Posts Tagged ‘ BubbaFest 2011 ’

LifeShape Lap-Band patient Lori gives her final wrap  up about her experiences with her recent bike tour and her weight loss journey with LifeShape.

Last Day:

We were up fairly early this morning about 5:30am, however we chilled out, packed, got coffee and ate breakfast. We finally biked out of camp arounf 8:15 or 8:30 am. It was a very challenging ride against the wind and over the bridges, we only stopped a few times since we wanted to get the ride done!! we finally made it to the hotel, loaded the bikes up, got our luggage and headed to our motel. relaxed and showered and headed to the final pool party with food and beverage. we hated to eat and run, but we were beat and the beds at the hotel looked really good after sleeping on an air mattress in a tent for a week. before I shut my eyes I am finishing my blog. i am so thankful for this opportunity of a lifetime thanks to Dr. Fusco for making this possible and Kathy for your guidance and company on this amazing trip and putting up with me for an entire week!!!

Final Wrap-up

On jan 25th I will celebrate my  2 year mark from getting my lapband. With the guidance and support from the whole lifeshape team and my new friends I have been able to accomplish things I have never even imagined doing before my weight loss journey because I was too heavy, too out of breath, too out of shape, had no endurance or confidence. I started with workouts at the lifeshape gym with the fitness trainers, then running and biking. Funny how I soon found myself getting addicted to getting exercise. It gave me more energy than I have ever had, I was loosing weight, feeling great and meeting lots of new friends with the same addiction as me. I felt 10 years younger. I was even running 5 k’s, half marathons, and sometimes winning races in my age group. Then Dr. Fusco held a essay contest to give away a trip called “Bubbafest” to one of his lapband patients. this trip sounded like something I would enjoy, so i wrote my essay about my running and biking.  I was on cloud nine after finding out I was  the lucky winner of  ”Bubbafest”. Now let me explain what this Bubbafest is. It’s a weeklong biking and camping trip in which you ride your bike with about 200 other people 55 miles from  Key largo Fl  to Marathon Fl, camp overnight then bike 45 miles from Marathon Fl to Key west Fl where we stayed 3 nights at a campground so we could explore Key west. We were allowed 2 bags (one was my blanket, pillow and sheets and the other was my clothes for the weeklong trip) Bubba had a crew of people that would haul our bags, set up your tent, blow up your air mattress for you,  provide bike repair and support if you need it.  we also had special people that provided us with coffee every morning, cooked our breakfast and also took care of dinner all nights except for 2 nights. then the last 2 days we would bike from Key west to marathon, spend the night then bike to Key Largo. ( this was 100 miles of biking against the wind)  Funny  how even our days off we would still bike and walk. per my trip ticker we put in over 240 cycling miles during Bubbafest and burned  over 1000 calories a day and having fun!!! We met people that had traveled from Germany,  Minnesota, Iowa, New Mexico, Arizona and New york to do this. but this trip was also a personal achievement of mine (since the longest i have ever bicycled before this trip was 34 miles)  I might add that the youngest person that attended this weeklong event was 35 years old and the oldest was 82 years old. This just goes to show you that if you want something bad enough you can do it!   this was not a race. it was riding our bike at our own pace, we stopped for pictures, to enjoy scenic views, feed tarpoon and eat lunch and still managed to make it to our destinations before night. My friend Kathy (LifeShape Patient Advocate – and Lap-Band patient) kept saying she had not trained at all and she did great!!! I am so happy to share this journey with those reading this and hope that you are able accomplish something that you never thought you could do.  It’s amazing at what you can accomplish when your level of determination is through the roof.

LifeShape lap-band patient Lori’s bike tour update

After hearing the wind all night We decided it was gonna be a rough bike ride against today so got an early start and left camp before 8 am. we managed to keep a slow steady pace and stopped about 20 miles into our ride at our favorite little bakery. i think everyone stopped at this little shop. then we hopped on the bike and continued with our ride against the wind. we think that 7 mile bridge was really 14 miles today. lots of traffic and very windy but we made it!! we celebrated our day at a nice little restaurant at the base of the bridge and i think there was 20 of us cheering for our fellow bubbaonions as they came to the end of the bridge. Drinks and dinner around 5 and everyone was in their tropical shirts for our flamingo luau. dinner consisted of fish, chicken, rice and salad with keylime pie for dessert. they served margaritas pout of gas cans. Bubba handed put plaques to those who were the youngest, oldest, who came from the shortest distance and the longest distance. 2 people came from Berlin Germany. he thanked his staff and Then the party started with dancing amd music. Kathy and I opted to go back to the tent as we were freezing. so tomorrow is another long ride, even further than today with the wind again. but it’s all good!!!

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LifeShape Lap-Band patient Lori’s daily update
Today was our last chill day before heading north, while we were drinking our coffee and eatting our yummy breakfast bowls one of our neighbors told me i had to sit in my chair all day long so she can find her tent. Kathy grabbed my pink duck tape and put arrows on the tree with an exclamation point, so about 5 minutes later she was headed to her tent and we all had a good laugh. so everyone that walked by wanted to hesr the story behind the pink duck tape. we did some laundry then headed into town. Kathy bought Bubba those cross and skull shoes amd we ate lunch at margaritavile. then we shopped for a bit and  decided to head back and chill by the pool. so we only ended up with 10 mikes of cycling snd about 4 miles of walking. afyer chilling by the pool with some of our new friends we decided it was time to shower and head back to town on the school bus for our last meal, we opted to go back to Fohgertys/the flying monkey again the foodcwas awesome the night before. kathy got the tuns salad again and got the beef tenderloin salad. we both agreed that these were the best salads we had ever had. by this time it was after 8:30. e made it to our school bus location and made it back to camp around 9:30. it was a nice chill day. however tomorrow is gonna be a tough 50 miles against the wind. stay tuned we only have a few more days.

