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

Back to Day 47

8 AM

Sorry about last night – it didn’t seem right to ignore our hosts while I blogged.

Yesterday…

Our day started with my rear tire going flat just as we left the hotel, so we sat in the motel parking lot and fixed it. It was sort of serendipitous, because while we were there we realized that we’d left our water bottles in the room. Once my tube was replaced, we rode to the ocean in Palm Beach and Lake Worth. Miles and miles of mansions.

Here’s a sign you never see in Westford

The problem with the pretty roads in the rich towns was that there were no convenience stores. so we stopped at a lemonade stand and bought drinks from kids. Then one mile later – of course – we found a gas station. It had a cool old Texaco sign

and soft seats for a nice butt break.

I was surprised to see historic markers, but we did. Here is the old schoolhouse historic marker

and the historic schoolhouse

And we saw these wonderful pine trees

and their historic marker

We rode onto Delray Beach, where we called Fred. He had offered to pick us up on-route and drive us to his house about 7 miles inland. We decided that he would drive north on A1A, we would ride south, and eventually he would see us – we’re kind of hard to miss. As we were riding, a spoke on Dana’s front wheel broke, making his bike unridable. So again serendipity was on our side, because all we had to do was wait for Fred there instead of meeting him somewhere up the road.  Luckily he got to us before the thunderstorm did.

Fred took us to a nice lunch spot in Mizner Park, then to a bike shop where they fixed Dana’s spoke. The entire time we were in the car, the rain was coming down in buckets and we could see lightning everywhere.

So with two intact bicycles, we got to Fred’s house, showered, and the four of us hung out for a while, chatting and watching TV and Googling random bits of trivia. Then we went out for Cuban food, which is really good around here and we can’t get it at home. Then we watched three episodes of The IT Crowd on Netflix in their home theater.

Right now Fred and I are watching the morning news and chatting – we just compared our memories on a plethora of old family photos. Dana and Dot are still asleep. It’s supposed to storm this morning, so we will leave here when it is safe.

1:30 PM

At the Sunshine Bagel Bistro in Pompano Beach, sharing a pastrami sandwich. We are soaking wet, waiting for the rain to stop.

When Dana finally woke up this morning he was raring to go on a bike ride. He insisted that the storm we were waiting was never going to happen. So immediately after breakfast with Fred and Dorothy, we headed out. But first we took a picture – I meant to take a picture at The Little Havana Restaurant last night, but I forgot.

Fred drove us back on route, and  we made it an entire 5 miles before we got hit by a storm. So we took shelter in a big garage and watched it rain

and rain

and rain

Another cyclist joined us for a while. Turns out he’s from Brooklyn so we chatted about riding in NYC. Then the lightning let up, so we figured we’d ride in the rain. I instantly had another flat – the front tire this time – seems I picked up a little metal shaving somehow. So we sat in the rain and Dana changed it while I patched two previously flattened tubes.

Sorry for this bad, boring picture, but I needed proof that I could do something useful, since I have now had SEVEN tire problems to Dana’s one.

7:30 PM

The score is now 7-2, but we’ll get to that later.

After our sandwich, we rode to Ft. Lauderdale, and saw the Swimming Hall of Fame:

We were still soaking wet, with water sloshing in our shoes, mud running down our backs, grit everywhere. Our brakes were making funny noises and didn’t work very well. Then we had to go off route to get around the airport, and the route Google Maps sent us on went through about 6 miles of highways and industrial roads and generally nasty, scary, ugly ickiness. But just as we got out of the ickiness, just before yet another draw bridge, we saw this amazing, huge lizard – he was almost two feet long!

Then we both freaked out a little going over the bridge because the metal grates were extremely slippery from the rain and we almost fell over. Then we rode through Hollywood, which has a park where it seems a lot of people abandon cats. We can never let Katie come here, because when she was four we told her she could keep any wild animal that she could catch, and I’m sure she could catch these cats pretty easily.

Then we got to the boardwalk on Hollywood Beach. It was beautiful, people playing on the beach, cycling on the boardwalk, all that nice, wholesome beach stuff. We saw a cruise ship just off-shore

And then Dana’s front tire got a flat, and he got really grumpy.

And he started muttering about wanting to go to South Beach tonight, but the rain and the tire problems had wasted time. While we were fixing the tire, a couple stopped to talk with us, and they agreed that South Beach is a must see. However, they implied that we might as well see it during the day, because we probably wouldn’t feel comfortable in the bars and nightclubs. (Translation: we are old and not terribly well dressed.)

After Dana fixed his tire we took a nice picture of the boardwalk

and continued on, hoping to make it to South Beach.

However, by the time we got to North Miami Beach, it became clear that we weren’t going to make it to South Beach – about 12 miles further. It was already after 6 PM, and the road we were on – Collins Avenue – is scary and I was getting wimpy. So we got a hotel room, cleaned up, and now we are both less cranky.

Tomorrow we will ride through South Beach, and hopefully go on an airboat ride. With any luck Collins Avenue is nicer earlier in the day, although I doubt it.

On to Day 49

Back to Day 46

Just got back from dinner. We’re tired, and we want to watch The IT Crowd with Fred and Dorothy. I promise a better post tomorrow.

On to Day 48