Back to Day 45

7 PM

At happy hour at our hotel in West Palm Beach. Waiting for my aunt to come over, so she can drive us to her birthday dinner. Sometimes not having a car is awkward.

So last night, after dinner, we’re going back to our room, I press the elevator button, and Dana asks “What are you doing? That’s the wrong elevator.” And when I asked why, he replied “Because our room is on the first floor.”

We’ve been in too many hotel rooms. (Ahh, first world problems!)

This morning, as promised, we crossed back over the Indian River, but this time we were on a double bridge, so we also crossed over the Indian River Lagoon. I did not take pictures. You can recycle a previous picture if you’d like.

We rode down this little side street where the mangrove trees form an arch over the road. If I ever have to live in Florida, I want to live right here.

Or here. Here is good too.

And we saw these birds wading in a brook. Florida has great birds, and these were actually willing to pose for a picture.

And we saw what Dana calls a blue palm tree. I’m sure it has a real name, but I still thought it was cool

Then we rode for a while, and crossed over the water a few more times. In fact, we crossed 3 drawbridges, all of which had that awesome metal grate that cyclists are so fond of.

Our first planned stop for the day was supposed to be Juno Beach, to visit David. We thought it was 20 miles from Stuart, but surprise! it was 31 miles. Why is it that those distance discrepancies never go in our favor? Meanwhile, it started raining – which actually changed the way the Intracoastal Waterway looked, so I took another picture.

Then it really started raining, then I rode through a puddle, then I got another freakin’ flat tire. Dana offered to fix it – we were already running late, and my tire-changing talents are somewhat worse than my hill-climbing talents, so it just made sense.

So he changed the tube, then I rode another 10 yards, and it was clear there was a problem, so we stopped. There was actually a cut in the tire itself – so he changed the tire. Then we kept riding, and it stopped raining, but we were really late getting to David’s.

David offered us cold drinks – we were thinking Coke, he was thinking vodka – and we had a lovely visit at his house, eating really good cheese and crackers, sipping vodka and grapefruit juice, and talking about life.

Then we rode another 10 miles to Palm Beach, which took us through some sketchy areas, although we did see this wonderfully retro Dunkin’ Donuts sign.

15 miles into our 10 mile ride we found a hotel, but it was booked up, so they called another hotel for us, and they had a room, so we rode 15 minutes more, but the second hotel said they hadn’t saved the room for us. Dana walked away to look for another hotel, but I had a little hissy fit and they found us a room. One of the few times on this trip where I was more useful than Dana.

11 PM

Just returned from dinner with my Aunt Elaine. She took us to City Place, which is a huge outdoor mall in Palm Beach. We had Italian food at Brio, which was delicious, and we shared her birthday dessert.

After dinner we walked around for a while, then got back to her car with only 9 minutes on the meter. No ticket! Yippee! But seriously, it was a lovely evening, and it was nice to spend time with family. Tomorrow we will visit more family – my cousin Fred and his wife, Dorothy, in Boca Raton. On the way there we will ride past some of the famous, fancy beaches that I’ve always heard about but never seen.

On to Day 47

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