Coastal Cruisin’

The Month from Hell rages onward. Day after day. Mile after mile. I keep on pedaling. Keep on grinding. Through the heat, pain, frustration, aches, and exhaustion, I gotta keep on the move. My trip continues down the coast of Florida.

It’s been a great few days of riding the past few days. Fortunately, I’ve been able to dodge the rainy storms that typically come throughout the Florida afternoons this time of year. I often can spot them on the horizon, looming overhead, or just out race them to the finish line. The storms look nasty, and lightning accounts for one of the most dangerous dangers that could come across my path. Especially here in Florida. It’s flat, and it can be tough to find cover on different stretches. It worries me, but I’ve learned that the storms are tough to predict in Florida. Sometimes they just sit there. They don’t move. So it’s best to just keep riding, until the storm is actually on top of you. Of course, this can also put you in danger of being trapped without cover. I guess I’ll have to find ways to make it work.

I took off from Hugh’s place in the morning and took off toward’s Cocoa, Florida. With a 118 mile ride, it was going to be a long day. The ride took me through Daytona Beach as I continued to retrace the steps from my ride in 2012. Riding the coast is gorgeous. Stunning. Surreal. Whatever you want to call it. It’s a whole lot flatter than the Pacific Northwest. As in, I rode 127 miles and had 67 feet change in elevation. MASSIVE difference. Back in Oregon and California, 127 miles would have had close to 11,00o feet in change in elevation.

What I do have to worry about is the wind. For the most part, it has been from the south. Which isn’t the worse. It’s a headwind, but it hasn’t been strong enough to really ruin my complete day. It may make it tougher, but it most certainly doesn’t stop me.

With all these miles that I’ve been riding, it makes for very, very long days of riding. I’ll typically stat riding around 6:30-7:00AM and finsh the day by the late evening. It’s grinding. I have to be pretty picky where I stop for lunch, because a diner, restaurant, or bar might take 30-45 minutes to get my food ready. I can’t afford that. Thus, it’s usually Subway, or quick buffet where I can quickly get my calories and hit the road again.

I’m gonna be honest, this stretch is rough. Some mornings it is REALLY tough to hop on the bike and pedal away for over ten hours on end. It’s brutal. I don’t like it, but I gotta do it. Somedays, it’s the last thing I want to do. There is no way I’m quitting, no way I’m giving up, I’ll persevere and keep on pedaling. That doesn’t make the mental strain any easier. Getting up morning after morning and knowing that you’ll be spending the entire day biking isn’t easy. Do I want to lay in bed and hit snooze repeatedly? You bet. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury. I gotta hop atop my brooks saddle, and start pedaling.

I was able to spend a night with Leslie in Melbourne, who graciously picked me up from a little bit south of Cocoa and took me to her house. She told me that I’d get to skip a few miles by starting from her house in the morning. I IMMEDIATELY told her that I’d need a ride back in the morning. I’m not cheating an inch. I wouldn’t be any better than Barry Bonds or do I dare say Ryan Braun? I’m going to pedal every single inch, foot, yard, meter, mile, kilometer, whatever you want to call it. When all is said and done, I’ll be able to look back and say I pedaled every single bit to each and every MLB Stadium.

 

Leslie had her husband Tanner cook up some great burgers for dinner. I ate four of them. I biked 127 miles so that’s okay, right? I hope so. They even invited their neighbors over as well. I LOVE meeting people, talking with them, hearing their stories, and sharing my own. These kind of events are the best. I love making new friendships and relationships with strangers. It was a great night with new found friends!

I took off in the morning for another day of riding towards West Palm Beach. I was anxiously looking forward to this ride, as I would get to meet up with Lynne who is a HUGE B4B supporter from the getgo. She’s a UW alum, and if you’ve been reading my blog diligently, you’ll remember that she met up with me while I was back in San Diego. She’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and has really helped me in different stages of this trip. Through texts, call, and even putting me up in hotel rooms. She even got me Subway gift cards. So she’s been buying me lunch for weeks! A big Hi5 and thank you to Lynne for her incredible support.

During Tuesday’s ride she even met me along the ride to provide me with lunch, take some photos, Gatorade, and help me on my way for the second half of the trip. Unbelievable. She really goes above and beyond. PLUS, her husband, Chuck, even rode into Jupiter with me. Talk about rolling out the red carpet. We even rode by Tiger Woods’ new house. Maybe next trip, I’ll bike to all over the PGA golf courses. That’d be a little tougher.

Lynne invited her parents over for dinner and cooked up some bratwursts, cheese, and Spotted Cow for dinner. 100% Wiscosinite. What more do I need. I cherish those Spotted Cows, which are typically only sold in Wisconsin. Anytime I can grab a hold of them out of state on this trip, I make sure to. I also invited Kate, from the National Alliance for Youth Sports to the dinner. Kate helped out with my previous bike trip to South Florida, so it was great to catch up!

Today, I took off from Jupiter and made it to ballpark No. 13 in Marlins Park home of the Miami Marlins! The ride was different in that I spent almost the entire day biking with traffic. That’s 104 miles. At times, it wasn’t that great, but for the most part the drivers here in South Florida are wayyyyy better than Texas, Oklahoma, and some other states. I felt safe on the roads, and the drivers always gave me plenty of room, whether I had a bike lane or not.

Now, Marlins Park is the first stadium where there was nothing on the stadium. It was empty. Clearly the owner, or city of Miami, is waiting to cut a deal with a big naming sponsor. I couldn’t get a picture with the name of the ballpark in the background, because there was nowhere to do so. I had to settle for some barricades with the Marlins logo on them. Oh well. It’ll do.

The neighborhood surrounding Marlins Park is very hispanic and offers a great vibe. Some may find it as unsafe or uncomfortable, which may be justifiable. But at the same time the neighborhood felt alive as I rode by. From the music blasting out of businesses to people walking around and talking to each other, it’s clear that the Marlins were trying to target a new demographic by building the stadium in this neighborhood.

I’ll head to the ballgame tomorrow, before racing to Tampa Bay before the All-Star break. Tomorrow is a much needed off day in this month from hell before it continues once again. I’ll keep on grinding. Keep on fighting, and continue to make this trip work. The logistics are difficult this stretch. But I’ll just keep pedaling.