Greg & Camille Go Bike

Today we set out on part 2 of our great bicycle touring adventure. Around 8:30 am, we were loaded up and ready to depart. Jason snapped a quick picture and said good bye. Just before pulling away, Eric shouted well wishes from the second floor window.

It was an absolutely beautiful day. Warm but not too hot, mildly breezy and wonderful fall colors everywhere. We followed the Jack Markell (JAM) trail to old New Castle and then Route 9 most of the way to Dover. We swung by the post office in Delaware City to pick up stamps, and the guy behind the counter was very impressed with our trip. Our conversation went something like this:

Him: "What's with the safety vest?"

Camille: "Oh, just for visibility. We're biking to Florida."

Him: "Wow, you do this a lot?"

Camille: "Actually this is our first trip, we were just in Canada and came back down to Delaware."

Him: "You wanna sit down?"

Travelling roads on a random weekday rewards you with all the concrete real estate a bike could want; our favorite Reedy Point bridge was completely empty, offering us a beautiful and undisturbed view of the Delaware canal and marshes. We took care of any elevation early in the day and saddled up for a mostly flat yet windy ride (the farms we often bike near are gorgeous but provide little tree coverage). Leaving Dover, we were excited to retread areas we'd explored last year as part of the Amish Country Bike Tour.

Setting out, our goal for the day was originally Milton with Lewes as a potential stretch goal. We realized pretty early in the day that Lewes was completely unreasonable. Last year, we rode from Wilmington to Lewes in a single day and made it just before dark. That was setting out just after dawn, carrying minimal gear and with the benefit of a full summer's day.

We ended up reserving a campsite at Killen's Pond State Park. We arrived maybe 30 minutes after dark (~5:30pm) and biked to our campsite in the walk-in/primitive camping area. There were a few RVs elsewhere in the park, but we appeared to be the only tent campers. There was a very thick carpet of leaves and solid tree coverage everywhere. We set up camp in the dark, ate dinner at the picnic table and spent some time chatting before bed.

We packed up camp at Killen's and pedalled away by ~8 am. A few miles down the road, we stopped at Williamsville Country Store for coffee and breakfast sandwiches. There were a half dozen comfy rocking chairs out front and we relaxed in a couple while enjoying our breakfast.

Soon we were joined by a crowd of locals. Mary was the first. She also told us a bit about how much the area has changed over her life and shared stories about her aunt who had just recently passed, former Delaware governor Ruth Ann Minner. She described her aunt as a down to earth and independent country girl sharing stories about inviting the guards in for dinner or sneaking out to the store without her escort. We shared some stories about our trip and our plans and after maybe half on hour got back on the road.

We biked mostly along country roads until Lewes where we picked up a portion of the Georgetown-Lewes trail. This trail is very recently constructed and still seeing active development, extending further to the west every year. The section we traveled seemed both well constructed and integrated into the community.

We stopped off at Old World Breads just after noon for some food and bought some delicious donuts (lemon & apple cider) and vegetarian lentil hand pies. We actually had to wait 15 minutes for the handpies but were treated to a delicious blend of red/brown/green lentils, sweet potato, ginger, red curry, Serrano pepper, and coconut milk. While waiting, we chatted a bit with a fellow biker and he told us a little about his experience mountain biking across New Zealand (including some time hanging out with their national team).

A short while after leaving the Georgetown-Lewes trail we turned onto the other major trail near Lewes, the Breakwater Junction Trail. It wasn't as well surfaced, but we passed through woods and wetlands for a much more scenic views.

Finally leaving the beach side trails, we turned onto the shoulder of route 1 and followed it most of the rest of the way to our destination in Ocean City. There were cars whizzing past and there were not as many views of the water as we'd hoped, but the shoulder was pretty wide and we felt reasonably safe. In Bethany, we stopped off to snack in a small park and watch some walkers/bikers doing laps.

For the final stretch into Ocean City, we had a full bus & bike lane to ourselves for more than 5 miles. The streets were densely lined with stores & restaurants while beach front apartments, condos and hotels towered above us. With a few miles to go, we stopped off grocery store and then took a short detour onto the boardwalk.

Just after dusk, we finally reached our destination, briefly meeting the hosts of our Air B&B (Sarah & Chris). We both absolutely loved the place. It was beautifully decorated and really comfy. We cooked some pizza in the oven and made couscous/salmon/beans/avocado/tomato bowls for dinner. Greg spent a fair amount of the night trying to figure out a route that would let us stop off at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. It seemed so close on the map but in the end required an 11 mile detour (each way) and the causeway may not have been safe or even legal to cycle on.

