Gatorspective

Another Gator Country Hell Week has come and gone. This was the 11th fully-supported version of this tour, with the first (the “beta”) being run in January 1997 as a self-supported tour by 4 vets of various other Hell Weeks. And as with all the previous tours, this was a great one.

Call me a hopeless cycling romantic, but I rather like riding here. I’ve now pedaled nearly 10,000 miles in those 12 rides, not to mention all the countless thousands of other miles I’ve ridden here while on extended stay. It’s a great place to ride. Don’t let the tourists and retirees fool you; there’s plenty of awesome roads for cycling. You really can get away from it all.

Florida has changed a lot during the years we’ve been cycling here (and we’ve been coming since 1984…it takes a long time to really get to know a place and the roads we use on the tour). The population has grown considerably, although I hear rumors of “negative growth” these days as cost of living, insurance issues, and property taxes have become headlines down here. And the urban sprawl of major metros such as Tampa, Orlando, and Fort Myers have caused me to reconsider several roads through the years…and replace them with better ones with less traffic.

Being an academic, I am always intrigued by local culture. I love to crawl around at the grassroots, and get some local dirt on my sleeves. That’s why I make an effort to take this tour through what I consider to be the “real” Florida. This place is almost my second home, since my close family all lives here. It probably amuses (or annoys, I’m not sure) when I wax nostalgic with our riders about “the old road” that went over here, or the ancient concrete curbs along the narrow lane over there. For me, I am riding through Florida history.

Yet each night along the tour I was easily able to access wifi to post my daily blog.

It’s almost like the tour is an ancient-future retro-prospective glimpse of what was, is, and will be.

But enough of my philosophical babbling. This was a fun week!

The previous three years caused us to get a little lax in our thinking about the possibility of wintry weather in Florida, as we “endured” Chamber of Commerce weather for 8 days straight. The cold blast this year brought us back to reality. Florida is a place with changeable weather, and even the southern extremity of the continental US can get a sampling of what life is like in the Great White North.

But Florida’s location also puts it in the path of hurricanes. In fact, twice this week our route passed through a portion of Pol County that has the distinction of being where the paths of three ferocious hurricanes in 2004 all intersected. I remember the Gator tour that December quite well, as we had trouble securing motel rooms for our riders. Most of the local inns were booked long-term with local people left homeless by Mother Nature’s fury.

And those blue-tarp roofs all over the state’s midsection served a constant reminder of what can happen when the weather goes south.

But what I find most intriguing is how a highly disparate group of individuals can come together to ride bikes, most of us starting as strangers, but ending as best buds a mere 8 days later.

Brothers Peter and Ed were great to have along. Their charm was infectious, and to be quite honest, the example they set as sibling cycling pals was a model for all of us with brothers or sisters to mimic. It was great to have Rose (riding) and Lanie (crewing) along, because they have been a part of Gator since the beginning (Lanie being one of the 4 on the beta tour). Dave returned for his 8th consecutive Gator (and has ridden every mile, every year). Jim returned for a half-tour; Tom returned for his third Gator. Monica, a vet of a trans-Nevada ride and various other intensive tours, made Gator look easy, as did Larry, a retired Marine. Bob and Susie rode tandem, and expanded their cycling horizons in ways they probably never imagined. Kay returned for her umpteenth Hell Week (she’s done some of our other events as well), and showed how a seasoned cyclist handles the day-in and day-out. Barclay returned after many years for another Gator on his recumbent, and zipped through every mile in spite of spending more time on his skates lately than on his bike. And I can’t fprget my wife, Becky, for her awesome crewing and leadership, as well as my brother, Mark, who was able to join us as crew for three days. Finally, our kids, Becca and Bailee, were great sports, and hopefully learned something about not just how to run a family business, but more importantly how to set goals and meet them.

I’m looking forward to next December when we gather once more in Fort Myers for Gator XII. There’s still a lot more Florida to experience, and I look forward to sharing it with anyone willing to allow me to lead them into the cycling romance of the Sunshine State.