Day 5. The home stretch. The last day of riding. The end was near.
I woke up sore and tired. My injuries from my mini-accident the day before, while minor, still left me tossing and turning. I couldn’t find a good way to sleep that didn’t irritate my road rash.
We packed up camp and plotted a route. My travel partner grumbled a bit the previous day about the urban terrain. She had been riding in the back, so she took the heat with irritated drivers.
We had two options:
- cut northeast through Miami to get to Fort Lauderdale more directly or
- go west and then cut east. It would still be urban when we cut east, but we’d have a goodly portion that was off the road and away from traffic
I left it to my travel partner to decide. She chose the trail going west. It would add miles, but we thought it might make for more pleasant riding.
Off we went!
The first few miles went smoothly. We alternated between roads that didn’t have a ton of traffic and sidewalk. Finally, we reached a road that the map said we were supposed to take that was all dirt. And pockmarked.
Under different conditions, it could have been fun. Riding full loaded, with one of the bikes only having 1.5″ tires? I wasn’t sure it could handle it. We looked at the map via GPS, and I found a route that I thought would keep us off the dirt road. Or at least be on dirt for a shorter distance. So I thought…
We rode up to the new route. We had to cross railroad tracks at a place where there was no road crossing. Try that when your bike is loaded down with 35 lbs of gear! Those railroad tracks are way taller than you’d think!
We started riding and came to another dirt, pockmarked road. We started riding. The holes were filled with water, so we dodged them as we rode. There was actually a bit of traffic! A farm truck passed us twice, probably thinking we were crazy to be out there.
Eventually we made it! And we were greeted by a lovely off-road trail. It was smooth sailing for a bit. But we had a long day, and that dirt road had taken a long time to get through. Time to get rolling.
We rode that trail for miles. With a pretty strong headwind. This was one of my least favorite parts of the trip. The scenery didn’t really change. There weren’t many places to stop. Not having cars behind us was sort of nice, but somehow also made the miles roll by even slower.
I didn’t take many pictures. Just grinded on…
We finally got to civilization. There were decent bike paths a lot of the way. But we also ended up riding the sidewalk a bit. No spills on this last day.
As we approached Fort Lauderdale, some traffic patterns emerged. Cars turning right on red did not stop for pedestrians or bikes. Even when we had the crosswalk sign. I started pulling part way into the intersection as the light was changing to make sure we were in plain sight as the lights turned.
This was generally true at intersections regardless. They did not look before wanting to turn right. We had to be extra diligent. We had one close call crossing a road going into a parking lot. A hot little sports car almost hit my travel partner, who was almost all of the way across the intersection. Scary…
My mom lives right on the beach off of A1A. This meant that we had a couple of bridges to go over. Probably the biggest and scariest (going up) was the one that took us to Marina Mile. The speed limit there is a bit fast. There was a sidewalk to go across, but I missed it so I pedaled up that bridge. Cars did go around, but it was scary hearing them come up behind me. But I made it.
Going down? That was fun! Super fast!
I waited for my travel partner to catch up. I had thought there was a bike lane along Marina Mile, but there wasn’t. So we rode the sidewalk to get to Hwy 1 and ultimately SE17.
Then another bridge. This time there was an off-road bike lane, so not so much pressure to go up fast. One of our last bridges!
Another couple of miles, one little bridge, and we were there!!
All told, we rode 62 miles that day. Our longest.
All told we rode ~230 miles from Key West to Fort Lauderdale.
That evening we hung out with my mom and ungle, ate food, drank, watched TV. (Full disclosure: I drank way too much for being dehydrated and undernourished. Not my best plan.)
We rang in the new year with … not Dick Clark.
Mom and I went for a late walk on the beach. Admittedly I only remember bits of that, but the parts I do are nice.
The next morning, we had a train to catch. My uncle saved the day by letting us load up our bikes in his Kia to drive us the 6 miles to the train station. After 200+, 6 miles doesn’t sound like much. But it mattered…
The train trip was pretty normal. It was nice to let the scenery roll by after working so hard for the last 5 days. The seats were comfortable. I napped on and off.
My travel partner’s daughter picked us up and dropped me at my place.
The kitties were happy to see me when I got home. A friend had been popping in to check on them while I was away, but they were still super lovey.
I slowly began unpacking. And packing. Or taping, anyway, my wounds from my mini-accident.
I had a few more days of R&R before school started back up. I’m pretty sure I slept a lot.
So bike tour #2 in the books. Lessons learned. Memories made. Already thinking of the next: what I’d do differently, what I’d do similarly, places I’d like to go…