Tropical Storm Barry brought us a night's worth of good, soaking rain, our first significant rain in many months and much needed. The forecast was for rain all Saturday, too, but the radar looked reasonably clear in the morning so we paid another visit to Leu Gardens.
The effect of just one night's rain was amazing. Already the plants had lifted their hearts to heaven, puttin out new growth and blossoms. Except for a wedding party, I think most people were kept away by the forecast, because we had our own private garden for most of the time.Later, despite a still-iffy forecast and a high wind and tornado watch, we biked the last leg of the West Orange Trail, from the Bo An Buddhist Center to Apopka and across the new bridge over Route 441. We didn't have high expectations of a trail that goes through some of the more run-down parts of Apopka, but there was very little city biking and much of the trail was shaded by an oak canopy. The sky was overcast and kept threatening to break into storm (courtesy of Tropical Storm Barry), but we stayed dry and enjoyed the relative coolness. The headwind on the way back was sometimes hard to fight, however!
The trip was just over 13 miles and easy going in most places, but I was really glad to note that my problems from last week must have been un-recovered muscles rather than sand in the bicycle works, as I felt fine and had no trouble at all keeping up a good pace. Muscles heal themselves, given time and good treatment, but bikes rarely do.
