What is that God-Awful Sound?!

Saying goodbye to our hosts in Tampa, the Michaels family, it was time to leave our 11th city and start towards our 12th city, by bicycle.

Many have asked how we came up with our route and schedule of the season. Well, Major League Baseball decided it. No, we didn’t get Bud Selig on the phone and figure out our schedules together. But MLB still did decide it.

If we wanted to visit all 30 MLB stadiums, well then, we would have to make sure we visit all 30 MLB stadiums. We’re pretty smart, so we knew that. But not as easy as it sounds. But we got it down to a T!

Obvious enough, but the home team needs to be playing while we are there. This meant that the home team would need to be on a home stand when we were in the city. As we headed towards Miami, the Marlins were in Boston. We had to “wait” for the Marlins to return to Miami to begin their new home stand Friday night, June 22nd at their brand new Marlins Park. And our “waiting” time was lovely.

First, it meant that we didn’t need to crush it on our route there. We could take nice easy strolls, spending between 50 and 70 miles a day on the bike and taking 4 days to make it the 250 miles from Tampa to Miami. Yes, we call a 60-mile ride a “nice and easy” ride now. It has completely flipped over our thought of what an easy ride is. Now, an easy ride is simply, less time spent on the bike, which usually means a shorter distance. It’s a bit crazy. We realize this. But it’s what you get when you spend most of your days riding 100 miles on the bike. Our perception of reality is a bit altered, don’t ya think?

Secondly, it meant that we would have some free time in Miami. Based on our easy ride schedule, we weren’t going to arrive in Miami until Tuesday afternoon. Our baseball clinic with BBBS of Greater Miami was to be held Thursday night at Tropical Park and we had tickets in our hot little hands for the Friday night Marlins vs. Blue Jays game. So we had Tuesday night, all day Wednesday, and Thursday morning as business mixed with pleasure time.

But we had to make it there. And after talking with many people in the Tampa area, it seemed that the number one suggestion was to ride through Alligator Alley.

Alligator Alley is a highway that spans south Florida from the Gulf coast to the Atlantic coast. It runs right over the Everglades, which happens to be the home of thousands of alligators, believe it or not. So it’s appropriately named, Alligator Alley.

We also REALLY wanted to see an alligator. We hadn’t seen one yet after many people were saying “Oh, you’ll see one in Florida.” Well I wish you weren’t a liar, cause we hadn’t seen a single one.

So, our desire to see one of these illusive scaly reptiles, mixed with nudging from Tampa residents, prompted us to head directly south down the Gulf coast and towards Alligator Alley.

Right out of the gates, it seemed like a great idea. There was a great tail wind, we were feeling well rested and well fed, and there was a giant shoulder with plenty of room. But then Rex got the biggest nail ever to puncture his tire and the wind seemed to turn on us just as the shoulder disappeared. Let me reiterate. The shoulder DISAPPEARED. And it was gone for a long time. The road was just not a good one for cyclists. Cars driving fast, no shoulder, no cover from the sun, and well, it was just a bit scary for us. We even spent some of our time on the sidewalk as we desperately tried to make it down to Englewood for our first night of camping.

After finishing a frustrating day of no shoulder, lots of heat and a late finish thanks to a late start, all we wanted to do was find our campsite, plunk down and hit the hay. However, our campsite that we picked out for the night, was one of those campsites that locks their gates at dusk. Ohhhh, one of THOSE campsites. Greaaaaaaaat.

No matter for the B4B team though! We had dealt with this situation before. We posted up just outside the front gate in a grass parking lot and set up camp right next to our vehicle. We relaxed under the stars while we tried, unsuccessfully, to swat away the million of bugs eating our flesh. Bed time and ready for a new day with hopefully a shoulder for cyclists!

Nice psyche out, road!

We started off much earlier on Sunday morning after dreaming of wide shoulders and cooler temperatures. Well, neither were true. We had had about enough of sidewalk riding, and on the ride we talked with a couple of locals in the area, and they mentioned that there was a highway that spanned a little north of Alligator Alley and took off east from Fort Myers. It would be much safer for cyclists with many camping options. Well, that was the ticket. We decided right then and there, we were going to camp around Fort Myers for the night, then head east the next day. Sorry we wouldn’t be able to ride you Alligator Alley. Maybe next time… in a car.

