florida-2024

Tour de Florida: Post 1

Jeremy and Skipper hit the road again waaaay down South!

Jeremy Stuart

Feb 11, 2024 • 12 min read

Skipper and I are on a tour of Florida for the month of February! Rather than try to keep to the schedule of daily posts that I did across Canada (IT.WAS.SO.MUCH. WORK) I'm going to try just a few roundup posts to catalog the memories and moments!

My mother was kind enough to drive me to Connecticut from Magog on the 29th, and we departed from Skippers place the morning of the 30th. On our way South we stopped in New York City to see a relatively unknown building named for a public servant of yesteryear (Robert Moses). We're both currently reading a tome about Moses called The Power Broker and were curious to see his "seat of power" in NYC.

I know we have highways in Canada, but no one builds them like the Americans. They soar.

From here we made our way to just outside of Washington, D.C. to stay with Skipper's cousin: Anne. We had a good visit with her over a dinner of delicious Korean cuisine. A big thanks to Anne for hosting us! Another friend made along the way!

The next morning we departed early. The plan was to drive to somewhere around Savannah. There had been some snow on the ground in Connecticut when we left, but none in D.C. It started cold enough, but as we reached the Carolinas the mercury started creeping up!

Skipper and I took turns driving and listened to The Power Broker on the way down, pausing occasionally to discuss.

Again, a mostly uneventful drive (in the good way!). We reached our hotel in Brunswick, GA and went out for BBQ. After dinner we slept, anticipating the next morning's arrival in St. Augustine, FL and the start of our bike trip!

Thursday, February 1st

The next morning was cold...ish...but the promise of a warmer day and warmer weather could be felt! The degrees didn't matter though, the first sight of palms catching the rising sun might as well have been summer in a bottle.

One continental breakfast and we were back on the road! We reached the Florida state line in about an hour.

It wasn't long before we reached Jacksonville and pushed on to St. Augustine on the Atlantic coast. We arranged to park the car for the month, pulled our bikes off the car, and started packing them up. We had a short day of cycling (only about 60km) planned and were due to start at around 10:30am.

At some point I walked over to Skipper who had a very stern look on his face. He stared at me for a beat and then said "I forgot my helmet and bike shoes." They were sitting in the garage in Connecticut, likely still waiting to be loaded into the car. Maybe it was the wrong reaction...but I laughed out loud. There was nothing we could do about it, and sometimes you just gotta laugh. We did some quick research for bike shops and found nothing that had both items nearby. Plenty of bike rental shops as we were in a touristy beach town, but no serious bike shops with gear that were opened in St. Augustine or anywhere that wasn't a long drive. We quickly decided the best bet was to drive the 30 miles back to Jacksonville where the REI would surely have what we needed. We drove, shopped, grabbed lunch, and were back in St. Augustine by 1:30pm. We again prepped, loaded, and set off. The sun would set just after 6pm and we had at least 3 hours of riding ahead of us. But first some photos as set off from!

Odometer picture at the start of the trip, this is the distance the cross Canada trip ended at (in kilometers)

I love cataloging the odd use of quotation marks in signs. It always makes the sign sound skeptical. Here the sign warns of the so called quote Dangerous Wildlife unquote. Maybe there's a reason for this, but I've never understood it!

New helmet for Skipper, and ready to set off!

Beg flags for crossing the street! Something I saw in Halifax on the last trip!

Florida is very car centric, but our route has mostly had bike lanes and has made the riding pretty easy. In this respect Florida has Nova Scotia beat by a LOOOONG shot!

We rode along highway A1A which runs along the beach for long sections. Here was our first sight of the Atlantic!

Turtles barely "XING" across the road, they go at their own pace

We peddled hard for three hours to get to the State Park where we would be camping. It being February 1st, dusk hits by about 6:30pm so we still had to setup our tents and change. Though I'd been running a lot before this trip, certain muscles in my legs were on fire! Definitely one or two groups that running didn't train for pedaling! It turns out that my front brake might have been rubbing for most of the trip, but more on that later.

Our campsite at Gamble Rogers State Park in Flagler, Florida

We made camp and realized that the closest restaurant was closed. They must have known I was coming. We biked in he dark to a nearby bar/restaurant and got a meal and recharged after our long day. We biked back in the dark, took a much needed shower, and slept to the sound of waves rolling onto the nearby beach.

Friday, February 2nd

The first signs of sun shone through at about 7am. The morning was brisk! Sweaters, jackets, and even gloves as you could see your breath in the air. This didn't last too long though, and the forecast called for it to hit 20C in only a few hours. We packed, ate breakfast, and hit the road around 9:15am. The goal was a WarmShowers host in Mims, Florida which was about 120km away. This would have been a normal distance during our summer trip in Canada in 2023, but because it is February the sunrise/sunset leaves far less daylight for biking. This was also going to be our first taste of 20C and higher temperatures. To top i toff, it was the first full day of biking!

