Back to Day 44

6:30 PM

At the restaurant of the Marriott in Stuart, FL. Basically, we’re almost in the water, somewhere in the Intracoastal Waterway – also known as the Indian River.

Actually, we crossed the Intracoastal twice today, both times in Fort Pierce. You have to come back to the mainland there because there is a gap in the islands with no bridge. Same thing here in Stuart. We will start tomorrow by crossing the river.

On our way to Fort Pierce, we stopped at a mangrove lake.

Then we saw the U.S. Navy Seal Museum.

Then we crossed the Intracoastal Waterway

When we got to mainland in Fort Pierce, our friend Lisa texted to say that she lives there in Fort Pierce. How exciting! So she drove over to Wendy’s and we hung out for a while.

On our way through Fort Pierce, we drove down a cool street. Here is the boat storage building:

And here are some old train cars:

Then we crossed back over the river, back to the island.

We biked another 25 miles on the island, over a few bridges, past many beaches and state parks and wildlife refuges. It was mostly pleasant, except for the freakin’ headwinds. We’ve had headwinds every day in Florida. I have been drafting – I hate drafting, but not as much as I hate headwinds.

We stopped for a butt break on a bench in front of a closed restaurant in a country club

and stopped for ice cream a little later – actually it was frozen, chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick. Yum.

Tomorrow we will have lunch in Juno Beach with our friend David. We met David in the Peach Bottom Inn in Delta, PA. Then we will continue onto West Palm Beach for the evening. We will find a hotel, then meet my Aunt Elaine for dinner. It’s amazing how many people we know in Florida!

For any of you who may have been wondering if we were getting along or not, here’s the deal. It’s been touch-and-go a few times, but since we’ve been in Florida, it’s been wonderful. Whether it’s the ease of riding on A1A, Dana’s feeling of comfort in his home state, or the 5-day cheat that soothed our aches and pains, we are doing well. And we’ve learned that sometimes we don’t communicate as well as we should, and that communication is important when you are 40 miles into a ride, it’s raining, and you’re lost. And after 40+ days of togetherness, socializing with other people has been a cleansing experience. We are even discussing future bike tours, although when Dana suggested doing a century this fall, I happily said “Have fun! I’ll be napping.”

On to Day 46

Back to Day 43

6:30 PM

At the bar of the Ocean Grill in Vero Beach. Dana has switched from Pinot Noir to Chardonnay to fruity frozen drinks. I’m sticking with locally brewed beer.

We began our day with steel-cut oatmeal, home-made banana bread, and fresh fruit salad. I believe Kathy and Jack served us the ONLY home-made breakfast on our trip. It was wonderful. Then, they drove us back onto our route, on a very scenic 10-mile drive, including a stretch of S. Tropical Trail, between the Banana River and the Indian River. It’s just amazing how much faster 10 miles goes by in a car. And I was honored to hold Piper on my lap the entire time.

The best part was that, as we were looking at the maps figuring out distance, time, hotels, etc, they just said “Don’t worry about it, if you’re worried about distance we just drive you further up the road.” Yessir, miles are definitely easier in cars!

So we said goodbye to the Hillsons in the Publix parking lot, and jumped back on route. 40 miles today on A1A. We rode through Indialantic, Melbourne Beach, Melbourne Shores, Floridana, the Sebastian Inlet, Orchid Beach, Wabasso Beach, and Indian River Shores. It’s impossible to get lost out here – one wrong turn and you are in the water.

We saw this nice alligator statue

and these people romping in Sebastian Cove

and coconuts growing in a palm tree

We saw ospreys, but they refused to pose for pictures. And when we stopped for a slice of pizza, we watched the pizza guy remove a land crab from the kitchen with a pair of tongs. I tried getting a picture, but it ran into the bushes very quickly.

It was very, very hot again. We drank lots of Gatorade, and dumped lots of water on our heads. I stopped at mile 35 because I saw this anchor from a Spanish treasure ship that was lost in a hurricane in 1715.

I also wanted to stop because sweat was dripping into my eyes so bad I couldn’t see. This sort of explains how we felt.

After 40 miles, we killed the rest of the day lying on the motel bed appreciating AC. We may have a short day tomorrow, it sort of depends on how our butts feel when we get to Fort Pierce at mile 15.

On to Day 45

Back to Day 42

9:30 PM

Just finished a wonderful home-cooked meal at Kathy and Jack Hillson’s house. Kathy is a tennis friend from home who recently relocated to Melbourne, FL.

We got off to a late start today. First we slept in, then we had breakfast at the Peach Valley Cafe in Ormond Beach. On the way to breakfast, I took the promised picture of the Ormond Garage where car racing in Daytona got its start.

This is the statue outside Ormond Beach City Hall. I love it!

So we weren’t really on the road until after 11:00, which is not the best way to start a 60 mile day. But it was a pleasant ride, except that it was SO FREAKIN’ HOT. I was actually getting nauseous from the heat. So we stopped in a Kangaroo Mart and guzzled water and Gatorade. Dana convinced me to allow him to dump ice cold water over my head and down my back. It was a nasty shock, but the after effects were wonderful.

Then we were forced to ride on Rte. 1 for a while, but we turned onto a side road and ended up in New Smyrna Beach. Here are the ruins of an old Civil War hotel that was destroyed by Union cannon fire.

It turns out there is an antique car gathering at New Smyrna Beach the second Saturday of every month, so we got lucky. On our way down Main St. looking for ice cream (we are always looking for ice cream), we started seeing one antique car after another. Dana took pictures of some of them:

The road near New Smyrna Beach was wonderful – scenic, waterfront, almost no traffic. But then we had to get back on Rte. 1 again, for about 30 miles. It has a decent shoulder, and there wasn’t a lot of traffic, but it was extremely hot and boring. And we really didn’t know how far we had to go, so we started bickering, which always makes 30 miles of riding on a hot, boring highway more pleasant.

I had told Kathy that I would call her when we were 10 miles out of Titusville, but I started getting worried because, with 30 miles left at 4:00, it was going to be very late when I finally called her, and we didn’t want to mess up her evening. But bless her heart, she called me, and when I told her we were still 20 miles out of Titusville, she offered to come get us.

Yippee.

We kept riding, and by the time Kathy and Jack showed up, we had ridden 50 miles and were quite happy to be done for the day. They came in 2 cars, which was so nice – enough room for the bikes and all of us. And as were were all driving back to their house, the skies opened up and it was pouring rain for the entire drive through Titusville. Kathy was worried that maybe she was cheating us by picking us up before Titusville, but we assured her that we had no need to ride more 10 miles on Rte. 1 in the pouring rain in Titusville.

So we got to Kathy & Jack’s house, and met Piper

They offered us their washer and dryer, so I started the laundry and we went for a swim in their pool and a sit in their hot tub. Hot tub sitting is so much nicer than bicycle seat sitting! After a while I figured I would get out and take a shower, but then I realized that I had absolutely NOTHING to wear – every article of my clothing was being washed. So Jack loaned us some shorts and t-shirts, which explains my sexy outfit in the next picture.

The Hillson’s neighbors, Linda and Tim, joined us for dinner. We had our second home-cooked meal in 44 days – grilled pork loin, apples, rice florentine, salad, corn-on-the-cob, and strawberry shortcake. Kathy has been reading the blog and knew I was craving the corn, but it turns out that was the exact meal I’ve been planning when we get home. It was wonderful.

Tomorrow Kathy and Jack will drop us off in Indialantic – a small cheat – and then we will continue on our way.

On to Day 44