We woke up well before dawn. After a quick coffee and breakfast, we walked a few blocks down to the beach and sat to watch the sunrise over the ocean. It was beautiful and a wonderful reward for waking early. There were a few others on the boardwalk and beach, but for such a well populated area, it was surprisingly empty. Back at the Air B&B, Greg was a bit slower to pack up, so Camille spent a while playing fetch with the adorable dogs Peggy & Emma.

On the way out, Chris wished us good luck from the upper deck. We returned to the boardwalk for a few miles before crossing back onto the mainland. The bridge had a narrow fenced off sidewalk that signs indicated was part of the bike route. It was full of busy recreational fisherman and a few pulled up catches right in front of us.

Leaving Ocean City, the bike path gave way to local roads and aside from 10 miles in the wide shoulders of route 113, most of the day was spent biking through local farmland. Occasional trucks would zip by, but they usually provided plenty of space when passing. The biggest stressor today ended up actually being dogs. Twice, dogs dashed into the street chasing us. The first occurrence had a pair of medium-large dogs wander into the street barking aggressively but they grew disinterested after we'd passed. The second time was much more concerning with a similarly sized dog chasing us down the street for several blocks, yapping at our heels the whole way.

Later in the day, Greg got his first flat after switching to the new tires, finding a big staple embedded in the tire. After two failed patches and a couple false starts, we suspected that adhesive might be going bad. With sunset approaching, we swapped in a new tube for now, but swapped the tube of adhesive with our alternate for next time. While fixing the flat, we were particularly struck that not once did anyone stop to ask if we're okay. Along with some of the sour looks we've seen from passers by, it just left an impression that bicyclists aren't looked on as kindly around here.

The sun set on us maybe 5 miles from our final destination. We were pretty hungry, exhausted and justifiably anxious to be biking in the dark. We slowly made our way to Wachapreague, arriving maybe half an hour after sundown. We ate a quick dinner, cleaned up and settled down for rest.

The weather was awful in the morning with both rain and high winds. We had an appointment with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to be shuttled across at 1 PM, but given the weather, we weren't excited to rush for that deadline. We called and rescheduled for 3:30 PM instead. We spent the morning indoors, snacking, relaxing and enjoying some computer time.

The rain stopped a bit earlier than expected and we set out around 11 am. We took a quick detour down by the water as we hadn't seen much of the town the night before (it was very dark). There were 44 miles to the bridge-tunnel and we made pretty quick work of them. The character of the ride was pretty similar to the previous day, mostly travelling on lightly trafficked rural roads. The last 6 miles or so was on a new rail trail. It was nice to be off-road, but there was a fair amount of noise pollution from route 13 which ran parallel.

The southern end of Cape Charles spits you out at the Chesapeake Bay where the only way across is by motor vehicle. Fortunately, Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel police will actually escort you across the water, aka putting your bikes in the back of their truck. We got to the Visitor Center around 3 PM where an unpaved woodsy nature trail led us to… a fence. We could see the toll booths and building on the other side where we were supposed to meet our shuttle, but there wasn’t a clear way in. Until we looked at the fence and saw the door was unlocked. Bingo.

We each hopped into a different vehicle. Greg went in the truck with the bikes and Camille in the SUV with the Lieutenant. The officer driving the truck was an avid motorcyclist and spent the ride chatting about some of his favorite rides. He loves biking in West Virginia and really enjoyed doing the Blue Ridge Parkway. As we pulled out of the parking lot, Camille heard some dinging in her car; the seatbelt light was flashing on the dashboard. All she’ll say is that her seatbelt was already buckled and no other seatbelts got buckled the rest of the ride. Oh by the way, the bumper on that car read, “Click it or ticket!”

After crossing, we stopped for groceries before following some nice multi-use paths to our camp site in First Landing State Park. It was really interesting to see how the paths went through urban areas and then abruptly turned into heavily wooded parkland.

As we checked in to our campsite, the attendant seemed pretty excited that we'd arrived by bike. She told us that she doesn't know of anyone else arriving by bike (regardless the distance). We were very surprised to hear this information given how accessible the park seems to be. We set up camp, cleaned up and ate dinner. There was a moderately trafficked local highway close to the campground, so we could hear cars zipping past all night.

We woke up to a cold, dark, quiet morning and started to break down camp. Our hope was that we'd be finished quickly enough to catch the sun rise on the beach, but between drying dew off the tent, shaking off morning grogginess and biking the 4+ miles to an eastward facing beach, that definitely didn't happen. We arrived at the Virginia Beach boardwalk at least half an hour after sunrise but it was still nice to see the sun low on the horizon. There was some exercise equipment setup on the beach (monkey bars, a climbing rope, rings) and we spent some time trying them out.

