Fun & Fitness over 50

Well it's over. My last scheduled benefit ride for the year. Actually it was 72 miles but I put in almost 74 because I made a wrong turn.
The weather worked out pretty good. There was some question of high humidity, heat and violent storms for Saturday but it wasn't too bad. In the morning it was actually quite comfortable. A lot of the time it was overcast or I was on shaded country roads where the sun hadn't yet risen above the trees.
This was a first ever effort for this organization so there weren't a lot of riders. Only 49. Quite a different experience from the Tour de Cure with over 1000 riders. Of course, the American Diabetes Association are a well known national organization with something like 15 years doing this.
There were only 6 or 7 of us starting for the 75 miler. I don't think anyone besides me was over 40. Most of them with Cannondales and Serottas, sublimated team jerseys and shaved legs. They immediately dropped me and never looked back. I wouldn't even attempt to keep up with them for 75 miles. That was the last I saw of any rider for the duration! Which is what I expected. After Tour de Cure I planned on treating this as any other solitary ride.
The first couple of hours were quite pleasant. The temp was moderate. As I said, the sun rarely came out. I don't think one car went by me in the first 2 hours! 1 hour at least, for sure.
There was a rest stop at 5 miles, then one at 18. After that, nothing until mile 57. The organizer said he would have a sag wagon on the route but I never saw it. At least no one ever stopped and asked if I needed anything. That kind of amazed and annoyed me. But I was prepared for it. I filled up my Camelbak and spare bottle at the last rest stop and I had plenty of Clif bars and shots with me.
When I got to mile 57, the scheduled rest stop had shut down and gone home. Again, I wasn't surprised after the promised sag wagon had never appeared. Fortunately, the very last rest stop was at a pizza joint, the only commercial establishment on the entire route, so even though the event people had gone home, I at least was able to buy a couple bottles of water.
Finally, about 5 miles from the end, a car came out looking for me.
So, I not only came in last, I came in so much after the last finisher that everyone went home and almost forgot about me. Nice!
The organizers were very profuse in their apologies. The ride was no big deal effort wise but I was just thinking about what if I broke down or blew up early on. I had no phone # to call and when would someone have come by? It would have been several hours. I was satisfied with their apologies and told them I was "over it" and please pass the pasta!
My second least favorite thing about the ride was that 90 percent of the roads had no street signs. Thank God for the cue sheet. I printed an extra large copy of it so I could see it easily and made a holder for it with a plastic zip-lock bag and some velcro cable ties that I fastened to my handlebars. That was a life saver.
On the positive side, it was a beautiful route. I suppose I could have ridden harder and finished sooner but I'm just cautious and not that sure of myself yet. I'm still afraid of getting heat stroke or just a stroke or blowing up in some other way. I averaged a little over 12 mph. But hey, I finished. I was thinking, I'll put a sign on my back that says "Retro-Man" and the motto "Just Finish". What do you think?