Day 6: Lake Monroe to Titusville KOA

I packed up my Lake Monroe campsite and rolled out about 8:00. The next portion of the trail abuts the boat ramp next to the campground, so I started the day off the road.

The trail was lovely starting off. The air was cool. I saw a bunny on the side of the trail. I think it might be disappearing into the brush in my picture below.

I had to stop and take a picture of this electrical easement, in memory of Day 3 of the trip. There was no easy trail through the easement that day!

A rider stopped to chat for a moment while I snapped my picture. He warned me of a break in the trail some miles up the road. He said it was pretty cut-and-dry as far as a detour. We parted ways.

Since I hadn’t eaten much the day before, I decided to stop and get breakfast along the way. I still feel nervous about eating indoors especially in good, old Florida, but I stopped at a Waffle House. It wasn’t too busy, so social distancing was Ok. And all of the employees wore their masks.

Considering the lack of calories the day before and that I had 40 miles in front of me that day, I ordered the All-Star breakfast special. I ate most of it, but at the end didn’t really want the un-crunchy hash browns and the egg whites.

After that it was trail most of the way. Eventually I came to the gap the cyclist had warned me about. There was a span of the trail that was under construction, so it was road-riding time. I stopped to check the map to see if there was a less-traveled detour, since there was no shoulder. I was encouraged by a couple of cyclists that passed me that shouted the detour was only three miles or so. I got rolling again. Traffic didn’t end up being that bad, and a larger group of cyclists passed me going the other way, riding the road. It was nice to wave and to get encouragement from them.

Soon enough it was time to turn back onto the trail. There was a parking lot with a port-a-pottie, so I took advantage of that before rolling on.

Back on the trail time, the miles flew by quickly. At one point a trail friend, caught me up and we rode together until I had to turn to go to my campsite. Carl was riding a recumbent trike that had an optional electric assist. He’d done a number of tours. It was nice to talk shop talk for a few miles.

(*Note to fellow cyclists* – If you end up having trail conversations with folks, keep the topic on bikes and/or non-controversial topics as a courtesy. I had to steer the conversation with Carl away from anti-mask rhetoric… Nothing like having a Ph.D. in Biology and having someone go on about not using masks during a pandemic.)

I wished Carl well and safe travels, and I turned onto Hwy 46 to go to the Titusville KOA campground. There was a good shoulder to ride on for most of the way on Hwy 46, except right by where I-95 was. I had to signal and ride the road briefly there.

I arrived at 1:30 p.m., with 40.40 miles logged that day. For me, that’s fantastic time.

I chilled out for a bit before setting up camp. Then I headed for the pool. I had been craving that pool the entire trip. I had mistakenly thought one of my other campsites had a pool too. The water was just the right temperature: cool, but where you can acclimate to it pretty quickly.

After swimming and letting the water sooth my sore muscles for awhile, I journaled by the pool. A woman was interested in that, as she liked to journal too. She thought it was a pretty rare thing nowadays, and she’s probably right. I certainly don’t see too many folks that journal in public. Well, not in a book journal anyway. They might do it in their laptop…

I finally headed back to my campsite and thought about dinner. I ended up cooking sausages on my stove and I had chips too.

I read and purused my social media.

I also received an e-mail I’d been waiting for all week. I’d finally received my offer letter for a job I’d verbally accepted. I had the great pleasure to formally accept the position, and I shared that out on my social media too. Huzzah!

With one more day left in my travels, I took time to reflect on all of the cool wildlife I’d seen along the way:

• roseate spoonbills
• wood storks
• deer
• turkeys
• rabbits
• swallow-tail kites
• boars (coming out of Cypress Glen campground)
• raccoons
• sandhill cranes

One more day to go!