Coffeeneuring Chronicles 2020 Ride 2

October 18, 2020

 Our second ride happened on Sunday October 18 under glorious Florida conditions. Our neighbors wanted to support local business by going to a newer donut store that we've never been to, but after noticing the 72 degree cloudless skies, I opted for Jen and I to ride the tandem a further distance, keeping this ride in our 'back pockets' in case of a cold crappy day when we need to ride or make up our ride. 

In the idea of keeping up with supporting local businesses since the barge blunder, Jen and I decided we wanted to do a ride to the beach.  Since our neighbors were barbequing today and had to prep, we decided to get up with them for a coffeeneuring ride on a later date. 

There was a pretty stiff east wind as we set off toward the beach; luckily it was at our back today.  I had a feeling it would be an easy ride over, but a hard ride back.  The beautiful ride took us to the bridge when we felt the wind over open water. Once we got to the bridge, we crawled up the grade with a serious cross/head wind in our face.  As we hit the apex, we decided to stop and drink our water and catch our breath, as we dont do a lot of climbing in Florida. 

Once we started our roll, after being in the lowest gear possible, we managed to throw the chain as I downshifter into a lower gear to pedal down the hill at an ease of effort.  We stopped, I was able to right the chain rather quickly-luckily it wasn't the connecting chain on the tandem-and we headed down the hill of the other side of the bridge at close to 30mph. 

By the time we got to the bottom, I noticed the ruts in the road from recent hurricane Sally.  Needless to mention the debris piles had been placed all along the roadside, and only a portion of them had been picked up.  Our too old gatorskin tires didn't handle it well, and we flatted after entering the Quietwater beach parking lot. A few days earlier I removed the tire to replace the old one with a new one as it was constantly losing air, and realize I must've created a pinch flat situation with all the bumps in the road.  

I was able to get the bike tire off and fixed relatively quickly using the patched tube from the prior weekend, and we got heading down the beach to our destination, the Native Cafe on the beach, under about 50psi of air on the rear from the hand pump.   

We tried to check out a cafe that Jen said just opened to help out with small business love, but it did not appear they sold coffee or any type breakfast item, so we continued to the Native Cafe on Pensacola Beach for a well-deserved black coffee, unsweetened tea, and a pair of gluten-free pancakes.  I know, everything tastes better after sweating some miles out on a bike!  

After a delicious brunch, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful day. The wind didn't seem too horrible out of the east so we decided to spend a few minutes on the local beach since weather was perfect and we were there anyway. I didn't take long to realize we weren't going too far, as the wind steadily picked up. We stopped at Avenida 12; got a little sunshine in, and continued on to our next stop. 

We both remembered there was some type pump / fix station on the beach, but couldn't remember where it was.  The place we thought the station was fixed wasn't where we thought it was, so we continued to the main beach, as Jen thought she remembered seeing one there.  I was a little concerned with the rear tire riding at maybe 50 psi, so I was a little worried about a troublesome ride home.  

We decided to stop at the nearby police precinct to see if they knew where the fixit station was.  Apparently we just passed it, but the awesome officer, who is also an avid bike rider, let us borrow his Pedro pump to get our tires up to speed.  Thanks Officer R; huge help and confidence builder for the ride home!  

Back to 80/100psi and we were on the way home, but wanted to spend a little more time on the beach.  We decided to stop and quench our thirst with the spiciest bloodiest mary we've ever had at the new Cumaru Bar, overlooking little sabine.  Ironically, this place is right below the old coffee bar that was a staple stop on years past, the  Drowsy Poet, which has sadly closed recently.  

After a little football watching and downing our Bloody Mary's, Jen and I decided it was time to hit the road home.  Luckily we had a tailwind over the bridge headed back, but the final three miles, were, needless to say, a hell wind fight on the way home.  We were both glad it was only over the course of the final three miles.  We got home, happily exhausted, after our first 20+ mile coffeeneuring ride in quite a while, glad that we took advantage of this beautiful day. 

Wind: fierce on the way home

Coffee effect: awakening, with a dose of happy spicy bloody mary-ness

Weather: couldn't be more perfect, minus the 20+ mph wind.  

We live for rides like these. One of our favorite coffeeneuring rides, ever.