Miles: 56.27 Today / 220.4 Total
Elevation Gain: 505ft. Today / 1760 ft. Total

It was really hard getting to sleep, last night. It was so blasted hot and humid (my weather app said 80 degrees, but feels like 84), and I had that early drive back to the Miami Airport Car Rental Center in the morning. Earlier, I had decided to save a bunch of time and not put my tent and sleeping kit up and instead open the windows of the car, recline the seat and sleep there. I mean, there are so many times when I pull into my garage and am so tired I fall asleep in my car for 1/2 hour or so, so this should work, right? Wrong! I was pretty comfortable reclined in the seat, and there was a ton of legroom, but I was having anxiety about making today work and just could not fall asleep. I checked the driving time to the rental car center, and at 1:30 AM, it was 3.5 hours. At 7:30 AM, it was more like 5.5 hours. Bam! I turned o the engine and start driving. My plan was to drive till I got tired, then pull over in a hotel parking lot and doze.

I and 3

I and 3 – 4 semis and box trucks had the entire road to ourselves through the entire Keys, and we were flying along much more quickly than Google Maps had predicted. I’m pretty sure those trucks do this all the time, so I trusted their knowledge of the local speed enforcement. As I approached Miami, what previously had been traffic congestion and a slew of red lights was now very few cars and mostly green lights. In 2.5 hours, I was a mile from the rental car center. I could have turned the car in, but I still needed sleep, so I pulled into the parking lot of an IHOP and conked out for 5 very restful hours. When I woke up, I put on my cycling clothes, ordered up some crepes for breakfast, then headed to the rental car center. Once there, I reassembled the bike, loaded up all may bags, turned in the rental car, and rode off from there.

Airports tend to be busy places, but on my second trip out of the rental car center, the traffic was surprisingly lights. And the ride was surprisingly pleasant, Google Maps routed me through a quiet industrial area on some lazy back roads, but once I crossed the causeway into Miami Beach that all changed.

This is a very busy place with lots of traffic. LOTS of traffic, but also lots of bike lanes as well as a right car/bike lane that says it is for bikes, but is usually occupied by cars and delivery trucks.

This is also a place with a LOT of resorts and high rise towers.

For the entire day, the riding fluctuated between bike paths or less trafficked areas and high traffic areas with a narrow shoulder. There was also some beachfront riding, which was VERY challenging, due to the number of people out enjoying the beach and boardwalk.

One other thing I saw a few of were turtle nesting areas, like the one below. Nesting turtles need a lot of protection, eh?

As I approached Ft. Lauderdale, I was concerned about my route being flooded out, but I’m pleased to announce that I was not detoured at all. There were a few puddles, a few broken branches and a lot of eaves blown onto the road, but most of the storm damage had already been cleaned up, which is amazing. I did pass one small mobile home park with a huge pool of water and a lot of wreckage that may have been there before the storm. Or not. I didn’t actually hear anything about a hurricane or tornado actually hitting ground.

I also passed a business, where all the employees cars and the large building that housed the business were in 1.5 – 3 feet of water. An employee who saw me snapping a photo stopped to talk and told me that everyone was in good spirits, but that the business was self insured. I hope the owners are wealthy.

When I arrived Boca Raton, I dropped my gear off at my Airbnb lodging for the night and got some recommendations for a local bike shop and some ice cream. The bike shop was less than a mile away, and it’s mechanic was a female who really knows her stuff. She fiddled around with my brake and derailleur adjustments to cut out some annoying sounds and shifting difficulties, but was unwilling to take the time to help me convert my rear tire back to tubeless.

From there, I rode another couple of miles down the road to Sloan’s—the ice cream shop where Jonathan, Jr., the son of my Airbnb, host works. Oh my goodness! Their ice cream is homemade, and it’s richer and tastier than anything Ben & Jerry’s cooks up. I ordered a pint with 3 different flavors in it, then had to race home to eat it before it melted. Complete Nirvana! I spent a few hours working on hosts and arrangements to meet friends up the route, watched Ted Lasso (can’t fall completely behind on my TV viewing), and fell asleep working on my blog. No sense of urgency with the blog. My host provided wifi information, but the was non responsive when none of worked, so I knew the blog was dead in the water for the evening.