Remember when I mentioned something about my front brake? Turns out I was missing a piece to my front wheel that was causing it to miss-align and if I used the front break my front tire would almost come lose. I had been told about this and forgot to deal with it. I'm an idiot. As long as I didn't use my front brake (I know, I know) it was ok. So we cruised along the beach the 25 km into Daytona Beach, Florida as I focused all my metaphysical energy into keeping that front wheel from self-destructing.

The Florida equibilent of Jellybean Row in St. John's

Daytona Beach! Known for it's race cars and motorcycles, it was home to several bike shops. We'd researched them all before arriving. The first one we passed was was called Bike Shop. We popped in, and it was obviously a very complete outfit. If they didn't have the part (the internet told me no one would carry it) then no one would. They looked my bike over and assured me this piece could only be ordered from Europe...or hope that by some miracle some shop along the route would have it. It was looking like I may have ruined the trip. And then one of the mechanics walked over with a silver piece of metal and said "Will this work? It's just sitting here, I have no idea what it's for. It fits the measurements..." and sure enough it did. It's not the exact piece. It could fail at some point. But it did the job. It worked. Call it providence. Call it luck. Call it good karma. But I am eternally grateful to Dave and Gary for saving the trip.

We biked on!

It was in the low 20s (Celsius) all day. We grabbed lunch at a grocery store and enjoyed some bird watching in a local park while we ate.

At some point we reached a regional rail trail that crosses the state and headed West/SouthWest on a paved and dedicated bike trail! It was REALLY hot in this section. We stopped a few times to drink and eat snacks. The distance was taking its toll.

Turns out it was part of the East Coast Greenway, a bike trail stretching the entire Atlantic coast of the US. We followed it to a town called Mims, Florida where we had a WarmShowers host for the evening who had agreed to let us camp on their property. The host was actually Mims Methodist United Church who hosted cyclists as part of their mission work. They were really wonderful people. They made sure we had enough to eat, showed us around, had us sign their guest wall, and we were really happy there! A big thanks to everyone at Mims Methodist United Church for their hospitality and help!

Exhausted, we slept long and deep that night.

Saturday, February 3rd

Our hosts from Mims Methodist United were waiting for us when we woke up. They'd prepared some boiled eggs and fruit for us. We chatted with them on some locals who parked at the church and biked on the paved pathway for weekend rides. It was again cold in the morning, and we were bundled up!

The morning started out by passing the Cape Canaveral area. In the far distance I could make out a cube shape that was the Vehicle Assembly Building at The Kennedy Space Center. I didn't snap a picture, it was too far away to appreciate in a photo. But it's the tallest building in the US outside a city. They build ships there that go to other heavenly bodies. They build the future there.

There were constant reminders of the Cape Canaveral in the area. Many of them featured images of the Space Shuttle, once timely and now the symbol of a bygone era of space travel. My favourite might have been the name of the local transit authority:

"For once you have tasted public transit, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned to the horizon...for there you have been, and there you will always long to return" -Probably Winston Churchill or whatever

It was another day of ambitious distance. We hoped for about 130km. It would set us up for easier rides in the coming days. We rode down the coast again.

We stopped for lunch in Eau Gallie, FL and had lunch on a porch overlooking the water.

Florida is almost unnaturally flat. After Canada, it feels like cheating. The only climbs are the causeways we cross to get between the mainland and the barrier islands of the coast where highway A1A runs.

Already the water was showing colours that seemed tropical.

We reached our destination after 130km. We were really tired. There had been some headwinds in the afternoon. We'd stopped at a rest area in a turtle sanctuary at one point. But we made our goal of Sebastian, FL in good time though a little worse for wear. We were staying at a motor lodge motel (old school!) We opted for some groceries and a quiet dinner at our room.

This is the "small" size for cups at the grocery store soda fountain

We then had a book club meeting for our Power Broker book club. A good time was had by all.

Once again, another lloooooooonnnnnnnngggg night of sleep!

Sunday, February 4th

Skipper had lined up a WarmShowers host for the evening. But the forecast was calling for rain around noon. We were expecting headwinds, but they were strangely missing. We decided to put on some distance before they showed up and biked almost 2 hours to Fort Pierce where we found strangely few restaurants open. The local library - where we had hoped to wait out the storm - was also closed on Sundays. We eventually found a place and stayed for almost 3 hours while the rain came down!

These trees had other plants growing off their branches. So much life!

After lunch we continued South, but this time the headwinds found us. And we were now grinding into the wind, working hard for ever inch! Hours of this can take its toll both mentally and physically.

This is the standard bike symbol drawn in bike lanes. It looks to me like this person has half a watermelon on their head. I call this cyclist Melon Head.

St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. Twin reactors on the coast.

As we pushed further the Sun shone through and it started clearing up

Coming up to a causeway, sure sign of a short climb!

Our stay is in the City of Stuart, Florida. This is my last name. Jeremy City of Stuart, Florida. Not that I noticed at all...

I'm sure I won't get any more mileage out of this...

We rode into Stuart and met our WarmShowers hosts: Laura and John. They welcomed us in right away, made sure we were fed, and - because they had experience touring - knew what we wanted before we wanted it! More on them later!