Yesterday it rained.

Yesterday it rained. Like the day before, and before that. But I had time to myself, and I was healthy. The "cold" that everyone seems to have had this winter was past (3 weeks to full, total recovery.) Then last week, on my way back to exercising, I torqued my lower back. So, I sat in the house and watched movies.

Yesterday it rained. I heard about a new Rails-To-Trails (http://www.railtrails.org/index.html) project that recently opened in the center part of the county. I was eager to try it out, on my bike. There was lots of yard work to do, the good kind that shows results at the end of the day. Tasks like putting in mulch, flowers, etc.

Yesteday it rained. So I blew off all of that. I looked up the directions to the Rail Trail. 2 miles west of the highway on S.R. 207.

It takes a while to get ready to go biking. I don't know why. Filled the Camelback. Energy bar, bandannas, GPS, put the seats down, take the front wheel off bike, bike in car, wheel in car, Camelback pack in car. Ipod. I drove off.

Onto 207, watching the odometer. It's raining hard. 1 mile...strange little side road, no cars. Passed roadside ped path, the kind that large housing developments are forced to put in. At 2 miles, open farmland. Flat, Florida farmland. No idea what kinds of vegetables or plants those are, I can only pick out corn. Are they tomatoes? No, they grow those in greenhouses. Don't they?

At 4 miles from I-95 I turned around. 4-way divided highway, pouring rain, This Week in Science podcast playing, rain washing up against the rear wheel wells.

3 miles back, pulled into that side road past the ped path. Is this it? I can't tell. 500 yards or so to the end. Aha! There it is, a 10 foot wide black asphalt strip between the trees, perfectly straight, like a railroad track. There didn't seem to be any parking, just the end of the road, so I parked. And waited.

Yesterday it rained. In a short amount of time the sky brightened, then the rain slowed. I grabbed an "emergency" poncho out of the geocaching backpack. (You oughta be in plastics.) 3" by 1/2" into a full sized poncho with arm holes and a hood!

Out of the car, open the trunk, wheel out. Bike out. Wheel on. Lightly raining. Helmet on, gloves on, backpack on. Crap! Poncho off. Backpack on. Lock car. Go!

Thinking: Not sure I'd bring the kids here. They go slow on their little bikes. Water on either side of the path: snakes likely, mosquitoes certain, alligators possible. Although it is a smooth, straight path.

Raining harder. No thunder, no lightning. GPS says 14.2MPH, bike computer says 15.1MPH. That's good to know. Only recently got my GPS mount for my bike.

Still, having fun, pumping along, lots of wind noise on the Amazing Plastic Poncho, keeping my core dry and nothing else. 1 mile, 2 miles...

Something is in the path. It can't be this short, can it? As I get closer I recognize concrete railroad ties...and railroad tracks.

It was 2.5 miles each way. It was odd that my GPS and bike computer agreed on the distance but not the rolling speed. Bug in the bike computer? Effects of cloud cover on the GPS?

My car was no longer alone. There was a truck and a camper...a full bus-sized one, but they were not together.

As I opened my trunk I was now completely oblivious to the rain. I did meet a man named Chris, the one in the truck. He came to ride the trail in his recumbent bike. He has ridden the Jax-Baldwin Rail Trail for over 2000 miles! I don't know if he ever got out on the short trail because, well,

Yesterday, it rained.