Back to Day 50

8 PM

I forgot this Banyan tree from yesterday

Today we rode to Key Largo on Card Sound Road. Dana has been muttering about Card sound Road for 2 years now. It seems there is a big debate on the bike geek circuit about whether Card Sound Road or Route 1 is the best way between Homestead and Key Largo. So we just HAD to do Card Sound Road – Dana thought we’d see crocodiles and miles and miles of nature.

We saw miles and miles of nature. About 20 to be exact. Beauty to the point of boredom. We’ve had a lot of that lately. This is Card Sound.

When we got to Key Largo, we headed straight to John Pennekamp State Park for our snorkeling adventure. We are now the proud owners of two snorkels in case anyone wants to borrow them. We snorkeled in the coral reef for over an hour. I did not take pictures for obvious reasons. You can Google Key Largo tropical reef fish if you want to get an idea of the plethora of cool fish we saw.

We had dinner at The Conch House but we did not have conch because it is not sustainable. We did, however, have a lovely meal.

Tomorrow we have a big day planned. We will begin with breakfast at The Waffle House, which Dana says is a Southern tradition. Then we will ride 22 miles to Ronnie’s to feed Tarpon, then another 20 miles to Flipper’s grave. We are currently 98 miles from Key West!

On to Day 52

Back to Day 49

10:30 AM

Waiting for the laundry to dry. It just doesn’t get more exciting than this. On the plus side, this is a rest day and we slept until after 9:00. And we were able to wash the grit off of everything from yesterday.

Q: How long does it take to lose the butt pain?

A: 7 weeks

Dana trained for 2 years for this trip. I didn’t, but I rode my bike around town for about a month beforehand, getting used to the bike seat and the weight of the panniers. Yet it was just a few days ago when Dana exclaimed “My butt doesn’t hurt!”, and I realized that mine didn’t either. Neither of us had butt pain for the first 30 miles of any day, but after than we started squirming. We have finally stopped squirming. So I guess you need to train for this by doing this.

Not gonna happen again.

Something else we realized – no matter how fast we ride, we end the day averaging 10 MPH. It seems there is always something to slow us down. We get lost. We have to ride off road. We get stuck on drawbridges, we take pictures of little green lizards. And 10 MPH wouldn’t be so bad if you could just do it 5 or 6 hours straight, everyday. But I can’t. I’m not sure Dana can either. Not everyday. It’s been much harder than we thought it would be.

So Dana has been dreaming of an airboat ride in the Everglades ever since he watched Flipper. I guess I have too, except I didn’t know the difference between the Everglades and the Keys. Or that Key West is 500 freakin’ miles from St. Augustine. Or that Florida is a BIG state. Nonetheless, two Flipper dreams will come true today. Life is good.

But now we can’t wait to get home. Dana wants to go to work and get back into his routine. I’m worried about the house, the cats, the kids, the cars. I think Bill managed to lose every drinking glass we own. I hope he didn’t lose all the spare car keys, too – they are so much more expensive to replace. Bill’s car is dead, Katie’s motorcycle is dead. The cats are getting angry. And I NEED to get back to my kitchen! I can’t watch cooking shows on TV without getting homesick.

Something we’ve noticed in the touristy beach areas of Florida: there are more people in the stores and restaurants than there are on the beaches. There are more bikes/surfboards/toys on cars than there are on trails/water/sand. People go on vacation to shop. It makes me appreciate biking – which at this point is no easy feat!

6:30 PM

Eating take-out Chinese food. Just got back from the Everglades airboat tour. We learned how to make a bandage from a cattail:

and we saw a female alligator protecting her nest

a male alligator

a swamp lily

a spider lily

pond apples

lotus grasshoppers

and Purple Gallinules.

whose natural prey seems to be the Cheeto – it took one right out of Dana’s mouth…

Plus water lettuce,  tiny greenback herons, tricolor herons, great blues, egrets, and, well, the Everglades.

It was a fantastic ride, totally worth doing if you are ever in the Miami area.

Tomorrow we will set the alarm (ugh) so that we can ride to Key Largo on Card Sound Rd. We want to be at John Pennekamp State Park by 1:30 to go snorkeling.

