Florida training and christmas holidays

So, after the last winter ride of the year with the biggest Cadence group I have ride with at -15c (Craig S., Ryan, Kate, Shawn, Andrea, Erik, Thomas and myself) I was almost ready and packed to head down to Florida for some time off and holidays with the family. The ride was pretty much in between the city limits, but mostly single tracks (including 12 mile up and down, Bowmont, Side Show Bob, and the south side of the train tracks towards down town). I bailed after 45 - 50k to head back home and finish packing for the big trip. With Maria and Nick ready for the Sunday flight all was left was to land safely in Florida and unpack my new Ridley X Fire to get out and ride in the +30c temperatures of this side of the country. Went out first for a quick test ride of 45k to Jensen Beach to make sure the bike was working fine and next day with minimal preparation and hesitation headed down from Port Saint Lucie to Fort Lauderdale (where I previously made arrangements with my brother in law to pick me up in his way back from Miami....)

Beautiful cost ride mostly on the highway A1A with the ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other side. Not a big shoulder as I am use to ride in Canada, but good enough to stay away from getting ran over.. I had some gels, bars, juice, and three bottles, but with the +30c I knew I would need to make a few stops for water. I manged to find a few gas stations where 2+ more litters of water made my buddy felt a bit cooler and hydrated during the ride along the coast.

I was feeling well all the way and with minimum elevation I wasn't fatigued at all, in fact I was pretty much pushing the same speed (32+/-k/p/h) from beginning to end. Some sections of the road did not have shoulder at all and with a few yells and fingers I managed to stay focused and kept pedaling to my destiny. The night before I googled the route and knew that I had to take a few roads where the island breaks, so I wrote in a paper and taped it to the handle bar the different names and didn't get too lost more than once. I stayed mostly on hwy US1, Dixie Hwy, A1A which are all parallel to hwy 95, but less busy.. I had in mind that the ride could be around 140k, but ended up been 175k in 6hrs of riding time +30min of stopping time in between lights, open bridges and water refills. My brother in law picked me up as planned just across from the Marriott hotel in front of this amazing beach in the picture and treated me for dinner in our drive back.
The new bike felt awesome, amazingly stiff and pretty solid. Love the geometry and the SRAM shifters, ah and of course the disk breaks which will be of great help once I am back in Calgary on the winter rides (main reason why I bought this bike).
Tomorrow morning another 40k ride before Maria and Nick are up and then get ready for another 150k+ ride up to Cape Canaveral along hwy A1A.