We ain't eva gunna be Maina's

We are alive and well and hiding in the woods with some of Daniela's old friends. We are on the door step of Acadia National Park. The Aspen, or super posh, of the National parks. They even sweep the pine needles off the trails around here. But none the less they made this area a park for a reason.

We arrived here of course via Tampa Florida. Not really my home town but the place I went to High School and where many of my home dogs still live. We went to attend the wedding of my best friend in High School. Florida is often thought of as just the big cities and Disney World, but the interior of Florida off the coast is small country town USA. Daniela was very pleasantly surprised. The wedding was in the town of High Springs. This the entry way into a vast network of rivers, caves, and sink holes. Florida is a swamp on top of lime stone rock. Just like the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and Cuba. What this means is that underneath the Florida swamp is just a vast network of honey comb style rock. And thus why we have sink holes and tons of caves under the ground, which are accessible via the rivers. My friend and new wife are very into diving in these caves and so we went to an entry point where they like to dive. Running springs was the name of his spot.

Great wedding, even though it rained before anything could really happen. So just started yelling like Spain had won the world cup and everyone followed. Super fun. Oh yeah and the day after the wedding we floated down the Ithnetucknee River. One hour of lazy floating. Daniela and Damiano had a boat and I just swam down the river. Hanging onto the boat every now and then. Water 15 to 20 feet deep, crystal clear, with some fishies to swim after.

Tampa and FLA were great. Very fun to see old friends. Most fun of all was being able to start hanging with them like we had seen each other yesterday, instead of 10 years. But so humid. Like walk outside 10 minutes drenched oh my gosh did you just jump in a pool humid. I really was expecting to see my breath visibly move the water in the air like when its cold and you can see your breath.

So now we are in Maine. Just outside of Bar Harbor. The bikes arrived yesterday and today we went for our first ride. We rode around the better part of most the island. 45 miles. A lot of it was done on paths inside of the national park that they call Carriage roads. Crushed rock paths that total 50 miles, totally off street, and getting you to some pretty sweet spots. It was very nice to see so many people using them of all different shapes and sizes. They also vary in difficulty, some areas were so steep that Damiano and I were sliding out while going up hill. We also road up Cadillac Mountain. A 5 mile climb like Mt Lemmon that apparently is the biggest mountain on the Atlantic coast of the USA. 360 views of the whole bay and ocean.

We head out tomorrow to start our ride to Quebec. I will try and keep everyone posted. We are having a blast and have even been cold now a few times. Damiano has been walking all over the place and Spain is alive in the tournament. Life is good.

Shout out time:

Alex Strickland: My bikes came in perfect condition. THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!! Also the snacks were a total life saver today.

Richard: For watching my house and taking care of business around there with the tub and all. Also for watching over the team and writing better posts than me.

To the whole team for what sounds like great efforts and a lot of fun. Keep up the good work and lets impress the folks up in Durango. Please keep listening to the coaches, having fun, and riding hard.