On to Day 51

Back to Day 48

5 PM

Sitting at the bar at the Black Point Ocean Grill. About 5 miles left to go to Homestead, the last town before we go to the keys. We don’t like to bar sit before the end of a ride, but it is POURING rain, and starting to thunder. It started raining about an hour ago, but it was nice. Sort of refreshing. And then it stopped, and we were happy. And then the skies opened up. And here we are.

We started our day back on Colllins Ave in North Miami Beach, in nasty traffic with no shoulder. Lenore – I’m sorry I didn’t see your hotel, but all we could do there was try not to get hit by a bus. Eventually we found our way to Miami Beach, our mission being to find South Beach. But, of course, we had no idea what or where South Beach really was, so we got onto a main street and stopped for breakfast at The Tropical Beach Cafe. We knew we were in luck because the entire menu was in Spanish. We had cafe con leche (yum)

and the best orange juice EVER. We had eggs with bacon and ham, but they looked more exciting on the menu written in Spanish. Then we had dessert – flan and egg custard – because we could. Meanwhile, I noticed these tan lines – it seems I don’t change my hand position on the bike very often.

After breakfast we actually found South Beach! It was everything you would expect from a hip hot spot – stores and restaurants and bars and scantily clad young skinny people. We rode through it, but didn’t stop.

Somewhere along the way we found the Jewish Museum of Florida – they have a special food exhibit that I would like to see, but we didn’t stop there, either.

In our search for South Beach, we had left the ACA route and had to figure out how to get back on route. Eventually we found our way onto a bridge to Miami. It was a big bridge with fast traffic, but it had a wide enough shoulder, so I rode it bravely. Then we got lost trying to follow signs labeled “Bike Route to Downtown”. We rode in a circle and stopped under a highway and stopped again in a construction zone and finally found a ramp onto the walking/biking path on another bridge. As we entered Miami, we saw container cranes

and cruise ships

and tug boats

and high rises.

We rode through some of downtown Miami, which wasn’t as bad as we expected. We got to meet Juan Ponce de Leon again

and see this JFK memorial

and see this guy (who I’ve never heard of)

and this guy (who I’ve heard of, but I don’t know why)

Then we rode through more of downtown, and magically turned into a beautiful neighborhood. So most of our Miami ride was just a nice meander through the suburbs (thanks ACA!).

After Miami we got to Coconut Grove, one of those Florida places I’ve heard of for no particularly good reason. We passed a bike shop, and Dana went in because his pedal was squeaking. While they fixed his pedal, I talked to one of the guys and mentioned that after no flats in MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD, DC, VA, NC, and SC, we’ve had 7 in FL. He said it’s due to the rain washing all of the grit and debris onto the sides of the road. He said he’s sold about 120 tubes in the past 5 days. Explains a lot, doesn’t it?

He also told us about 2 good restaurants in Key West, and gave us a complimentary patch kit as a parting gift. Then we rode onto Coral Gables, where we stopped to take a picture of this historic marker.

It was in a nice place to sit, so we sat. And we saw a whole family of these little bright green lizards. Or iguanas. I don’t really know the difference.

Then we ended up on the Old Cutter Road bike trail, which was a wonderful 10 mile stress-free off-road meander. I loved it. Dana hated it. But at least we were safe from cars. And check out this amazing mangrove tree!

Along the trail we saw the old Parrot Jungle building

and, of course, its historic marker

8 PM

At Casavana Cuban restaurant in Homestead. Our second time eating Cuban this week. Life is good.

At around 6:00 we realized that it probably wasn’t going to stop raining, and we were basically nowhere, so we got back on the bikes. I had thought it was 5 miles to Homestead, Dana said it was 11, so we rode 13. It always works that way.

But the ride was beautiful. We are in Florida farm country – it’s like the Pennsylvania of Florida. We saw a coconut grove

and a date grove

and then we saw 12 more miles of those. So it was slightly boring, but it was pretty, and there were almost no cars on the roads, and every so often we saw some interesting birds. Speaking of birds, these ducks live in the motel parking lot. I’m thinking people have fed them before.

By the time we checked in, we were completely drenched, covered with mud, and bug bitten pretty much everywhere. Tomorrow we will do laundry and go for an airboat tour of the Everglades. A much needed day off. After that, it’s less than 150 miles to the end.

On to Day 50