Tomorrow, I’ll be meeting up with one of Ed’s riding partners—a buff studette gal named Nessa, who is a couple of years younger than me. I’m hoping she and I can do some tours together in the future. Maybe one of the Eurovelo routes, right Nessa? Can’t wait to meet her!

Miles: 49.68 Today / 164.13 Total

Elevation Gain: 338 ft. Today / 1264 ft. Total

We cycled even less miles today than we did yesterday, and at the end of it we were even more tired than yesterday. Could it have been the insane heat and humidity? How do people live in Florida when it turns warm and when it rains and when there are hurricanes, and, and, and?

We awoke at 6:30 AM, which, if you know me, you know is REALLY early for me. But we scored almost 7 hours of sleep, which might be just barely enough sleep for a couple of mid 60s goofs riding bikes. For our first breakfast, we had some of the steel cut oats I’ve been carrying in my food and cooking pannier. And I’m proud to say that we lubed our chains and were loaded up and on the road by 8:15. Not bad, eh?

The morning traffic in Marathon was 4 lanes of heavy traffic, forcing us to ride on the sidewalks and bike paths, some of which are not the best riding surfaces. Thankfully, as the day progressed, traffic got lighter and lighter.

The famous Seven Mile Bridge was first up on our route. We had heard conflicting accounts on whether there was a parallel path for bikes, and a young gal we spoke to at our hotel told us that she had just seen a sign in a bike shop saying that the old highway was open, so we could ride on it, instead of the brigade shoulder. Ed and I had both read that the old highway was only open a short distance, and there were no signs posted to warn cyclists about that, so they listen to people who tell them it is open the full length, then end up having to backtrack.

Well here’s the reality: The old bridge cycle path ended at about 2 miles, where a span of the bridge was missing. We heard that from a local who was right by the bridge, and we verified that with our own eyeballs. And that was not the only span missing from the bridge. There were several.

Another thing we had read about the bridge, in various blogs, was that there is little to no shoulder on the bridge and that the shoulder is heavily littered with tire hazards. Fortunately, that too proved to be wrong. The shoulder was 4-5 ft wide, with very little litter. And the wind was also cooperative, as in a gentle 6 mph cross wind from the south.

Though cars can’t stop on the bridge, for obvious reasons, we did—several times—to check out the scenery and snap a few photos.

The heat was picking up as we finished the bridge and our first 10 miles of riding, and we were already thinking about second breakfast. Sadly, there weren’t going to be any good food choices till we got to Big Pine Key—another 10 miles down the road. We muscled through it and found ourselves a super delish breakfast spot.

The rest of the ride was just chugging along from Key to bridge to Key to bridge, repeat, repeat, repeat, etc. Nothing memorable, but the heat, humidity and unquenchable thirst, until we heard the rumble of jet engines overhead. The Blue Angels were practicing for an upcoming airshow, and they seemed to be locked onto our GPS coordinates, because they buzzed us from every direction, as we pedaled onward.

Those jets roaring by lifted our spirits and took our minds off the problem at hand that was sapping our energy. We were hearing and seeing them till we hit Key West and checked into our campground at Sigsbee Island Naval Air Station Annex.

After dropping our panniers at our campsite, we hopped back on our bikes to find Mile 0 (zero) of US Highway 1, the monument for the southernmost point of the Continental US, and to run a few errands.

My number one errand was to pick up a rental car to shuttle my bike and self back up to Miami tomorrow norming. Number two—I needed a new power cable for my MacBook, which they luckily had exactly one of at the Navy Exchange near our campground.

It’s been fun riding with Ed. He’ll be in the campground alone tomorrow night, then will be joined by a fellow named Lenny to ride a variation of the route I’m taking up the Atlantic Coast. Best of luck with your ride, Ed and Lenny!

