I do these rides with my wife for fun. I ride a lot, she doesn’t. We were doing the 32 mile ride. Our fault we left 45 seconds after the main group of 25 leaving at 8:00am. For some reason we weren’t given a map, we were told we didn’t need it, just follow the yellow signs out and white back we were told.

First turn we came to in Brian Piccolo Park where the ride started and we had no idea which way to go, no signs, but I thought I saw the main group go left. We get to the park exit and again so sign which way to go. We go right and about a quarter mile down that road we see a yellow marker, looks like a happy face. We had no idea if we were going the right way or what the happy face meant, we went back for a map.

We get the map, it has pictures explaining what the road symbols mean, that could have helped. We set out again, but this time it’s about 8:23 when we get to the park exit, unfortunately the gate’s now locked, the park employee who locked it road right by us on his golf cart and never said a word.

We decided to get in our car and drive down to the Shark Valley bike loop in the Everglades. Only 16 miles long, but we had a great time, saw lots of alligators by the side of the road and even a huge one eating a 16″ turtle, crazy stuff.

Sorry to say we will not do the SBW Century ride again. Maybe it’s a better elite amateur ride, we weren’t there at 7:00am when the longer rides left. I read somewhere it was one of the best rides in the country. I cannot agree, my personal favorite is the Covered Bridge Metric Century in Lancaster PA, done it many times, never disappointed and thousands of people hanging out having fun afterwards. Ride through Amish country, nice little hills, not many cars and great views of farmland and covered bridges.

Glad to hear you got your karma tank topped of, but I’d still replace the spare tube.