It was a good idea for us baseball lovers to head towards Alligator Alley. As we passed through Port Charlotte, we stumbled upon the Rays Spring Training park. They had actually held a minor league All-Star game there the previous night, which would have been cool to catch, if we had been in the area. But alas, we were not. However, we did get to basically walk on the field. Since they were spending time cleaning up, they left all of the gates open and we were to free to roam around the park as we pleased. We couldn’t help but think how cool it was to have your MLB and Spring Training so close to one another. Tampa, you are lucky.

As we battled a head wind all the way into Fort Myers, we were ready to be done with Highway 41. It was time to head east to Miami! We made it into Fort Myers very early actually. A little too early. So, we hung out at a coffee shop and spent a good amount of time working before the Heat and Thunder played Game 4 of the NBA Finals. We were able to find a local pizza shop that played the game as we pounded down an extra-large pizza. Of course, Xtra-Large, the man, ate most of extra-large, the pizza. Hi-5.

Once again, we had a late night as we headed towards our campsite that we had picked out. Once again, campsite was closed before we arrived. Once again, we would have to find a spot just outside the gate to camp. Well, it’s not THAT hard to find these spots. Once we found a suitable space to set-up for 10 hours, we dozed off…. But it was interrupted.

In the middle of the night, Adam, Rex and Steve (Chase sleeps through anything apparently) awoke to a blood-curdling scream from some… thing. Literally, Steve’s blood curdled as he awoke to a sound so high-pitched and so prolonged, it could only be a dinosaur. The only dinosaur left on this planet was at our campsite, just outside of Fort Myers, FL and was scared, or dying, or excited, or mating. We have NO idea. Even stranger, after it was done screaming, it went on to growling. A deep, low growl that was opposite of the high-pitched scream. Maybe it was a different animal, but there was growling going on, in basically the same area as the screeching. We discussed the next morning, maybe a growling animal was slowly eating the screeching animal, or maybe Rex turned into his alter ego by the full moon, T-Rex, and he prowled the surrounding farms for unsuspecting cattle and ate them. We don’t know. We did record it though so you could listen and decide for yourself. Please help us solve this mystery.

Either way, we slept pretty terribly after thinking that we were going to die a slow death and headed out the next morning. Being that we were in Florida, a home of many Spring Training facilities, we wanted to see them! After riding through the Rays facility yesterday, we knew Fort Myers was home to two MLB teams: the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox. Rightfully so, we walked a bit around the facility, checked it out, snapped some pics, oo’ed and awe’d at the historical naming, then decided we’d had our fun and it was time to head east.

The ride to Clewiston, FL did provide a bit of excitement as well. What a fun ride in Florida!

As we started to ride further into the heart of Florida, we continually would stop at many a bridge, peek our curious eyes over into the swamplands below and desperately try to spot our first gator. However, we were unsuccessful for so long through our ride in Florida! What were we doing wrong?!

Well, just like a significant other, the second you stop looking for it, the gator finds you.

We noticed him floating his eyeballs on the surface of the stagnant pond we had stopped next to for lunch. He didn’t move, chomp down on a duck, or try and eat Steve, so he wasn’t that exciting. But we saw our first! It’d come much easier from here on out.

We set up camp in Clewiston for the night (at an actual campsite!) at the southwest border of Lake Okeechobee. Many campsites surrounded the largest freshwater lake in Florida. We snagged a nice shaded spot and hit a local Cuban café for the evening. Now that we were nearing Miami and it’s Cuban influence, we were starting to feel it in Clewiston. As we called a couple café’s looking for a good place to eat, each hostess answered the phone in Spanish. And it wasn’t a Spanish we had heard before. We knew the Mexican Spanish sound, and the Spain Spanish, the Chilean and the Argentinian, but the Cuban, was new to us. We decided it must be a good sign, food-wise, that there was this much Cuban culture outside of Miami. We headed to one of the cafes and filled up on meals consisting of the famous Cuban steak. Delicious!

As we headed back to the campsite for the evening, Adam realized that his wallet was missing. After tearing apart the bike bin, bike bag, car, trailer and underwear drawers, it was nowhere to be found. We assumed it was kicked out in a transition as we moved to the café, but we had no way to be sure. We went to sleep with the thought that we would have some logistics to take care of the next day. Unsettling to sleep with to say the least.

