Zero miles out of a possible 52 for me today on the bike.
As I teased yesterday, there was a possibility that we would not be able to get from mainland Florida to the Keys because of a grass fire blocking the only two roads that exist. For a while yesterday both roads were totally closed. When we got up this morning, they were allowing only southbound traffic on one of the two roads & no way to get back to the mainland at all. It was unclear how bad the smoke was on the road & whether they would even a.low bicycles to travel through.
Everyone was given their choice of what to do. 7 folks said they didn’t want to take a chance on riding, some because of asthma problems, others because they didn’t want to get stuck on the Keys if we weren’t allowed to return on schedule next Tuesday. Part of the problem was that we lost all 3 of our support crew. I ended up driving one of the support vehicles rather than riding my bike.
Eventually there were about a dozen bikers who made the trip. The smoke wasn’t bad, the bikes were allowed through & everyone arrived safely. We now have 2 days of riding here in the Keys for a total of a little over 100 miles. I plan to be back on my bike tomorrow & looking forward to finishing off this adventure. Since I wasn’t riding, it did give me the chance to take this picture of some of the group leaving.
When we arrived at the first rest stop, which was a gas station, one of the workers came out to tell us to watch for a rooster who likes to steal food from folks. Here he is.
We’ve been told that there will be lots of rooster sightings in the next few days.
Some of you may be wondering what we do with our bikes over night. Usually they go right into our hotel rooms. That sometimes means things are a little bit cramped, but we make do. My roommate’s bike is extra long, so it won’t fit in an elevator. Mine folds nicely, so I can usually fit it into the room. Here you can see both bikes in a first floor room we had yesterday.
I am optimistic that the tire repair we did the other day on my bike is successful & that I can complete these next 100 miles without incident. You will hear about it here.