The group agreed to a ride to Ave Maria, FL. Now this town is not like any other town in FL. It is in the middle of nowhere. No sandy beaches, no traffic jams from snowbirds, visiting for the winter, no nightlife to speak of ......just a few people investing their lives in this remote area of FL....and a Publix supermarket which is subsidized by the developers. Here is a link to the history of the town.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria,_Florida
We started from North Naples and headed out to Ave Maria via directions I had from a previous charity ride that I had done to this area in late November. Al Lowich, Dennis Whitney, Bob Smith and yours truly attended this ride. We had an earlier discussion in the morning about whether the ride was a go due to predictions of rain. Of course there were several weather people opinions of when the rain was going to start so I went with the most optimistic prediction that the rain would not start until the afternoon which gave us plenty of time to get there and back. Thank goodness we had a headwind on the way out which meant that most likely the wind direction would not change and we would have a nice tailwind coming home. That turned out to be true!
The roads got less busy as we headed down Immokalee Road and out towards a right turn onto Oil Well Rd. Not much to tell about the ride out there as there was not much to see except a few schools and some houses until there was nothing more to see. Ave Maria was still about ten miles away but the bike lane was wide and with little traffic the ride was pleasant.
Finally we arrived at the entrance to the town.
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There was a U-pick farm right beyond the entrance on the way into town.
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We were still about 3 miles out from the center of town after the initial sign. There were housing developments, a commerce center which consisted of one gas station and a car wash ( and even these businesses are new) with four or five empty storefronts.
Arriving into town we saw this.
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And this.....
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Even though it was 10:30 AM there was not much in town open. We stopped at the Smoothie shop which served coffee and snacks.....and ice cold water in a container near the fountain drinks. Great place to refill a water bottle for sure. As we were stopped we felt rain drops but quickly dismissed it as water from the building that was being power washed and dripping from the roof. As we were enjoying our much needed rest stop ( due to the headwind) it started to shower.....this time for sure. Rut row. Now we are in a bit of trouble. We were almost 20 miles back from the start and facing a wet ride home. Dennis checked the weather on his phone and confirmed that we needed to get back to the start as quickly as possible. It wasn't going to be pretty at all!
One last photo of the town and we were on our way. This one is the main administrative building of the university.
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We headed back to the main road. Wait....we are missing Bob Dennis yelled to me. Turns out Bob was still putting on sunscreen and we accidentally left him at the Smoothie shop. Dennis and Al went back for Bob and quickly found him so that we could get on our way. I took this photo while waiting for them to meet me where they told me to wait. You can see part of the college buildings behind the sign.
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On the road again, the showers were light and even had stopped for a while. Whew.....did we just dodge a bullet? Nope.
We headed back on Oil Well and we hadn't even made it back to the shortcut home when the showers became more steady. Ugh..... Wet bikes, wet shoes, wet us!!! It didn't let up until the last 5 or so miles from the start of the ride.
Next time I will not be so optimistic. We were soaked. I didn't have any dry clothes with me so after I wiped the road dirt off the bike Al and I headed for the nearest store with a bathroom for paper towels to dry off our leg, our feet .....and yes our butts from the rooster tails!
Hopefully the next ride will be drier!!!!
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