We rose the next morning, with our legs set on Miami! Only 60 miles left until we could call “the Capital of Latin America” home for a few days. Adam actually stayed back with Chase for a bit, driving around the small town of Clewiston anxiously looking for a small Guatemalan purse holding all of Adam’s cards and cash.

As per the usual, just as we were going to give up and put a hold on all of our cards (phone calling nightmare), Adam received an email from his health insurance, letting him know that someone turned in his wallet to the Clewiston sheriff’s office! Boom! High-five good people of Clewiston!

Adam carefully raced on over to the sheriff’s office, picked up his wallet, high-fived the administrative assistant at the front desk, and looked through his wallet. It was all there, minus the $17 that he had previously had in there. Consider it a reward Good Samaritan! I would gladly take my wallet, less the hassle of getting new cards and a new ID, instead of the $17 that I was probably going to spend on 4 boxes of Oreos. Although, I do like Oreos…

Adam headed back to find Chase at the hotel lobby he was hanging out at, and was feeling good-spirited and wanted a coffee. As Adam went up to buy a small coffee at a local coffee shop, he was telling the barista of his story, and about the good people of Clewiston. As he was telling the story, the nice cashier asked for the $2 to pay for the coffee. And they only took cash. Well funny story about Clewiston being nice, I HAD cash, but it was my reward pay to the returner of my wallet, so I am now out of cash. I set my coffee down and started to walk away, but she said,

“It’s on me this time.” Well how about another win Clewiston!

Adam then met Chase at the Clewiston Inn. Denice had been helping Chase with breakfast as he worked while Adam searched around town for his wallet. Denice was a lovely lady, and when Adam joined up with Chase at the table, she was happy to hear the story as well about the good people of Clewiston.

Continuing the conversation, naturally, it led to ghosts. Apparently, Clewiston Inn, is “haunted.” It’s had investigations, many stories and many pictures of actual ghosts living in the Inn. Denice handed us a big book of all of the reports of ghosts surrounding the hotel, which was quite interesting. Chase and Adam have never seen a ghost. It’s one of those things that we don’t NOT believe in ghosts, it’s just that we haven’t seen them. But we’re not going to tell someone else that they aren’t seeing ghosts. We want to see one too!

Adam and Chase packed up their stuff and drove up to meet up with the other bikers for lunch on the side of highway 27. After exchanging some high-fives based on the outcome of the morning; 30 miles on the bike, wallet found and ghost hotel, we were eager to knock out the remaining 30 miles to Miami.

Highway 27 ran through the Everglades all the way to Miami. More Everglades meant more potential gators. As we continued to look around on our ride, we knew there had to be gators. There were swamplands all over, all around us. As we crossed one bridge, trying to get a glimpse of the water while still pedaling on by, we slammed on our brakes as we saw TWO gators in the swamp below us. We stood in awe, cameras drawn, as we marveled at seeing our first gator up close. I mean, real close!

A Clif Bar toss away, the gators floated at the surface. As we continued to make noise, one gator did not like it and disappeared deeper into the swamp, while the other one, liked it, and wanted to come closer. Our new favorite gator, swam right on over to nearly right underneath us as we could see him in all of his glory. He must have liked the sound of us talking. Or Extra-Large was looking extra-tasty and he wanted a snack. Either way, he was there to stay. He hung out long enough to coerce Rex into giving him his sunglasses, for free! Lucky gator, those were Rex’s favorite glasses. You better wear them all the time!

Leaving our gator, and flat number 83 behind us (much less with our new tires now), we cruised with a slight tailwind the remaining 20 miles into Miami. We went straight to the hotel, donated graciously by Debbie Kremers (thanks mom!) in Shawnee, KS, to check in and hit the pool. As we checked in, there was a free manager’s reception that included free food and drinks, and free Otis Spunkmeyer cookies at the front desk. After exhausting 3k calories during the ride, we welcomed the quick calories and were excited for our stay at the Hampton Inn.

We spent some time cleaning ourselves and unloading our set-up into the hotel room, while also keeping in mind the NBA finals game would start at 9 PM. We were pretty excited to be able to catch two games in Miami when the Heat were hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder in Miami. If the Heat won both games at home, they would be NBA champs, and we would be in the city that would be celebrating a championship. We would become transplant Miami Heat fans for this reason. Most Miami Heat fans are transplant fans anyways, so we fit right in. And after Miami won Game 5 at home, we were excited about the possible championship-clinching game Thursday night.

