Heat, heat, and more heat
We feel like we’ve died and gone to heaven right now, as we are in air conditioning for the first time since last Sunday morning in Port St. Lucie. We say heaven, because we have been dealing with daily temperatures over 100 degrees – on Sunday morning it was 96 degrees in Vero Beach at 11:15 a.m.! And that doesn’t count what the heat index was – they told us Sunday morning as we left Port St. Lucie that the heat index had been 115 the day before…and I can tell you it sure felt like that!
Riding in this kind of heat has been really tough. We are getting up at 5 a.m. and we are riding away by 6:30. We can make about 20 miles fairly well, and then the heat starts becoming a very serious factor. With this kind of humidity we can’t cool down, so we ride about 3 miles or so, and then we have to stop in the shade somewhere and take about 20-30 minutes to cool down. The hotter it gets, the shorter the time in between stops, and the longer the stops are. It makes for slow going!
Port St. Lucie
We had an awesome time in Port St. Lucie at the Holiday Inn. It took us over 4 hours to get all caught up on our blogs and related issues, and we finally went downstairs for the hotel buffet. The waitress, June, was a friendly, bubbly sort of person, and made us feel very welcome. She was astonished at our story of riding 40,000 miles, and proceeded to take us under her wing. Wanting to know what she could do for us, she came up with the idea of letting us use her own personal “entertainment card”, which gave us a full 70% discount on one of our meals! She let us run upstairs and get our Camelbaks, and helped us fill them with water and ice. June is definitely our Hero of the Day for all her help.
Meanwhile, she was telling all the other patrons about what we were doing. One couple, Patrick and Luz Ryan, were very interested, and we began carrying on a conversation with them in bits and pieces. They are locals, but Luz is from Colombia, and was interested in the fact that we are going to ride there. She suggested that the coastal areas are “dicier” than the inland areas, so we’ll file that away in our travel information, and see if it will affect our route plans. It’s not the first time we have heard that.
Safety
I’m going to digress a bit from our bicycling story here, and give you some background information on us. About 3 years ago, Chelsea and I bought a house in Ft. Pierce FL in the heart of an area known as “The Avenues”. There’s Avenue A, Avenue B, Avenue C, and so on, intersected with numbered streets like N 14th, N 18th and so on. This area is one of the worst areas for many miles around. To call it the ‘Hood” is to understate it – there are shootings nightly, there’s heavy drug traffic, lots of poverty – you get the idea. However, we have a nice house on over 1/3 of an acre, we have a wonderful tenant, and the property is only a mile from a beautiful marina right in the heart of downtown.
We have done two rehabs on the house, and we were very active in both of them – one when we bought the house, and one when the series of hurricanes in 2004 hit us. We were on our hands and knees up on the roof hammering down tarps, we were down on our knees in the street with a small chainsaw cutting up wood to be taken away in the trash, and at one point Chelsea, Alex and I hauled away over 3 tons of rehab trash to the local dump by ourselves (I had NO idea there were so many colors and sizes and shapes of cockroaches!).
So now back to the story. Everyone is very concerned about the fact that we will be riding through some areas that have a bad reputation for safety, and Patrick and Luz brought that up also. However, when we got to talking about other issues, and Patrick and Luz learned that we owned a house in the Avenues, Patrick laughed. He told us that if we owned property there, and we were “hands-on” owners, he figured we could take care of ourselves anywhere.
Port St. Lucie send-off
We got up bright and early on Sunday and headed downstairs to get our bicycles (the staff had very kindly allowed us to put them into one of the offices) and to get one last fill-up on a water bottle. We were met by June, our waitress from the night before, another restaurant person, and the front desk clerk, all of whom gave us a wonderful send-off. They packed us a picnic lunch of bagels, peanut butter, plastic knives and spoons, rice krispies, and apples…it was awesome! And all of it was accompanied by laughter and great wishes for our well-being. We headed out onto Hwy 1 with the best possible feelings we could have – they even came out to the entrance to wave us off!
Then we had to actually ride. Ahhh well… We decided to take Hwy 1 straight up to Ft Pierce because we were already off route, and it was the straightest and simplest route. Once we got on the road, we discovered that there was extensive construction and we had to ride without a shoulder, taking up a lane, for over 5 miles. We were SO glad it was early and that it was Sunday!
