The L8est & Gr8est

Well, a few people have been wondering where in the heck we are right now. We’re supposed to be writing you posts about farm life, right? Nope…not too long after we arrived at the farm, we were summoned by Jared’s mother to ride down to Melbourne to dog-sit. Doodie calls…it was time to go scoop some poop and help out Jar’s ma.

We decided that even though it would be a bummer to leave the farm so soon, something didn’t feel quite right about the abrupt end to our tour. We were a little depressed, shell-shocked, or something. It was hard to adjust to the stable life so soon after all the non-stop movement and sensory overload. My CrazyGuyOnaBike journal about our current tour is called the Post Tour Cycling Disorder (PTCD) Tour.

We sorta planned on being back on the farm long ago thinking the whole tour/dog-sitting deal would only take about a week. However, our non-plan plans changed. We stayed in Melbourne through a 2 week stint of almost nonstop rain and flooding. We hung out with Mary Votel and watched a lot of “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance?” We also ate to our heart’s content. I think Mary was trying to fatten Jared up. She kept buying us more and more food!

We were then summoned by Jared’s father to ride up to Jacksonville to parrot-sit and dogsit. Since we’d already planned on riding up A1A on the way back to Gainesville, we decided more animal watching was in order for the current tour. So said goodbye to Jared’s mommy Mary (photo below) and pedaled on up to Jacksonville and have been here for about a week now.

Somewhere in all this dog-walking and poop-scooping, I also got to see my “bestest fwend” since grade school, Jess. We met each other through our USS swim team in Virginia Beach, VA. It just so happens that she is attending chiropractic school at the Palmer Institute in Daytona Beach, or as she likes to call it, “Dirtona.” Here is a photo of Jess on her chiropractic table with my big gay pirate that she is watching for me while I travel around on my bike like a hobo:

While visiting her on Memorial Day, Jess insisted that we go surfing. Jess goes out somewhere around Daytona Beach/New Smyrna just about everyday. I knew this was going to be a bad scene, but I went along with it just so I could see Jess tear it up. It became very clear to me just how increasingly foreign this activity has become for me over the years.

Jess kept reminding me about our goof-troop surf sessions back in the day. For the most part we would paddle and float around…sometimes actually ride waves…and laugh at ourselves a whole lot. Shoot, I even had my own surfboard.

Sometimes I’d surf with my little brother. At the time he was a sponger (boogie boarder). I used to joke him about that, which is sorta funny to me now. Little bro is now a ripper. He’s a competitive surfer whose passion has recently been put on hold. He was living in San Diego and broke his leg last month while attempting to land a 360. Now he has 5 pins in his tibia. Long story short I have been around surfing all my life even though I haven’t paddled out in a looong time.

But If you’d seen me out there on Memorial Day you would never know I’d ever had any exposure to the sport. First off, I was really intimidated by the whole deal and getting in the water with other people surfing and lots of people watching. I mean, we are taking MEMORIAL DAY at friggin DAYTONA BEACH. You know, the Redneck Riviera where people take their lifted trucks to cruise up and down and park on the beach. We couldn’t leave the beach without seeing a few thong drive-bys and then witnessing a domestic dispute with a girl yelling “Whore!!!” at a woman who appeared to be her mom.

Second, I kept using hilarious terminology to describe surfing terms that definitely exist somewhere within the cobwebs of my brain. For example, I couldn’t seem to grasp the term “leash” or how to use the darn thing. When we were about to walk down to the water with the boards, I asked Jess whether I should put the “cord” on. She laughed and said, “Babe, the boards not goin’ anywhere until you get into the water. And where are you comin’ up with ‘cord?’ It’s a leash babe. Come-on now you know this stuff.” Then when we got out of the water I said, “Should I take the strap-off now?” Jess started laughing hysterically and we started making jokes about strap-ons. Though I didn’t really catch any waves, I had fun laughing at myself. Also Jess has gotten pretty awesome and it was exciting to watch her get some good rides.

Speaking of rides. Eventually we are going to ride our bikes back to the farm. I will keep you posted on our whereabouts until then….

-lar

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