Bermuda was fun while it lasted. Thanks to Ms. Florence and her anticipated 80+mph winds, I had two less days in Bermuda than expected. Much more a vacation than a bike race, there was a lot of time spent on the beach and out on the town, which was good for me since I had not raced in well over a month and wasn't exactly at my peak of fitness. Thank goodness I had absolutely no expectations for the actual racing part of the trip or I would have been extremely disappointed.
The opening reception for the race was held at the headquarters of Bacardi International and featured an open bar. By the end of the night, it was obvious that skinny cyclists who do not normally drink much should not be allowed near an open bar.
Lesson # 1 from Bermuda: Do not tell a Bermudian bartender that the Dark and Stormy he made for you (a mixture of rum and ginger beer and Bermuda's national drink) does "not look very dark," unless you want your drink to taste solely of dark rum. The featured quote was from my teammate Gina and led to us both watering down our drinks, and later feeding them to the lawn.
Riding our bikes around the island was fun, though it was challenging to remember to ride on the left side of the road. Plus, I don't think I have ever sweated as much as I did there; it was so humid. It was a nice way to get around, though, and the beach was an easy ride from our host house. The water was so blue and clear. Unfortunately, I never actually remembered to take my snorkel and mask to the beach; I remembered to take them to Bermuda, but then never remembered to use them while there.
Lesson # 2 from Bermuda: Do not ride your bike home in your bikini unless you want to be pulled over for "indecency." We were riding our bikes home from the beach when two female police officers told us we needed to cover our bottom halves because it "caused the men to honk." In retrospect, we did get a lot of honks, and even some applause, but none of us thought anything of it. Apparently, you can wear your bikini top off of the beach, but you must have your bottom half covered.
We originally planned to just get around the island by bike, and occasionally by bus. Scooter rentals are available all over the island and seem to be the way most people get around in Bermuda (not surprising since gas is nearly $7/gallon). We decided we would rent three scooters, putting two of us on each one, so Eric and I walked down the hill from our house to the scooter shop. Jenn and Meg had already picked up their scooter, so they were all set.
We were given our helmets, followed by a brief lesson on how to ride the scooter. Eric did his test ride up the hill by our house, and then it was my turn. I immediately gave the scooter too much throttle and found myself heading straight for a wall. The guy was yelling at me to use my brakes, which I figured out just in time. The guy shook his head at me and gave me a repeat lesson. I looked at Eric and said, "This may not be a good idea. Maybe Gina should drive it instead." He told me I would be fine, so off I went up the hill on my test ride.
I got to the top of the hill and stopped to turn around. I had been instructed to just push myself around with my feet, rather than actually trying to ride the scooter around (I think I had scared the man a bit). I put my feet down and suddenly the scooter was out from under me, but I was still holding on. I tried to grab the brake, thinking the right hand was the brake (WRONG!), and was totally out of control. Finally, I managed to grab the brake, which caused the scooter and me to spin around in circles together before crashing right in the middle of the street in front of our host house. We went down hard. I was very frazzled and ran into our host house to get Jenn to ride the scooter back down to the shop for me. In my haste, I had not only left the scooter lying on its side in the middle of the street, but had even left it running! Needless to say, that was the end of my scooter riding. I ended up with a nasty bruise on my right thigh and a scratched elbow. Oh, and just maybe I had a little bit of a bruised ego.
Lesson # 3 from Bermuda: If you nearly drive your scooter into a wall, it is time to call it quits. Throttle takes practice.
We got word that the last two stages of the race would be cancelled, and that we needed to make arrangements to change our flights. Fortunately, we were all able to change our flights to the following day (Saturday), which ended up being the last day to fly out before the hurricane hit. Everyone went out Friday night and had a good time... and probably a little too much to drink. I managed to end up having a local guy follow me around all evening, which got really old. Even after several people told him I was not interested and that he should leave me alone, he followed us down the street to a different bar.
Lesson # 4 from Bermuda: If someone is creepy and will not leave you alone, do not make efforts to be polite and kind. Straight-up tell the person to get away from you.
I knew it was going to be tight to swim with the dolphins and make my flight on-time on Saturday. Jenn was nice enough to drive me on her scooter to the end of the island where the dolphins are kept. They are kept inside the maritime museum, which is really interesting. I wish I would have had more time to walk around there.
Swimming with the dolphins was a wonderful experience. I lucked out with being the only person in my session, whereas the next session had ~15 people. I got the full half hour to myself, which meant that I got to interact with them a great deal. They are fascinating, adorable, intelligent creatures. As my last experience in Bermuda, I could not have asked for a better one.
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