Greg & Camille Go Bike

Greg woke near dawn and sat by the water, hoping for a sighting of a dolphin or manatee. None showed up, but there were some jumping fish, playful squirrels and lots of water fowl. Camille joined him with some coffee in hand and we relaxed together.

We started our journey for the day biking to the barrier island across from Melbourne. We were excited as according to East Coast Greenway, we were supposed to be on dedicated trail almost all day. We started out mostly on or beside a sidewalk made up of segmented concrete slabs and eventually realized it was supposed to be our dedicated trail. Further along, it did eventually transition to smooth asphalt. Either way the biking was fairly low stress, alternating between dedicated bike lane and this off-road trail. Early in the day we couldn't see any water from our route, but there were a few beach access points that would offer a glimpse. These disappeared pretty quickly and we didn't find a good place to stop until the Barrier Island Sanctuary, also the visitor center for the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.

At the visitor center, we read some of the interesting signage on turtles and took a peak at the water from a couple different look outs. After, we sat down on picnic tables and ate lunch. We spent way too much time trying to figure out where to stay and remember feeling pretty anxious about our options. Both campgrounds we'd originally considered didn't actually appear to be viable and most of the hotels either seemed gross or very expensive. We ended up booking a stay at the Red Roof Inn.

We dashed forward with only 3 hours left of daylight and 37 miles to go. The first 30+ miles were still on barrier islands and they passed pretty quick. After maybe 15 miles we were treated to the nicest views of the day, especially while crossing the bridge over the Sebastian Inlet. From the top of the bridge, we could see dozens of people playing in the water of a lagoon to our north west. After the bridge, we were treated to a nice long stretch where we had great views of the intracoastal waterway right from the trail. Eventually, we were back to biking through areas with houses, businesses and even some massive hotels/apartments.

After crossing back onto the mainland, our route followed a typical heavily developed commercial highway. Lots of cars quickly turning on/off the highway, not really looking out for us. The area generally seemed pretty gross which probably explains why all the hotels had pretty poor reviews. We stopped at an Aldi's along the way for groceries and continued on to the Red Roof Inn. When we arrived for check-in, there was a woman yelling at the hotel clerk and even after she'd left, he still seemed a bit frazzled. The more time we spent in the hotel room, the more gross it seemed: with random candy scattered on the floor, the scent of cigarettes permeating the room, cigarette burns covering the toilet seat and a toilet that didn't really flush at all. Still, we were safe, we were together and we managed a good night of rest.