Ride Report: Gator Country Hell Week

Mike Vermeulen said:

I recently cycled a ride known as Gator Country Hell Week. This is an
eight day 765 mile supported ride in Florida. My trip report is
posted here: http://www.mvermeulen.com/gator/index.html

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

Hey Mike,

From your report:

" The airport was busy, but flowed smoothly to get my bike boxed and on
the plane to Tampa."

Does this mean you boxed your bike at the airport? Was there some reason
not to do it at home first?

Sounds like you should have taken your bike along in the rental car when
you dropped it back off after arriving at the Super 8 ô¿Ô¬

--
*****************************
Chuck Anderson • Boulder, CO
http://www.CycleTourist.com
Integrity is obvious.
The lack of it is common.
*****************************

account. It looks like a disadvantage of winter riding is that, even in FL,
you just don't have enough hours of daylight! Did your group prohibit night
riding? Or did you just opt not to?
"Mike Vermeulen" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I recently cycled a ride known as Gator Country Hell Week. This is an
eight day 765 mile supported ride in Florida. My trip report is
posted here: http://www.mvermeulen.com/gator/index.html

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

Quoted message said:

" The airport was busy, but flowed smoothly to get my bike boxed and on
the plane to Tampa."

Does this mean you boxed your bike at the airport? Was there some reason
not to do it at home first?

Sounds like you should have taken your bike along in the rental car when
you dropped it back off after arriving at the Super 8 ô¿Ô¬

Sorry for the confusion:
I drove to the Denver airport with my bicycle in a rental car (I don't
own an automobile). I boxed my bicycle at the Denver airport using an
airline box. I flew to Tampa. In Tampa, I rented a second automobile
and drove to Fort Myers. At Fort Myers, I dropped the bike at the
motel and then dropped the car at the airport. I took a taxi from
Fort Myers airport back to the motel.

Why the convoluted combination:
+ I typically box my bicycle at the airport using airline boxes. This
is mostly from habit since I frequently fly into one airport and out
another. In this case, using a hard sided case and boxing at home
would have worked.
+ Flying to Tampa and driving to Fort Myers was cheaper than flying to
Fort Myers...plus timing of flights was better.

In addition to using your own hard sided boxes; a number of other
riders went to local UPS/FedEx to ship their bikes. This is a
combination I want to investigate further. I typically like to fly
with my bike to an airport, assemble the bike in the airport and cycle
away...

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

Quoted message said:

account. It looks like a disadvantage of winter riding is that, even in FL,
you just don't have enough hours of daylight! Did your group prohibit night
riding? Or did you just opt not to?

Guess one just has to ride in the southern hemisphere :-)...The group
rules disallowed night riding though I don't know how strongly that
would be enforced. While I have no problems riding in familiar
territory at night, it is also more daunting to ride unfamiliar roads
at night.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen