Our string of luck is continuing unabated. After an awesome send-off from Lori in Marathon (although very late – we didn’t leave until after 11:30) we headed off up the Keys. It’s so incredibly hot that we can only go about 5 miles before taking a break to let our body temperatures cool down. We were moving right along, but I kept complaining about how hard my trailer was to pull. About 10 miles down the road, Chelsea realized I had a flat tire on the trailer. We discovered much to our dismay that the spare tubes and patch kit hadn’t made it into our gear! We were back on a bike path several miles from nowhere, with scorching heat.
I spotted a pickup truck parked nearby, empty, and decided we needed to keep an eye on whoever was coming back for it. Only about 15 minutes later, Chelsea went running like mad for the truck, waving down the driver. Turns out that he took our tire, drove back to a gas station, which sent him on to Kmart, and within 45 minutes, he was back with us, holding two brand new tubes, a patch kit, and two ice cold bottles of water. He stayed to help us fix the tire and make sure it was working, and when we tried to pay, he backed away, telling us to have lunch with the money instead! He walked away and we never even got his name! Guess who our Hero of the Day is today?
The rest of the riding was hot, hot, hot. We stopped for lunch at a great restaurant about 8 miles from our destination, and had more serious fun. When the waiter saw us come in, and we asked for water, he brought us back quart pitchers, complete with lemon! He was really interested in our story, and kept coming back to see us – he was very entertaining. Before we left, we had another half-gallon pitcher of water and a quart pitcher of ice; two cold bottled waters; and a free slice of key lime pie. And the food was great!
We didn’t make it out of the restaurant very fast, as we were stopped by a delightful couple – Jeff and Sheila, and we chatted awhile about what we are doing. They live in the Keys right now, but are hoping to be back in the Seattle area before long – we wish them all the luck in the world with their new plans. Meanwhile Chelsea was chatting with a woman from Israel who also wanted to know what we were doing – she herself is exploring the US.
We made it to Long Key to the State Park, and we got the next to-last campsite. We have an awesome spot right on the ocean and we have been invited for a salad dinner by another fellow adventurer. So we’re off to eat dinner and fall into bed.
Signing off from Long Key…