Daily surprises
Each day something different happens on our rides, keeping life interesting.
There’s a house on our route on A1A, off to the left at the north end of Delray Beach, with a tall two-story window in the front. It’s normally covered in gauzy drapes and the lights are out when we come by so early. One pitch black morning (Chelsea was in California) I could see light through the trees. Getting closer, I was rewarded with a spectacular view of an absolutely stunning chandelier, fully lit in the pre-dawn dark with each of its hundreds of crystal prisms shimmering and reflecting the light.
We look for it every day now, and we’ve seen it lighted since, but it’s always been covered by the gauzy drapes, unlike that first incredible day.
One early morning while Chelsea was in California I caught up with and passed another rider. He sped up to ride with me a ways. While talking, he made a bit of a sarcastic comment about my heavy bike and wide tires. I told him I knew I could get thinner tires, but why bother since I’m gaining strength and I’ll need it for our upcoming tour.
That got him asking questions about our tour. He was fascinated, and for the next few minutes he kept his iPhone up over his head, talking away and taking photos of me as we rode, telling me he can’t wait to post them on his Facebook page. That was a bit unnerving. I never did get his name and Facebook page. Hopefully I looked stunning in the photos.
Another morning I passed a lifeguard on his way to work at Ocean Ridge Inlet and spent some time chatting with him before he peeled off to his beach location. The same morning I passed a rider who passed me a few minutes later. I then passed him and so help me, he passed me a few minutes later. I said hello to him, but he barely spoke, muttering something about seeing a fox when he’s out early.
That got my attention, so every day I kept my eyes out for a fox. I figured if he could see one, I could too. Throughout the weeks I saw possums, I saw raccoons, I saw a huge great blue heron, and I even saw an osprey resting in a tree overlooking the Intracoastal in South Palm Beach, but no fox.
Then finally I saw my fox…running down the road ahead of me in Manalapan, crossing from the Intracoastal over to a huge piece of undeveloped land on the ocean side of the road. It was many weeks before I saw the fox again; this time Chelsea was with me. The fox was up in South Palm Beach in the condo area, running across the road from the condos over to the Intracoastal. It stopped and looked at us for a moment as we passed by, then it took off running.
We’ve seen that fox several times since…the latest sighting was a few Sundays ago on Chelsea’s birthday. She was armed with her camera this time. We halted quickly and quietly, while the fox graciously gave Chelsea time to get her camera out. Chelsea snapped a few quick photos, but didn’t have her long lens on. She’ll keep it on now, and with any luck we’ll get better photos soon.
Riding in the pitch black makes for some exciting moments occasionally, as it did last week a few minutes into our ride when Chelsea let out a quiet shriek and swerved on her bike. We’d been riding right next to each other in the neighborhood closest to ours, across Military Trail, when a baby possum darted right under Chelsea’s wheels. She swerved to miss it; thank heaven it had the sense to freeze so it didn’t go under my wheels. By the time I realized what happened we were already past it (a matter of a few seconds), but it took a few moments for Chelsea’s adrenaline rush to calm down.
Though we’ve seen some incredible sights, perhaps the most amazing and unusual was just last week. We were in Manalapan, passing the last gorgeous section of ocean views, heading down a short hill to the next lovely section where we ride along the Intracoastal between the mansions and the yachts. Chelsea suddenly hollered “turtle!”. I tend to be pretty hard-nosed about stopping…when we’re riding I want to ride…but hearing “turtle!’ was enough for me to slam on my brakes.
I should explain that we live in an area where the loggerhead and leatherback turtles come ashore to lay their eggs from May to October. The nests are protected and are inspected every day by volunteers. The babies gradually break out of the eggs and crawl to the water.
I walked five miles a day on Delray Beach, three to five days a week for over three years, and never got to see a turtle come ashore. I did see a few stray baby turtles on occasion, and dozens of nests over the years, but no turtles. We even spent hours one memorable summer night waiting in the silence on Spanish River Beach in Boca Raton with a marine biologist, hoping against hope that we’d spot turtles coming ashore to lay eggs. No luck then either.
Fast forward to present day. Guess what Chelsea had spotted on our ride…she’d spotted two monstrous loggerhead sea turtles on the shore. One was slowly and laboriously making its way back into the water after laying its eggs and covering them up, but the other one was on its way up to make a nest. We stood nearly holding our breath with excitement. We did have binoculars, but no camera.
We spent over twenty minutes watching the turtle come ashore, dig a space, then turn around and head back out. She didn’t lay any eggs; we think it was far too light for her to lay. Normally they work only in the middle of the night, and though it was still quite dark, she wouldn’t have had time to lay the eggs, cover them, and get back into the water till well after the sun rose.
We slow down at that spot now, every day without fail, but so far haven’t had any more turtle sightings. We are still full of hope…