Loooong and hot would just about describe yesterday’s ride. We left a gorgeous campsite at Long Key, right on the Atlantic Ocean, and we really wanted to stay another day. All night we could hear the waves lapping at the rocks only about 20 feet from us, and in the morning, we watched the early shore birds fishing next to the rocks. We reluctantly packed up and left, and headed off to Key Largo, and within 15 minutes we were dripping with sweat. There was nothing to do but just keep going, and it was slooow going. We are still hauling about 70 pounds of gear each, and that means we can reach about 10-11 miles an hour on the straightaway, dropping down to 8-9 mph or lower when there are inclines.
We had a wonderful break at Midway Café in Islamorada – just the kind of place I had been dreaming about seeing. It was a small café that served great coffees, smoothies, sandwiches, and baked goods. The air conditioning was divine, and the staff was so pleasant that they let us walk right behind the counter to fill our Camelbaks. We are drinking two full Camelbaks a day – that’s 200 oz – plus at least 1 of my 24 oz Nalgene bottles. That means we are drinking at least 1.75 gallons a day, just during our rides. We usually drink at least another 16-24 oz at night around the campground and at dinner. Just getting enough water daily is a part-time job!
The food at the Midway Café was excellent, but we couldn’t finish it – so we wrapped it up and tucked it into our front bags. We are finding, as we did last summer riding across the US, that we get very hungry every two hours or so, but we can’t eat much at a time. That means we have to time our food and our stops pretty carefully. It’s so terrifically hot here that food spoils very quickly in our bags, and eating dry crackers and peanut butter loses its appeal as a snack on breaks. We want something cool and refreshing, not dry and warm! We have been surprised at how little is available in the way of cafes like this one – we have seen primarily convenience stores where the food consists of chips, candy, and beef jerky, and we haven’t been ready to go shopping when we see the relatively few grocery stores.
We had another very fun experience at the Rain Barrel Gallery down the road a ways from the Midway Café – a wonderful collection of artist’s workshops that’s been around for 30 years. I’ve seen many, many places like this over the years, and it seems increasingly rare to see one that has original work, and work that isn’t mass-produced. This one was just wonderful – if I weren’t on a bicycle, I would have pulled out the checkbook and had a lot of fun. I spotted at least a half dozen things in the various stores that were truly fun and original – from whimsical to beautiful to useful, and some were all three.
Stopping at the Rain Barrel was an exercise in public relations as well – the very kind woman (can’t believe we didn’t get her name!) who was in charge up front saw us sitting in the shade on their front porch (we had stopped only because there was a pleasant bench in the shade) and offered to fill up our water bottles. We got to talking and told her what we were up to, and she was delighted. Not only did she give us the water, she gave each of us a small glass ladybug, and took our photo by our bikes. She started introducing us to others, and we spent quite a while just talking about our trip to people who were there. We had our picture taken by several different groups, and one man from Naples said he’d send us the photos. We hope he does – we’ll post them for you.
The day went downhill a bit after that – the heat was debilitating, and at each place we stopped folks made comments about the heat index – one man asked if we had a death wish – cycling in that heat. After a particularly long rest trying to bring our body temperatures back down, Chelsea took a tumble as we were leaving a major shopping center. She didn’t swing wide enough on a curb and the trailer tipped over, taking her down with it. I was riding down the road thinking she was right behind me, and meanwhile she was lying on her side trapped in her pedals. A very nice woman stopped to help her up, and by that time I was back, wondering where she was.
Chelsea twisted and bruised her neck, and got a gash on her leg, so we made it over to a bar and grille for some first aid. We got her leg cleaned up and loved the air conditioning while we tried to figure out what to do. The cheapest hotel room was $130-150 – out of our budget – and we didn’t really think we could ride the next 15 miles to the campground considering the heat and the lateness of the hour (it was after 5 by that time). We compromised by calling a local taxi that only uses minivans. The dispatcher Ray wasn’t too sure about our request, but he gets our Hero of the Day for at least trying it. Chelsea and I are so used to doing things by ourselves, that we quickly loaded both trailers and bicycles into the van, along with our gear, and we each had a place to sit, too!
It cost us $40 to go only 15 miles, but at least we got there, and it was cheaper than a hotel room. We got a space at the state park, and came dragging in at almost 7 p.m. By the time we set up camp, showered, got back on the bicycles and rode out for some food, it was 10 p.m. and I was just starting the laundry! We decided that we wouldn’t set the alarm, and we’d see how we felt in the morning.
Signing off from Key Largo…