Looking around for a good breakfast spot, Camille excitedly shouted out when she found Ray Ray's at the Mayflower, a Filipino inspired diner! We waited ~15 minutes for them to open at 8 am and were both treated to a delicious stack of ube pancakes with some type of sweet coconut sauce. We also ordered a veggie omelet to split.

We left Ray Ray's around 8:30, with 40 miles to the Knott Island-Currituck ferry. We were planning for the noon ferry. If we missed it, we'd have to wait another 2 hours and would certainly be biking in the dark at the end of the day. We were both feeling a anxious about that possibility.

We followed boardwalk, multi-use paths and lightly trafficked suburban roads out of Virginia Beach. The real highlight of the day was 25 miles biking by and through the Back Bay and Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuges. It was beautiful, wooded and marshy land interspersed with occasional stretches by farms and pastures. Our route there was well-traveled by cyclists; we passed by many groups who seemed to traverse these multi-use paths, residential streets, and rural roads as a regular ritual. "I should join your group!" one lady called out to us as her crew rolled along. As we pressed on, we grew ever more tired from racing the clock and fighting tough headwinds, but in the end, we arrived at the ferry with more than half an hour to spare.

We snacked while we waited for the ferry to arrive. The crossing was pleasant with clear horizons and a wonderful sea breeze. After the crossing, our route pretty quickly turned sour. Most of the remainder of the day was spent biking along the side of the Caratoke Highway (US 158), a 5 lane highway with 2 lanes in each direction and a center turning lane. The road's shoulder was truly only shoulder width and we narrowly fit. Most cars did give us a pretty wide berth fully switching lanes to pass, but a few did not and left us feeling anxious.

US 158 concluded with a mad dash across a ~3 mile bridge. Contrary to the comments we'd found on-line, there were no "Share the Road" signs in sight and the shoulder was certainly not wide enough to fit a broken down car. We crossed it at a pretty good clip (averaging ~22 MPH) and most of the cars seemed pretty respectful when passing.

On the other side, we arrived at Bodie Island and our route turned into mostly multi-use paths following the western shore. Camille spotted a short path to a secluded beach off the side of the trail and we plopped our bikes down and took in the sunset. After the sun dropped below the horizon, we briefly stopped off at our Air B&B and then walked a mile in the dark for groceries. Returning to the Air B&B, we made freezer aisle pizza and Camille got creative with a cabbage, chickpea and chili stew. Greg thought it was delicious and absolutely adored the alliteration. We felt pretty cozy and realizing tomorrow (Sunday) meant another day of weekend biking by the shore, we decided to shuffle around our rest days. Tomorrow we would stay put.

Today was a pretty lazy day with a late wake up, lots of eating and plenty of down time. In the early afternoon, we biked a few miles to the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The visitor center was the perfect size for a single visit. We loved learning about the different stages they went through, first working to develop a control scheme for gliders and only later adding propellers for lift and thrust. Reading the section about their first public flights in France in 1908 was also especially exciting.

Checking out, we had an interesting encounter with the cashier. She noticed Greg's bike bag and that led to talking about our trip. She shared her own bike adventure, a 70 mile day biking on the shore of California. She'd apparently been struck while riding on the back of a motorcycle years ago and she was severely injured. Part of her process for mentally recovering, especially from the fear of motor vehicles was bicycling, culminating in that 70 mile ride. It was great to hear how she'd overcome.

Leaving the visitor center, we biked up the hill to the monument. We had a pretty clear view of the town and coast line in the distance. After relaxing and enjoying the almost setting sun, we peddled home.

We had a lot of food left and started the morning by stuffing ourselves in an attempt to finish it off. Yogurt with granola, Camille's cabbage chilli chickpea concoction and 10 eggs. By 8:30am, we were bloated but on the road. Our ride started out along the Atlantic coast following a local road parallel to route 12. We stopped off a couple times for glimpses of the water but eventually reached the bridge crossing from Bodie Island over to Pea Island. The bridge was fairly long, but had wide shoulders and we felt pretty safe.

Pea Island was very beautiful. We were on Rt 12 for it's entirety, but traffic seemed a fair bit slower than it had on Bodie Island and most of the traffic actually seemed to be going in the opposite direction. We took our time biking the length of the island enjoying dunes to our left and marshland to our right. Occasionally, the dunes would break and we wouldd catch glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean. There was also a fair amount of evidence of erosion at least one we spotted a bull dozer trying to push sand back into the dunes. We couldn't help but wonder how much longer these islands will actually exist. Will Pea Island mostly disappear within our life times?

Eventually, we crossed another smaller bridge and found ourselves on Hatteras island. We'd initially aimed to reach Ocracoke Island tonight, but that required another 40 minute ferry and 15 miles to bike the length of the island to any lodging. Even if we rushed to catch the 4 pm ferry, we'd still spend almost an hour biking in the dark. Instead we decided to book a place at the tip of Cape Hatteras just by the ferry.