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Lori is all decked out in her bestest camo biking outfit to celebrate Veterans Day as we bike our 44 miles to Knights Key. Just hope I dont lose track of her…..the wind is in our face the whole way back so today will not be pretty. However we do plan on multiple stops on the way and are loaded up with water and guu’s,so…it’s all good.

Till next time.

LifeShape patient Lori’s day five bike tour update.

Today was a chill day. So we hopped on the bikes and headed into town. had a beautiful ride along a nice bike path along the water. lots of photo opportunities. the most southernmost point, mile marker 0 ( must see the picture of kathy pole dancing), A very scary christmas house, hogs breath saloon, nice decorated coconuts (miami dolphins), saw the super fast power boat races, cool statues,  trying on crazy hats, me getting some new blue camo shorts and tank shirt with some cool camo socks, kathy got some  cool sandals. after walking about 5 miles around town we headed back to camp after 15 biking miles total for the day, then  sat for a few minutes, showered and hopped on the school bus back into town to experience mallory square at sunset with all the street performers. had some dinner and then it was time for our scavenger hunt. we were given clues and raced around the bars answering the clues and looking for pinky the pink coconut flamingo. our team got 3rd place, but as bubba would say” it’s all good!”  tomorrow is another chill day in key west wonder what we will do? stay tuned.

we got an early start after coffee and breakfast, we had a pretty good pace going over the seven mile bridge and was ahead of most of the bubbaonions. we slowed our pace and just enjoyed the scenery and this experience of a lifetime. the bridges, the blue water, the construction zone ( well that was challenging) especially when kathy was yelling at me to not ride over this things sticking up on the roaf ( lol) we stopped at the sugarloaf bakery which had an awesome keylime cheesecake.  bubba recommended this stop and i bet this lady mady more today than she made last month. we were only 1 mile from camp and i experienced my blowout on my back tire which kathy and i both heard. suppprt was gonna take 45 minutes and i was like i will walk my bike to camp and then my guardian angel bill came and fixed my flat ( i had a tube but no pump) funny thing is right after he fixed mine a couple came up with a flat as well. they had no tube, but i had an extra tube that would fit their bike so they got fixed up too. off to the bike shop for 2 extra tubes and supplies in case it happens again we made it to camp and  hung out by the pool and charged our phones, showered then put on our pirate bubbafest shirts and buffs. bubba handed out our play swords and eye patches and then the 5 trolleys arrived. we took a guided tour around key west and i looked around and was amazed at all these people on the trolley are over 40 yelling arrg and waving their swords. after our scenic tour we stopped at conch repubic for our buffet dinner. well organized with yummy. shrimp, cheese, beef wellington, crab cakes, egg rolls, veggies. then we headed to a bar nearby called schooner  wharf and we listened to an a woman singing, who  was awesome . but we didnt last long at tbe bar since we are old folks, so we hopped on the school bus and headed back to camp. stay tuned tommorow as we are cruising arround  key west on the bikes

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Today was a sunny scenic 44 miles..we hit some bad roads with glass and construction and debris…in retrospect maybe I could have yelled something with a little more couth than’LORI GET OFF THE STUDS’ but we were moving at the time. Flatted at 43 miles but made it in thanks to our fellow bubbaonion Bill …who pumped lori’s tire. Pirate dinner..soon I hope. I know Im hungry enough to storm the castle.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Today was kind of a chill day. no scheduled traveling. After coffee and breakfast with all the fellow Bubba Onions at the 7 mile grill, Kathy and I ventured north to the Turtle Hospital in marathon, then to Sombrero Beach Park for some snorkeling from the shore and chilling on the beach. On the way back to camp we stopped at a local tiki bar on the water and ate lunch, then proceeded to the old 7 mile bridge and rode down it for a few miles (well till it ran into pigeon key). We then attended a wine and cheese party at the bike shop, they gave away some nice prizes but we didn’t win. Then it was back to camp for dinner with the gang. We got some really cool flamingo glasses and it was Italian night! Yummy Caesar salad , garlic bread and seafood lasagna. OMG it was the best!!! Then 3 huge Bubbafest cakes were brought out. We had a guest speaker who spoke about the Keys history, the railroad, and the bike trails. Per my GPS we only biked a tad over 16 miles and we walked around 4, because we walked to breakfast and back and then to the bike shop and back . Met some more great people today. There are people from all over that attend this event. Tomorrow will be a busy day. Biking over the 7 mile bridge. Stay tuned to see what Bubba has in store for us tomorrow night.

Picture from Day 3….MY BIKE SEAT IS NOT MY FRIEND….today we 16 sensitive miles which included the old 7 mile bridge, snorkeling, lunch on the waterfront and the turtle hospital. Wine and cheese then dinner. We need to load up for our 44 miles tomorrow….. CHECK OUT ALL OUR PICS ON FACEBOOK – http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150349538552038.343030.194039907037&type=3&saved#!/media/set/?set=a.10150349538552038.343030.194039907037&type=1