Wednesday we had planned to take a bike ride through Coral Gables, home of the University of Miami, and do an interview with a local news channel in the area. Problem was, it was raining pretty hard all morning. Interview was then delayed and there isn’t much to do in Miami when it’s raining, so we spent some time catching up on sleep and hanging in our hotel room continually prepping (media releases, event planning, etc) for our Miami stay.

Eventually, the rain cleared a bit, and Veronica Fernandez (Vero) and the crew in Coral Gables were ready for a story on Biking for Baseball! So we hustled out and met up with Vero and her crew for interviews in English and in Spanish! We even took some rides around for the camera crew in our uniforms. Finally we got some footage of the four of us riding together in our cycling kits! We can’t wait to see the video!

Vero, Tania and camera guy 1 (didn’t catch his name) were a great team to work with. So much so, that Vero and Tania offered to take the B4B team out to Café Versailles in Little Havana. Versailles is a popular restaurant among the Cuban community for exiles from the country, its delicious food, and connection to anti-Castro politics. It has an elegant set-up that made us think of a nice cafeteria where old people eat. We mean that in a good way. There was even a news crew there that afternoon as we were there, covering something Cuban-related. We had the tasty breaded steak, as per the recommendation of Vero, and we loved it.

Thanks to Tully Corcoran of Fox Sports Houston, who served us up a recommendation via Twitter, we had our first experience of Cuban coffee. We ordered it “con leche,” which means, “with milk.” That usually means you have 95% coffee, topped off with a little bit of milk. When we were brought our coffee cup, full of milk, and the cream cup, full of coffee; we were a bit confused. But that’s the way the Cuban coffee is. And it’s supposed to make you “see into the future” because it’s so strong. Well we tried it, and we didn’t see into the future, but we did enjoy our first cup of Cuban coffee.

The girls were great company and urged us to pick up Cuban pastries next door at the famous Cuban exile post. While we were standing around discussing what we wanted, a gentleman, who appeared quite unkempt and owned a think Southern accent, talked over our conversation.

What’s this pastry with guava and cream cheese?

Well, it’s a pastry with guava and cream cheese, replied Tania. And so began our next 15 minutes with the man known as Isch (E-shhh).

It was pretty obvious this guy was not from Miami. With a couple missing teeth and cut-off sleeves, he didn’t really fit the uppity nature of the Miami culture. And he proceeded to tell us that not only was he not from Miami, but that he lived near Gainesville, he was going down to “shoot doves in Argentina and let them rot” and that we were invited any time to ride ATV’s on his farm. He came rocketing out of the gates firing off surprises left and right.

He offered to pay for the ladies pastries, which were in fact for us, as a nice gesture. But his next move suggested that he might be on to something else. These pastries aren’t more than $3 per, on the very steep end. Yet Isch, instantly after offering to pay for the $3 pastry for Tania, takes out a wad of cash, that probably had several thousand dollars in it. He just holds it there, flipping it back and forth as if he is deciding what bill to use to pay for the pastry. Eventually, he pays for it, we pay for ours, and we all start to walk out together.

After he realizes that the women aren’t really all that impressed by his enormous amount of cash, he starts to ask us what we are doing in Miami. We enlighten him on the story of B4B and our summer, and he loved it! He ended up asking question after question about our trip, our miles, our bikes and the cities. He instantly became a big supporter. Isch was quite the character that we were happy that we were able to interact with for 15 minutes. He had a lot to say in those 15 minutes, but darn nearly every word he said was something we had never heard before.

The girls weren’t done with us after lunch and offered to take us around “the Gables” for a tour of their city. We drove around as they pointed out the beautiful architecture and lovely green spaces scattered throughout Coral Gables. Vero and Tania knew a lot about the Gables and were happy to share their town’s history with us. Thank you Vero and Tania!

