FETC Ride Home
I just got back from the Florida Educational Technology Conference in Orlando. Of course, I took the Harley because it was supposed to be good weather most of the time. It turned out that most of the time was pretty nice. I hit a 20 second misty type shower on the way up and that was it. The ride was great with a partly overcast sky and a lot of open highway. While the Florida Turnpike isn’t my favorite road to ride, it was good Wednesday morning. I made it to Orlando in nice time, checked into the hotel and went to the convention center.
Wednesday night I went to dinner provided by Adobe for the Adobe Education Leaders, of which I am a member. It was perfect outside, so I rode the bike to the restaurant. Adobe is a great company that does a lot for education in general, but really puts a lot out through the network of AELs. After eating I rode back to the hotel, but had trouble stopping. It was nice outside, a little cool, and just too great a nice to turn in that early. So, I took a quick run down International Drive in light traffic. I had an early meeting and thought I’d get into bed after the ride, but friends of mine stopped by and … well… we ended up at Bob Marley’s with the group from CompuTrack. Then I ended up with getting to sleep well after 2:00 AM. It made the next day tough to start.
After doing the usual convention stuff and being on my feet all day, we went to the Rosen Center for the Lexmark reception. This is another group that has been involved in the printing end of education for quite a while. We saw many friends there and stayed for almost two hours. From there we went to dinner with Scholastic, a company that provides several reading programs for our district. They took us to Jerry’s, a really nice restaurant that had Bulliet, my favorite bourbon. We got out of there too late to do the Casino Night at the Wyndham and ended up back at the hotel by 11:00. Well, I hadn’t been on the bike yet Thursday and needed to get gas for the return trip Friday. I had my excuse and went for a short ride to refuel. I only passed a half dozen gas stations before forcing myself to stop. The fuel light offered its encouragement, too.
Friday was the last day of the conference and it started early. It was mixed with vendor visits, video taping vendors interviews with companies like BrainPop (featuring Moby the robot), and interviewing other people from our district. I did a little tech support with one of our upper-level administrators and called it a day. My daughter’s birthday was the next day and I called her to meet in Wildwood, about halfway between Orlando and Gainesville where she does graduate studies. So, I drove an hour north to have dinner with her and her boyfriend at a truck stop I like there. I know… classy father… but the food was good and it was about the only thing I knew of in the area.
While eating, the temperatures continued to drop as a cold front moved into the state. Not that it gets that cold in Florida, but the temperature was hitting the high 50’s when I left. I hadn’t brought my heavy jacket and until I lose some significant weight, I can’t even consider the leather overpants. It was going to be a cold ride. I put on as much as I could for my torso: undershirt, long sleeve shirt, leather vest, long sleeve pullover, and a lightly insulated jacket. I also had my gauntlet gloves, which were a little warmer than the light weights I had worn up. My legs just had jeans on them and I felt the cold wind on my knees and thighs.
Having traveled north an extra hour meant I had increased my trip home, too. With temperatures dropping I rode back down the Florida Turnpike with just one stop at Canoe Creek for fuel. I had a hot cup of coffee and tried to get some circulation back in my well-chilled legs. That wasn’t working so I got back on the road. I was surprised at how busy the turnpike was at that time of the night, but I guess a lot of people had weekend destinations. I was in busy traffic the entire ride down, which is about 250 miles. Other than freezing, it was a typical ride with cold, wind, and compound semi’s blasting along the highway. I got in a little after 11:00 PM and got into a hot shower to restore some feeling to my body. It made for a good weekend overall. Sunday, we have our picnic ride. That will be relaxing by comparison and more fun with other bikers. It will be good to meet our friends from the Treasure Coast, too.