4/17/23 – Long Point Park to Mims, FL

Miles: 65.15 Today / 426.3 Total

Elevation Gain: 551 ft. Today / 3662 ft. Total

Just to follow up on last night, my clothes and shoes were all soaking wet this morning and, as my good friend Jacki Paul’s Mother used to say, “Wish in one had and _ _ _ _ in the other, and see which one gets full first.” The weather was worse today. Much worse. So much for wishing and hoping.

I was awake pretty early and, now that it wasn’t raining and dark, I was able to take a photo of my campsite. After eating my breakfast (steel cut oats with raisins, walnuts and pepitos stirred in, in case you’re wondering), I got dressed, packed up my campsite and hit the road.

Just as I stopped to take a photo of the sign at the entry to the campground, a couple of fully loaded guys, also riding northbound, spotted me and stopped. They were French, and because if that, I couldn’t understand them well enough to catch whether they were from Canada or Europe. Regardless, they seemed to want to chat, but I needed to be peddling, because the weather prediction was 1000 percent chance of rain in the morning, then headwinds of 16-18 mph in the afternoon, which, if you’re not a cyclist, is brutal. I cut off the conversation abruptly and peddled off, and within a minute they were both passing me. What? Way to rub my whimpiness in, guys. The wind was already 13 mpg, so once they passed, I thought I should catch up and draft off of them, but I couldn’t catch them, which takes us back to my whimpiness…..

Within a minute of riding away from the campground sign, it started raining—lightly—and the steady headwind and rain continued until 2 PM. I passed Coconut Point Preserve, but taking photos was out of the question, because it was raining, and my phone’s giving me the message that my lightening port has water in it. So I didn’t pull my phone out until the rain stopped.

A good part of the route was adjacent to either the ocean or Indian River, and the water was super choppy. About the time the rain stopped, the headwind picked up to the 16-18 mph that was forecasted, and that’s when I realized that I would rather be rained on than face a tougher headwind. I was actually hoping the rain would come back, because that wind was so brutal.

The route turned me onto two narrow, shoulderless roads winding along the waterfront of some snazzy residential areas. Indian River Rd and later Rockledge Dr meandered up and down little hills and through frequent unavoidable puddled water, and my feet were soaked, and I was not enjoying the puddles or hills, so I got off the route and rode on Highway 1. It had a nice bike lane, but also a lot of traffic, and there’s no way to listen to music or podcasts when you’re in traffic, so the time passed very slowly as I pedalled against that blasted wind, and getting to my destination took FOREVER.

In Titusville, I stopped at Space View Park, which honors the people and corporations involved in the US space program. Pretty interesting stuff.

After Titusville, the Coast to Coast Rail Trail, which took me directly to the Methodist Church in Mims, which hosts cyclists like me via the Warm Showers website.

My hostess with the mostess, Cathy, was super accommodating. I strung my tent and wet clothes all over the front patio to dry out from the previous night’s storm, pulled a hose around to the back of a building to give myself a cold shower, and got to sleep indoors on the floor of the room they have set up for cycling guests. I kicked back, relaxed, then turned in early—the most relaxing evening of my trip.

Tomorrow, I’m riding more rail trails in more headwind as I head to the home of another Warm Showers host.

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