Tomorrow, my route from Miami to Boca Raton takes me through the flooded US Highway A1A beachfront of Ft. Lauderdale. I don’t yet know how I will get through or around that area, so wish me luck. I’m 100% positive I’ll need it.

One final word. If you are enjoying my blog, please consider donating to the cause I am pedaling to raise funds for: Bike the US for MS

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.

Miles: 63.41 Elevation Gain: 568 ft

First day of my 49 day ride up the Atlantic Coast, and you’ll never believe this: there were some major MAJOR malfunctions right out of the chute!

My flight arrived a few minutes late, then when I went to assemble my bike, my really cool Topeak Mini Morph Pump would not push air into the tires. The result was one tire losing so much air that it lost it’s seal and went flat. My tires are tubeless, so it takes a big initial puff of air to seal the tire to the wheel. When the one tire lost it’s seal, that just was not going to happen with my tiny malfunctioning pump.

I was dead in the water, sitting at the airport with no way to air up the tire that had its seal and no way to get any air into the other tire. So I emptied the sealant out of the one tire that lost its seal and put an inner tube in it, like most people do. I was able to get about 25 PSI into both tires, which is definitely not enough pressure to do anything more than load my 57+ lbs of gear onto the bike and push it to the MIA Mover rail system that was taking me to meet Ed at the rental car center.

Once in the center, I took the panniers off one side of the bike so Ed could get to the valve stems, and he used his identical Topeka pump to fill my tires up to 60 PSI. Just a few minutes later, we were cycling out from the rental car center to navigate to the Adventure Cycling route. We scoped out a bike shop that was just a bit out of the way, so I could get my one tire converted back to tubeless and buy a new pump. After going a couple of miles out of our way, we arrived the bike shop and learned that it was so low tech, they didn’t even know about tubeless bike tires, and their single pump choice was a completely absurd floor pump. I coughed up $12.95 for another spare tube (outrageous!!!), and we headed for the door of the bike shop, and that’s when I noticed that I was missing one of my front panniers. What the heck!

In the course of riding to the bike shop, which was just 3-4 miles from the rental center, we hadn’t done anything that would have caused my pannier to fall off, and if it had fallen off, both of us would have noticed. Ed remembered me setting a pannier on a planter, back at the rental car center. I remembered that when we left there, there was nothing left laying around. So that’s when we found a McDonalds for Ed to take a break in and keep his eye on both bikes, while I caught an Uber back to the rental car center to hopefully find my pannier sitting on a planter.

I was having a crisis, in case you hadn’t noticed, and my Uber driver, Gloria, knew it. She went off the clock at the rental care center, while I went inside looking for my pannier, which I fortunately found—nicely camouflaged in a planter. Then she drove me back to the McDonalds, in exchange for a very generous tip. I was so appreciative!!!

Back on the road, we cycled on three different bike paths that covered almost 47 miles of our route to Key Largo. One was built under the raised Miami Metro Rail line, a second was a road built just for bus traffic that paralleled US Highway 1, and the third paralleled Highway 1 through Key Largo. Regarding the middle bike path—the road just for buses—there were signs posted on it saying, “No Bikes, Roller Skates or Skate Boards”. Confession: We ignored those signs. There actually was a bike path adjacent to the bus road, but it was torn up in so many places that we gave up on it, and the bus drivers and two police officers we passed didn’t seem to mind.

And here’s where I must digress, because I forgot to talk about the weather. There was non stop rain all day long, and the previous day, Miami got more rain in one day than they have ever had on that date. A lot of roads were flooded and there was water pooled up everywhere. Okay, so do you have the visual of us two drenched cyclists getting pounded by rain, splashed and spayed by cars and careening through puddles for an entire day?

Now add to that the wind. For most of the day, we had a bit of a tail wind, but on one 3-4 mile section of road approaching Key Largo, we changed directions, and the wind didn’t, putting is in a 23 MPH head and cross wind. Several times, I felt like I was going to be blown off the road, which was very scary. But we survived it all and will live to see another day.

