oh, the carnage…

have you ever been tooling down the highway enjoying a pretty spring morning and felt a "thunk" and immediately think ohmystars what did i just run over?
well, i'm happy to report that all the squirrels and possums of florida are alive and healthy.
our bikes?
notsomuch.
a quick glance in the rearview mirror was all it took for the hubster to realize that it was our bikes that were the casualties. we were so worried the bike rack was going to fall off the car. so worried that our trip down to florida was punctuated by numerous stops to check to make sure it was on securely, and even made a  target stop to purchase nylon rope to extra-extra secure the rack to the car.
i'm happy to also report that the rack was still securely attached to the car.

what straps looked like

no straps

who would have imagined that the straps to the rack would just spontaneously snap off? 

ummm. not me. nor the hubster.
i would have taken pictures at the scene of the carnage if
a) i could get to my little ghetto camera (since my nice nikon had decided to call it quits during our vacation) and
b) if the little ghetto camera's batteries hadn't died (new set of batteries made it 1/2 way through the little photo shoot of bama girl and her friends. grrrr…) and
c) if the hubster wouldn't have found the opportunity to take photos an inappropriate activity since we had major wreckage to contain so we could get back on the road.
(of course, the thought of insurance coverage didn't occur to us until after all was loaded back up.)
we took my bike apart and put it in the back seat, and hooked the hub's bike back up on what was left of the rack and just prayed it would hold it until we got home.
once we were back on the road, we started to laugh. i mean, what else can you do? we also thanked God that we were traveling back on a weekday instead of the weekend when everyone leaves the beach to head home. no traffic and no one behind us allowed us to avoid what could have been a very tragic outcome. and our rental car was unscathed. that too was an opportunity to return thanks!

the hubs bike

many of my bike parts are still on the roadside of florida

the only thing worse for the wear were our bikes. after 18 miles on tuesday, my a*s was not so sad to see the untimely demise of my bike, but i do enjoy getting out on my bike at times, and it will be missed.
we made it home without any other incident, and our bikes are now at the bike doctor on life support. we should get a diagnosis sometime in the next week.
after our track record with bike in destin (my bikewreck with a wobbly 12 year old) and now this. perhaps we should just stick to walking on the beach.
i kind of wish we had put up a little roadside memorial in remembrance of the great sacrifice our bikes made for our fitness.

just in case you might want to know what to avoid