Gator Bug

First, let's start with honesty. I realized after posting last week's blog that I lied. I only did 3 bikes last week. I skipped one. I skipped the one the day Christian came home. This week, the plan looked pretty much exactly the same, except this week I did the 4 bikes, but I skipped the last 30 minute, zone 1 run. Christian did it...he did it at 10pm last night. I refuse to run at 10:00pm!

SO, since we just finished week three in the Foundations training plan, there's not much exciting to talk about b/c it looked like weeks one and two. The good news is, that week four is recovery week! YEA! I get my first REAL day off this Friday!

The other exciting thing is our bike ride this Sunday. See, as mentioned before, drivers suck in Miami. Therefore there are really only 2 "safe" bike rides that anyone does in Miami: #1 ride around Key Biscayne (for you DCites, its like riding Hains Point, but its much bigger, about 12-15 miles around) and #2 ride down south towards Homestead. I often do the south ride b/c it goes right past where I work so I can just end up there or go past and come back. With two rides and what we know is going to be a "very long 6 months," its not good I'm already bored with it. So, Christian and I decided to do something different.

We rode out to the Everglades and decided to ride through "Shark Valley." Why do they call it Shark Valley? I have no idea, its only filled with Gators! Shark Valley is a 15 mile loop into the Everglades and back out. The first couple of miles were filled with people, but the rest was pretty open except for a few cruisers here and there and the occasional tram that goes around the loop. But, there are lots of gators. All just hanging out on the side of the road. Chillin'. We did 2 loops around the thing for about a 1:52 ride. The first half of each loop was great. And the second time around we did 1:45 of 100+rpm 6 times. It was fun. The back half of each loop was windy! OUCH. That got old about 4 miles in, but we persevered! So, we created "Gator Bug." Its just like PunchBug, except, its every time you see a Gator. And you can't really punch the other person on the bike, well, because I would fall! The first time around, I was REALLY good at it! I saw all of them, but when we played on the back half of the last loop, I got STOMPED. I lost, 7-1! :( Oh well, great 30 mile ride, and finally SOMETHING DIFFERENT!

Now, for the not training part of my blog...After our ride, we drove back in and stopped at this place called "The Pit." Its as you would expect, a BBQ joint outside of town, that looked VERY redneck. I had actually heard good things about it, so I was a bit excited, even though I'm really picky about my BBQ. As we came in, it was FILLED with Latinos. Everywhere. To me, this does not help it feel like a bbq joint. Especially when I can see whose cooking in the back. The menu also has NO PULLED PORK! WHAT? How is that? They have "sliced." UGH! Who eats sliced pork. So, after being ignored for a while by the waitress who immediately waited on the Latino couple next to us, we decided to order the ribs (not much other choice since there was no pulled pork). We waited, and waited...and the Latino couple not only got their food, but were almost done and we still had nothing. And the waitress hadn't even looked at us, much less apologize! I finally threw up my hands at her and was like "seriously, where is our food" and it magically appeared. This was only my second experience being discriminated against...man is it not fun. The kicker is, the food was actually pretty good. I was very pleasantly surprised. The ribs were smoky and moist and didn't really need sauce, which is the way it should be! And they were accompanied not by rolls, but by what looked and tasted like beignets, without the powdered sugar. When she asked if we wanted honey, I didn't understand, but then after eating them, I wished I had said yes! YUMMO!

So, will we ever go back? To the bike ride, definitely (especially since we forgot the camera)...to "the Pit," um, maybe only to carry out. It was pretty darn good...oh, I almost forgot the best part...we are sitting in a VERY REDNECK looking restaurant (complete with a sign with a Dixie flag on it), that is FILLED with Latinos and some guy singing in Spanish, when in walks this VERY large drag queen to order from the carry out window! HA! It was AWESOME! Didn't expect to see that out in the boonies. In Key West, yes, in the city of Miami, yes (except there's no redneck joints there)...but not there! AWESOME!