Our lodging for this evening was all arranged with a lovely Warm Shower’s host, Jacquelyn Bello, who was going to let us camp in her back yard, take a shower and use her bathroom. But when you’re having a day of malfunctions, why stop? Jaqueline flaked out on us, leaving us with no lodging for the night. There are three nearby campgrounds, but being soaked to the bones, as we were, we decided to get a hotel room so we could get a warm shower and dry our clothes, bikes and gear.

And this was all on day one of my 49 day bike ride up the Atlantic Coast. I’m afraid of what tomorrow will bring. Do you think I should be more optimistic?

Here’s something I’m optimistic about. My goal to raise $5000 for the Bike the US for MS non profit. You can support me by donating here:

I’m not much of a social media poster, so unless you talk to me, you probably don’t known that I have been training and gearing up to complete my circumnavigation of the US on a bicycle, by cycling up the Atlantic Coast from Key West to Canada.

My training partner, Lisa Stapley, and I rode the Tour de Tucson late last year and have been pushing ourselves longer and harder than we used to.

My favorite mechanic and friend Jay Stewart has worked his magic on my bike and replaced tires, chains, my cassette and who knows what else. He’s the pro. I just trust him.

I’m doing this ride a little differently than my past rides. The majority of the ride will be with a team of cyclists from Bike the US for MS, a non profit that raises funds for MS research, treatment and home modifications for patients. My Aunt Betty died of MS a few years ago, so my ride is dedicated to her. (Hint, Hint: Feel free to support me in this effort by clicking the donate link at the bottom of this page.)

So back to the ride. Starting April 20th, I’ll be riding from St Augustine, Florida to Bar Harbor, Maine with that team of MS fund raisers, but my goal is a little bigger than theirs. I will be riding the entire coast, including the additional distance from Key West to St Augustine and Bar Harbor to Canada on my own—another 900 miles.

The wind in the Florida Keys comes out of the East, so I’m doing that section of the route backwards, starting in Miami, then shuttling my bike back to Miami to begin riding northbound toward St. Augustine, where I’ll meet up with the MS team. After we arrive Bar Harbor, on May 26th, hopefully, one or more of that team will join me for the 1-2 day 103 mile ride to Canada.

This morning and afternoon were a flurry of activity, making final preparations for my flight. I packed my bike into a huge electric bike box and somehow thought I wouldn’t have to remove any wheels, fenders or racks, but I was wrong on all counts. Assembly will now be a bit more challenging than I was hoping it would be.

And I had to do my all important gear lay down, right? Why is there so much more gear? Well, I am anticipating more cold and wet weather on this trip than I’ve encountered on past tours. And there will be stops to do service projects for MS patients, so I am bringing more off bike clothes than I ever have in the past. Oh, and this year, I have braces, so I have a rechargeable water flosser to attempt to keep my teeth clean.

While I was fiddling around with all my gear and clothes, the time was ticking away, and that’s when a true angel arrived at my house. I had asked my friend Heather Johnson to print some little signs for my panniers and a laniard I plan to wear on her color printer, but Heather’s an overachiever. She didn’t just print them, she also delivered them. And when she arrived and saw the state of my preparation, she dug in and helped me out BIG TIME! Thank you so much for all your help, Heather! I would have missed my flight without you!

I had about 5 minutes left for a shower, after Heather left, so no shower. My ex husband Jerry was now here to take me, my 49.5 lb. box of panniers and my 49.5 lb. box of bike to the airport. I just barely had time to change my clothes and wash my face, then we were on our way to the airport, where I boarded a plane for Miami, Florida—a red eye special.

After I land, at 5:45 AM tomorrow, I’ll be assembling my bike in the airport, hopping on a people mover to take me to the rental car center, and meeting up with my good friend Ed Craft, who I cycled with on both my Northern and Southern Tier tours. Ed’s joining in for just the three day ride to Key West, which will be three solid days of cycling and camping in the rain—something we are both a little nervous about. The silver lining? It looks like we’ll have three days of tailwind! Wish us luck!

Donate to Bike the US for MS