4/12/23 – Key Largo to Marathon

Miles: 51.04 Today / 114.45 Total

Elevation Gain: 358 ft. /926 ft. Total

Spoiler: Today was a much better day than yesterday. We slept in, because the rain caused us to reserve the only hotel room further down the Keys that cost less than $250 a night. It would only be a 32 mile day, but we weren’t going to go to bed wet after another day of riding in the rain, which the weather forecasts were predicting. When we woke up, our hotel had breakfast and a nice outdoor seating area overlooking an inlet.

And just when we were finishing up, Susan and Rafe from Colorado stopped by our table to inquire about what we were up to. They are adventurers in their own right, and seemed pretty interested, so we chatted for a while and exchanged information. While we were talking a torrential downpour began, and we had snag some plastic garbage bags from the hotel to get back to our room and finish getting ready.

We were planning to hit the road in the rain, but by the time we got out the door, the rain had cleared and now the sky was clearing too. Can you believe it? We were definitely good for more than 32 miles and were hoping to go a little farther, and coincidentally, Ed’s credit card was rejected on his booking of the room for the night, so we lined up something further down the route for the night and started peddling.

Here’s where things got good. No malfunctions. No rain. And we enjoyed a bit of tailwind for most of the day, then a quartering headwind for the last part of the day. For some reason, 51 miles took forever and felt really hard, which isn’t exactly good, is it.

We passed some cool stuff along the way, like the biggest crab you ever saw in your life, the biggest conch shell I’ve ever seen (sorry, no photo), some iguanas, three statues of who knows what and more funky stuff than I can even get into. The coolest thing was all the blue water we saw as we rode from Key to Key to Key and crossed bridges, bridges and more bridges. There is nothing like the Florida Keys. I need to bring my grandkids here!

And I learned something new today, which I’ll put into play the next time I visit my sister Janette in North Richland Hills, Texas. She catches some pretty big fish in the lakes near her house, and I’ve never really known the real official way to measure a fish until now. I know I’ll go far with this additional knowledge!

Tomorrow, we cycle less than 50 miles to get to Key West, where I’ll pick up a rental car to shuttle myself back to that rental car center in Miami the following day. Who comes up with these complicated plans anyhow?

Have you noticed my Jersey? I’m riding to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis research, treatment and patient home modification. You can support this great cause by donating here.