Making Room for Turkey Ride/Race

Ok so I'm touch late on getting this one out. Its been over a week since the ride and it is beginning to fade a little bit. But here we go. I really (ok, not too really) wanted to ride the 50 miler instead of the 25, but because we were going to visit some of the wife's family later in the day - I just did the 25. This was the inaugural ride and they had a few things together, but not the start time. It started at 10:30 for crying out loud.

It did have many things together like the support goldwings and police at the major intersections (Wake Sheriffs, Durham Sheriffs, Morrisville Town and others , sorry the memory is the second thing to go). The SGA vehicles though did not actually have any supplies for fixing flats or pumping up tires, which is a bit puzzling. The police on the other hand I thought did a great job and were very supportive. In the one bit of unfortunate happenings - a vehicle decided to go around the police and not obey the lawful commands given them and struck a cyclist in the race. The driver was apprehended and cited (unfortunately he/she was not tasered into a non-thoughtless SOB). The cyclist only sustained a knee injury and was released from the ER and told to stay off of it for a bit.

On to the bits bout the race. It was a very fast race for me (my average is around 14 - 14.5 mph and I was able to do it at 16.4 mph). The miles kept peeling off very quickly and I was able to take some of the downhills at over 35 mph. There was some wind during the last 8 miles or so, but it wasn't too bad. The race was pretty well marked, but still I saw a couple take some detours. It was kind of funny, but they passed me twice without me ever passing them and on a single loop that's kind of impressive. Brad had a similar experience with someone that passed him that didn't follow the route very well. I did finish in the top 10 which made me happy, but since it was recreational no one else knew they were racing me :P.

Susan and I didn't leave the house to meet up with her family until 1 or 1:30, so we didn't get to the zoo until after 3. We were greeted at the North American gate by a very toad-faced critter that I assume is a volunteer worker that has had a very hard life. Based off of my video game experience you have to be evil for a long time to look that hideous, but you can't judge a book by its cover. You have to judge it by its merits. Then the toady opened it mouth and said, "We CLOSE the gate and hour before CLOSING. Come back some other time." We tried offering it live flies and stools, but nothing could prevail on its one true joy of the day. We decided to take our $20 and just walk around the outside and checkout some of the new construction and the arboretum. I am bummed that I didn't get to see the bee exhibit that the NC Zoo just installed, but maybe in the spring will be better in any case. Do toads survive the winter?

We did get caught up to the family and did some catching up since we had not seen some of them in a good long time. It was good see them again, but I doubt I'll be able to eat fried seafood again. I just don't have the taste for it I once did.