Circumnavigate Estero Island Challenge

Yesterday I circumnavigated Estero Island a total of 41 miles. This is something that I have been wanting to do for some time but due to the road construction on one leg of my trip it hasn't been safe. So more in moment.....

The weakend weather was wonderful. The morning lows were in the mid 60's and the day time highs 81*with a nice gentle breeze. So here is a quick recap of my weakend...

This weekend I.....
... got off work early Friday, 2 pm, and went to the pool for a swim....
...had drinks with friends at the Club
...ran 15 miles Saturday morning
...walked 9 holes of golf Saturday afternoon
...had dinner at the beach with J watched the sunset.
...did the airport ride with Tony total of 60 miles
...did the Estero Island ride by myself total of 40 miles
...washed the windows at the house inside and out plus vacuumed the window treatments.
....fix a wonderful dinner of Oldman's meatloaf with Oldman's homemade mac & cheese.... hey I was starved for carbs.

So I was off Monday for President's Day therefore I decided to do my much thought about Estero Island ride. As I said above, I haven't done it because of road construction on the beginning leg on highway 41. There is suppose to be a bike lane but it has been removed and the highway is a mess.


So after giving Roo a quick bath (pic left) I started out at 7:30 am. It was overcast with patches of fog. Here's a pic looking down my street but you can't see the fog.

The first 10 miles are on the bike lane of Rte 41 until the road construction lanes. I road the right lane when I had to then on to Bonita Beach Road which leads of course to the beach and past Doc's.... I stopped at Lover's Key State Park which is rate as on of the top 10 beaches in the US. It is a beautiful park with wonderful white sand beaches. Here's a pic of Roo at Lover's Key...



Just after I took this pic a truck passed my with a sheet of drywall on the roof. The drywall blew off and crashed into the road. Had I not stopped for the pic it might have hit me! I continued on over 6 bridges into the community of Ft. Myers Beach. It is your typical island beach town with a lot of the 3 wheeled motorcycle engine cars and tourists.

Finally I reached the beyond cat climb of Ft. Myers Beach Bridge. Once at the top I stopped to take some pics, the one above and this one.....



At the top of the bridge I at my cliff bar and then headed home.... I had thought about riding on to Sanibel Island but I'll leave that for the next holiday. The ride was a total of 41 miles with an ave pace of 17.5 mph. I did have a problem with muscle cramps at the 38 mile mark. So I've got to solve that problem. I was drinking regular gatorade rather than endurance formula so maybe that had something to do with it.

I came home to wash windows at my house and I fixed myself a wonderful dinner of meatloaf with homemade mac and cheese which I had with a nice bottle of chardonnay (alone Linda).