Getting up to Longpoint
The rest of the riding day was just really hot and fairly boring. We went through Ft Pierce and cut over to A1A and followed that all the way through North Hutchinson Island, Vero Beach, and Wabasso. We intended to make it to Longpoint Campground, but by the time we hit Wabasso, after riding 40 miles, with the heat index well into triple digits, we were seriously wondering how we would possibly make it to Longpoint, another 10 miles away. Talk about HOT!
We found a small pizza place (no real air conditioning, but it beat sitting outside!), and we sat for a while. The sandwiches were really great, so of course we had to let them digest awhile, right? So we sat awhile longer. Meanwhile, customers started coming in, and we started answering questions about what we were doing. One set of guys was particularly funny and enjoyable. They asked where we were staying and we told them about Longpoint, and I said jokingly that if we could get a ride there we’d take it in a heartbeat. One of them said, “Well, I’ll take you! Do you want a ride?” Chelsea and I looked at each other, and it took about 3 seconds to decide. We both said simultaneously “Yes!”. And within 5 minutes we were packed up and riding in luxurious air-conditioned comfort up to Longpoint.
The guys stayed with us until we checked in and they brought the trailers and bikes right to our campsite. They even offered to drive us the mile or so out to the main road to get food and water. We regretted for hours that we said no! We don’t even know their names, so guys, if you are reading this, remember that you promised to write us! They definitely get our Hero of the Day, with capital letters!!!
The campsite
We had a great spot right by the water, and we even had shade. Given what the rest of the campground looked like, that was a serious plus. On the downside, we had horrible mosquitoes and the no-see-ums were pretty annoying. We had to ride a mile out and back for supplies, and the supplies were limited to a bait and tackle shop/convenience store. There was a small restaurant but it was closed on Sunday night and all day Monday, so we had sub sandwiches for dinner on Sunday night.
By the time all was said on done on Saturday night, I ended up with only about 4 hours sleep and Chelsea had 5, then we got up and rode 40 miles in the heat. All I could think about was getting to sleep. We managed to brush teeth and so on, and when we got into the tent, we had to spend about 10 minutes on Mosquito Patrol – killing all the pests that got sucked in as we opened the tent doors to get in. I was out like a light, despite the 85-degree heat in the tent, but Chelsea decided to go out to the bathroom again, and what a zoo it turned out to be. By the time she did so, the mosquitoes had built up to literally hundreds swarming between our tent and our rain fly. No matter how fast she moved, and it was fast!, it didn’t matter. Those pesky things just swarmed right in. So there I was, just desperate to be asleep, and all I could hear was hnnnn, hnnnnnn, hnnnn, buzzing my ears and head. Chelsea spent at least 10 minutes killing them all, and then so help me, we were up at 4:30 a.m. with the raccoons ripping into our things! Chelsea scrambled out to get rid of them, but by the time the alarm went off at 5 we were in no condition to go.
(the rest of this is being written from Beverly Beach FL)
Getting out of Longpoint
We slept right through the alarm on Monday and slept 4 more hours. We got up and spent the day moving from shade spot to shade spot, avoiding the worst of the mosquitoes and no-see-ums. We couldn’t wait until it was cool enough to cycle out to the highway to the bait and tackle shop and get some more sub sandwiches. Knowing what awaited us back at camp (an unrelenting diet of mosquitoes, heat and no-see-ums), we asked if we could hang out at the store and eat our sandwiches.
That turned out to be an extremely educational thing to do. Mark, who has worked at the store for 11 years, kept us incredibly entertained with all his stories of his life and of the locals. (Check out the photo gallery for a picture of Mark). An older fellow came in after we’d been there an hour of so, and joined in the “party”. He was drinking something out of a styrofoam cup, and kept abruptly disappearing outside for a few minutes. Finally, after about five of these trips outside, he muttered something about getting some more “adult beverages”.
Mark told us that that’s the way it is in the Sebastian, Longpoint area – there’s work, then fishing, and then drinking. Work is to be gotten out of the way, and life is really about fishing and drinking. It reminded us very much of the Keys, and in fact, the cycling reminded us a lot of the Keys.
