My vacation baby and Strava KOM's

OK - I just got home from a little over a week of vacation. I know, rough life. Destination was North Topsail Island, NC.

On the way down we made a pit stop in Greensboro to stop and see the Mellanders. Paul moved to real mountain bike and real BBQ country and hasn't looked back. This is my only time to hang out with everyone and enjoy some good food with friends.  The Mellanders surprised us with some great homemade ravioli - I was shown the path so it could be in my future. I always enjoy these educational cooking dinners - they give me the confidence to try to make new things and make my cooking better. It was Paul who took me under his wing and helped me become the cook I am today. Thank you Paul (and Maureen too!) My family and friends Thank you too!

Next up the beach. Carisa and I brought our bikes. We each got out and got some miles in when we could (early mornings and nap times). I ended up with over 125 miles in there. Topsail is a very bike friendly community. I never felt in danger once while riding (from traffic). My first ride out there was to get the lay of the land - and ride over the inter coastal bridge to the island. Man the wind on the bridge is a little un-nerving. Being not too happy with heights doesn't help either, as you ride along and notice that if you would swerve and hit the guardrail, it is the perfect height to hit it and hold the bike back but launch me off in to the gator waters below.....

The Strava segments I found..... Sneads Ferry Bridge: 3rd out of 19.  Never could get over the bridge without a cross wind of some kind. Not bad- that is a true effort shown. Sneads Ferry Bridge East Bound: tied for 8th out of 13 (with Carisa) - same deal, crosswind but now winded from just attacking the other direction. 210 Sneads Ferry to Surf City: 1st out of 17, I totally saved myself just for this segment this day. It was a full gas time trial effort. Head down and pound it out. My ride home was ugly. Topsail Townline Sprint - this was a toughy, only got one shot at it and there was no clear way to tell where it started and stopped. So I did my best guess and hammered again. 3rd place out of 19. Should be 2nd - as 1st and 2nd was done on a tandem, and they only got me by 1 second over a half mile. DANG! The last segment I found was 210 Surf City to Sneads Ferry. First out of 22. Not too bad. Again when I did this I treated it as a Time Trial and took my time to warm up there before hammering it home and getting it. I was toasty after this one.  Overall the riding was great!

The food in Topsail is very very good. I love seafood. Plenty of places to go that cook fresh seafood. Also lots of places there that have really good junk food. Some of my favorites places I remember were Riverview (best hush puppies and grilled shrimp and fish), The Corner Bake Shop (Amazing cookies, cinnamon rolls, and croissants), Daily Dip has very good ice cream. We also visited Wilmington and hit Chop's Deli and had one of the best sandwiches I have ever had there - the Amsterdam (it was a daily special, not normally on the menu) and then we went to Kilwin's. Both of those places were excellent.

I came home and weighed myself. Moment of truth. I gained. I gained A LOT. I did eat pretty much anything I wanted, just like the old days. SEVENTEEN POUNDS. Yes you read that right. I left weighing 190lbs. Saturday when we got home I got on the scale and it said 207. I expected a gain - maybe 8 pounds, 10 max.... but 17? HOLY COW! Needless to say Sunday I was back on MyFitnessPal. So vacation weigh must not be a real weight - or maybe it didn't have a chance to grab hold. Getting back to my cheerios, regular lunch and dinner, Sunday night I got on the scale again, about the same time as the day before. I weighed 195lbs... are you kidding me - 12 pounds? INSANE...... that is a ton of water and junk weight. The foods on vacation must be full of salt and other retaining things..... it is all I can figure. Craziness.