual, not crazy competitive sport. i think i like it. there is a lot of getting dirty though. you can see one of many mud puddles in the below pictures. i took a bunch of video of the riders splashing through which i will eventually find time to edit. maybe next year i’ll find a fun beginner race to do, since i already have the gear!

the course was very tight. there were tons of really sharp turns, but other than that, it did not seem like a super technical race (which is what keeps me away from mountain biking). the costumes were great and it was nice to see people getting into the spirit of halloween. jon and i squeezed in a quick hike up part of the niagara escarpment before the start.