Four and a half hours, several sodas, one sandwich, and many hilarious stories later, we finally got back to camp. Mark said he’d be over, and the other gentleman said that he’d stop by, too. We more than half expected to get a ride up past Wickham – our next stop, and that encouraged us a great deal. Mark did stop by about 9:30, and didn’t leave until midnight, which killed our plans to leave at 5 a.m., but we were excited because we thought we’d get a ride out of the area.
We slept in the next morning, and actually killed several hours sitting in the bathroom, which wasn’t as bug-laden as outside, and had a fan. We finally went off to the highway, and had a great lunch in the restaurant near the bait and tackle place (that’s where I started writing this blog 8 days ago!).
After our great lunch, and after the restaurant closed, we hung out again and had more great conversations with the locals. You have to check out the photo gallery. to see the pictures of Scott and Sherri. We loved how friendly they were, and how funny. It was so easy to talk and to learn really interesting things from them!
Kindred spirit supports our adventure – and gets Hero of the Day
It became obvious that our potential ride wasn’t going to materialize, so we headed back to camp, determined that no matter what, were going to get out of there in the morning. While we were organizing our things, another camper stopped by on a bicycle and started talking to us. It turns out that he (Don Hoening) lives in Delray Beach and owns a used car business in Pompano Beach. He was really excited about our adventure, and asked if we needed money. We told him that we were definitely interested in donations for our trip, so not only did he invite us over to his RV to get out of the heat, but he gave us a check for $75 and then fed us dinner! He was up there in Longpoint with his two sons, just hanging out and going out on the boat. His kids were awesome… It turns out that Don had had a lifetime dream of racing competitively in Nascar and going for the big time, and several years ago a high school buddy actually bankrolled a two year effort to “hit the top”. So Don completely and totally understands the adventurous spirit, and understands that it takes money to keep going. Needless to say, Don gets our unqualified Hero of the Day! He was such a bright spot for us!
Mosquitoes, mosquitoes, and more mosquitoes, and then raccoons
What a wild night we had after talking to Don. We got to bed at a decent hour, but the mosquitoes were unbelievable. Once again, there were literally hundreds of them swarming our tent. We spent about 20 minutes killing all of them before going to sleep, and then about midnight I was awakened by some new campers setting off fireworks. I had just fallen asleep again and I was awakened by some serious rustling and noises from under Mark’s tent, where we had the trailers. The noises were so loud that I had to get dressed and climb out of the tent, searching for what was going on.
Mind you, over the prior few days the raccoons, birds, and squirrels had already gotten our bagels, apples, and a bunch of other food, and the raccoons had slashed through our plastic covers. We weren’t feeling too tolerant at that point. Sure enough, I caught a raccoon rushing out of the tent, and I found Chelsea’s Camelbak down by the water! It had pulled the Camelbak off the trailer from under a heavy-duty plastic bag and had dragged it about 15 feet away. Those things aren’t light when they are full of water, and we had already filled them in preparation for the next morning! If I hadn’t gotten up when I did, we would likely have never found a trace of it. Not only did I now have to deal with the dozens of mosquitoes that got into the tent (the next 15 minutes were literally a blood bath), but then I was afraid to go back to sleep for fear the raccoons would reappear and wreak more havoc. It was not a restful night.
The alarm went off at 5 and I was SO ready to get out of there! Chelsea and I could barely talk, we were so tired and so busy swatting mosquitoes. I had slathered myself with repellent before getting out of the tent, but it didn’t seem to matter. We had two tents to take down, our trailers to pack, and the usual personal preparations, and we just kept moving. They were crawling up our shirts, in our eyes and mouths – yuck! We were so upset that we didn’t even eat breakfast and we didn’t put on sunscreen. We just rode as fast as we could toward the highway. We tried to eat a Greens Bar at the highway, but the bugs were still bad, so we just took off. It was 12 miles before we slowed down long enough to eat and put on sunscreen!
And the ultimate joke was that they started aerial spraying for the mosquitoes just as we were leaving – the chemicals were all over the areas we had to ride to through, and then we were nearly bombed ourselves as the plane came low and very close to us on the final section. We have never been so happy to be out of anyplace as we were that morning.
Signing off from Beverly Beach FL…