And a big WOW.   It's been awhile since my last post but much has happened since then. The old computer where my blog is stored has finally "bellied up". Therefore, my posts have been less frequent.  But, I have fixed the problem and am back to my blogging. New Year has come and gone, January has come and gone and here it is the first part of February.  Not much has been happening on the biking front as far as outdoor riding except for my annual jaunt to Key West, Florida.  In fact, we just got back.  The good news is we avoided a huge ice storm in and around central Illinois.  The weather in Key West started out a little windy and cool.  Winds were from the ESE at between 15 mph and 25 mph which made for excellent biking and the temp began in the upper 60's but soon heated up to the 80's.  Unlike past years, I didn't post vacation information as I have been advised that to do so would invite thieves and marauders into my home to engage in thievery. As such I am doing so now in the comfort of my own home.  

For the first time since we began vacationing in South Florida we flew directly from Bloomington into Key West exchanging planes in Atlanta.  I suspect that will be my preferred method in the future.  Normally we fly into either West Palm Beach or Miami in order to spend time with our friend Sue who lives in Royal Palm Beach.  This year she had plans that would conflict with our vacation time thus the direct flight to Key West.  And, as to be expected the flight down turned out to be quite an adventure.  Leaving Washington the temp was a frosty -12 degrees.  Our flight was to leave at 6:00 a.m.  Unfortunately, our Delta flight was changed from a reasonable 2 hour layover in Atlanta to less than an hour.  But, if we left on time the layover period would have been sufficient.  Ha Ha. Not so fast buddy boy.  After boarding, we were informed their would be a 20 minute delay to "de-ice" the plane.  In addition, we had to check our carry on bags at the door since our "puddle jumper" would not accommodate carry on bags in the overhead.  Now we were on a very tight schedule.  With a half our to spare we landed in Atlanta.  But, and I'm not exaggerating, we taxied 15 minutes before we were at the gate.  Now time was really short and plan B was to see when the next flight to Key West  left Atlanta.  Finally our bag arrived and I realized we needed to get from gate F to gate B.  That required descending two flights of escalators and taking the tram.   Now, we really had to move. As luck would have it, we made the gate 3 minutes before they closed the gate.  We had to check our carry on's and could not use the overheads.  So when we arrived in Key West we had to wait at baggage claim amid a large throng of people for our luggage.  As it turned out, we would have been wise to check our bags in Bloomington saving time throughout the whole trip down.  Currently, the airport in Key West is not big enough to handle the amount of traffic it now sees.  They are expanding the facility but until it's finished the crowds in their terminal rival anything seen in Chicago's Midway or Ohare airports.  Enough for now, more on the actual vacation later.