One goal of ours is to visit the Big Brothers and Big Sisters office in each city. Miami was no different. Following our byes with Vero and Tania, we headed down the street to visit the BBBS of Greater Miami and Adam Effertz. Adam had been working closely with the B4B team on the planning and it was great to meet him! He has such a genuine personality, you could see it within the first 2 minutes of meeting him. After phone calls and emails back and forth over the last two months, it’s great to put a face to the name. We hung out with Adam at the office for over an hour discussing the culture in Miami, the work at BBBS, Adam’s skating career (which is impressive!) and B4B. We also were fortunate enough to meet the Senior VP of BBBS, Gale Nelson, when we dropped by the office. It’s great to see a great employee like Adam, and then see why he sticks around, and it’s cause of guys like Gale being a great leader with a lot of positive energy. The BBBS of Miami is in good hands thanks to Gale and Adam. Keep it up!

Finally heading home, we jumped back in the pool and relaxed for the rest of the evening, getting ready for our big day on Thursday.

When we awoke from our slumber, which always seems to get deeper the more time we spend in a hotel bed, the sun was shining on Miami beach. This could only mean one thing to the B4B boys… time for da beach!

We have developed a terrible tan line from all of this riding-with-clothes-on business. Our arms, up to our mid-bicep, and our legs, up to our lower quad, are dark as night. Very tan. Like most-tan-we’ve-ever-been tan. People say, “oh I’m jealous, look how tan you are!”

Well then we just lift up our sleeve a little bit, and they cringe in disgust at the difference. It looks like you are looking at a dead fish pasted on to a human body. It’s terrifying. We NEED beach time. Turn it up Mother Nature, we wanna burn!

We oogled around Miami Beach, taking a looooooong stroll to our eventual landing spot. For it being a Thursday, there was a significant amount of people scattered on the beach. We still found a spot to post up, strip down and hit the water naked! Miami style!

I only kid. We bounced in the waves for a half hour before spending the rest of the time on land, running in the sand and chasing a frisbee. I say “chasing” because Rex would continue to miss Steve and Adam, towards a group of cute girls. Ok, well that’s what Steve and Adam had wished was the case. Turns out, frisbee hucking isn’t like riding a bike for Rex.

After we felt like we had base-burned our bodies enough, it was time for us to pack up and head to our event! Holy smokes was that a good time! We finished up a bit late, but we didn’t care. That was a whole bunch of fun.

After hurriedly cleaning up the field and PA system, we had the thought of downtown Miami on our minds to watch the Heat try and win an NBA championship!

We tried public transportation to get downtown, but a local gentleman informed us, as we were waiting, that if the bus doesn’t come for two hours then we should walk the 7 blocks over to the next station, cause that one only doesn’t come sometimes. Well, as you can guess, that wasn’t going to fly for us. We had to get downtown! So we snagged a cab and bee-lined it to Bayside marketplace, right next to American Airlines Arena.

The marketplace was PACKED with Wade and Lebron jerseys.

We walked around and tried to get into a couple of bars, but no one was having any of it. Over capacity here, there, everywhere! We squished and squirmed our way through the crowds up to a Daiquiri Bar that had the game on an outside television. We had to step on our tippy-toes (mainly Adam) (ok just Adam) but we found a suitable spot.

As the Heat put the hurt on the Thunder early, often and continuously, it was apparent the city of Miami was about to win their second NBA championship. People standing around next to us started to say it “we gonna win. We gonna win!” as the game neared the 4th quarter. With each 3-pointer drained by Mike Miller, rebound by Bosh, step-back J from Wade and thundering slam from LeBron, the crowd blew up with excitement.

As the final seconds ticked, the whole marketplace was high-fiving, screaming, hugging, chanting, kissing, jumping and butt-slapping. The Miami Heat had just become NBA champions!

It was cool for other Heat fans to think we were Heat fans. We really can’t wait for our Royals/Rockies to give us this feeling. I’m gonna cry when they do, that’s for sure.
We went out and celebrated with the Heat fans before heading home. Miami is a bit too crazy for 4 cross-country cyclists. But we still gave it a run. We peaced before all of the people became party zombies. Leaving safely and without seeing a riot (nice job celebrating the champ btw Miami!)

The culture of Miami is great. The drivers are not. The beaches are massive and well kept. The weather was rainy and humid. The Cuban food was delicious. Miami felt like you were in another country for the majority of the city. Eclectic mix of people. Would be a fun city to live in. But the craziness of the drivers, the worst of any city we’ve been in, would keep these cyclists away from the center of the city.

Thank you to everyone that helped make Biking for Baseball’s time in Miami a memorable one! Thanks for reading and stay biking, friends!