Considering how much I love being in the bunny club, I’m not sure if this qualifies as good or bad news.  Either way, I’m now officially in the Gator Club.  I was cruising along the Little Econ, looking for bunnies, when I saw a gator just cruising around in the water.  I tried to get a picture, but I was too scared to get close to the bank.  I also heard a lot of gator activity at different points on the trail–I wonder what it will be like in mating season!

My commutes were wonderful this week.   The ride itself has become much easier and, at the same time, I feel like I am getting faster.  I tried a different strategy this week and drove twice and rode twice.  Jumping in full-force the first week was a bit overwhelming and I need this to be sustainable.  Next week, I plan to ride three times, drive once, and work from home one day.  I’m feeling far less pressure, which is really allowing me to fully enjoy the ride.  I’m tacking on a few unnecessary miles but, in true Scarlett O’Hara fashion, I’m just going to have to think about that tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I was completely irked yesterday to discover that they will be closing a bridge on the trail for two weeks!  They put up this dinky little sign:

See the part that says “We apologize for the inconvenience”?  Yeah, that’s because it’s so tiny that it’s nearly impossible to read.  I’m so frustrated that they would so casually close a bridge for two weeks, seeing as there is no way to get around the water (particularly considering this is gator territory).  Someone on Commute Orlando posted a workaround, but it’s another 1.75 miles.  It takes so much effort to get people out and active in a state like this and now they just shut down the trail with no thought as to how it will impact people that actually use this trail for both recreation and transportation.  I’m so frustrated!  The worst is that there is nothing I can do (at least not that I know of), so I just have to suck it up and add a crappy ~2 miles to my ride and take out a portion of the pleasant trail section of my ride.

It never ceases to amaze me the time, money, and energy they put into telling people to get active, but then they seem to do everything to prevent it.