The northern stretch of Hatteras had a few small towns, Rodanthe, Waves and Salvo, but it pretty quickly turned back into desolate stretches of just beach. There were turn offs for beach parking periodically but most were empty and while the rest had only one or two vehicles. We were really curious how this would look in the summer. Would our shoulder/bike lane be full of parked cars?

Eventually the desolate beach ended and we were in a more populated area again. We turned west and the slight tailwind we'd had all day quickly turned into a horrible headwind (going east by southeast). We fought the wind racing sundown and reached our hotel just in time to catch the sun setting over the harbor from the deck of our room.

We had two ferry's to take today and briefly considered trying to take the first at 5 am only to dash across Ocracoke Island to the second at 7:30am. We are VERY glad that we decided otherwise. We would have been cold, sleepy and miserable and would probably have had much less appreciation for some of the best biking so far.

Instead, we had a pretty relaxing morning and left the hotel around 8:30 am. We took the 9 am ferry from Cape Hatteras to Ocracoke, staying outside for the ~40 minute ride and enjoying pleasant scenery while trying to keep each other warm. Arriving in Ocracoke, the cars were unloaded first. The entire eastern portion of Ocracoke Island was devoid of development so traffic was almost non-existent. Aside from a very infrequent car passing us by and a rush of cars after the next ferry arrived, we had the roads entirely to ourselves. For most of the ride there were towering dunes to our left and grassier areas (intermittently marshy and dry) to our right.

Several times along the island, we stopped and crossed over the dunes to catch glimpses of the beach. The best was the first stop where we had to walk up a narrow path through several layers of dunes to find a pristine beach. Along the path there were some pretty red-orange flowers and even some cacti. Camille accidentally nudged one into Greg's foot trying to point it out. Ouch!

At the mid-point of the island, we stopped to see the Pony stables. Apparently, these were the remnants of the wild herds that used to roam the island. Mid-20th century, they were all corralled and now they're taken care of by the National Park Service.

At the west end of the island, we finally reached the town. We picked up some groceries and tried to find a restaurant to get some food. The first place we went, Eduardo's, looked tasty but seemed to have a long line. The next place we tried, closer to the ferry, was apparently closed despite the hours provided by Gogole. A pedestrian walking by told us most places on the island were closed for the year and of the few options he listed, Eduardo's really was the only quick and close option. Back to Eduardo's we went and anxiously waited for our Scallops and Shrimp burritos before rushing to the ferry. We made it just in time.

This ferry was much longer, projected for 2 hours 40 minutes. We went inside to the spacious passenger cabin and munched down our burritos. Once across, we departed the boat on Cedar Island and started pedaling to our campsite. More low traffic roads with marshlands on either side, this time with the sun setting over top. We arrived at our campsite just before sundown and set up our tent right by the water. There were some nasty biting flies so didn't stay too long outside the tent. We both nodded off pretty early.

We were both awake, chatting and packing up well before dawn. We took a break to enjoy the sunrise over the water just a few feet from our campsite. It was stunning. We snacked a bit, finished packing up camp and were on the road around 7:30.

Most of the morning was spent biking along roads with marshy grasses and large bodies of water on either side. Some copses of trees started to fold in as we continued. After maybe 10 miles, we stopped for coffee and some breakfast sandwiches. Outside we were questioned about our trip by a guy with a laid back attitude and a thick southern accent.

As we continued on, the roads were less than friendly and we spent way more time on heavily trafficked roads than we'd have liked. We decided to take the Adventure Cycling route that left the coast and passed through Croatan National Forest, rather than follow the East Coast Greenway through more heavily trafficked areas on the shore. Initially it seemed like a great decision as traffic noticeably dropped after the fork. The first 15-20 miles had minimal shoulder but also only a few cars passing us per minute. The last 10-15 miles though had us turn onto Route 24, a 5 lane highway with a narrow shoulder and cars rushing past at a pretty steady pace. The looks of surprise we saw from some cars was pretty telling.

Finally, shortly after crossing a bridge into Swansboro our route took us off Rt 24 and we were on back roads most of the way into Jacksonville, NC. In Jacksonville we even spent a few miles fully off-road on a multi-use path! We arrived at our Air B&B right at dusk, cleaned up and ate almost the last of our food for dinner.

Today didn't start out that well but it ended up being a great day. We woke up early and tried to leave Jacksonville before the rush hour traffic. We didn't get out the door quite as early as expected and we were only on the road a little before 7 am. We started the day with several hours biking alongside reasonably heavy traffic, although mostly with a wide shoulder to keep us safe.

Passing over the bridge to Topsail Island, the view was absolutely beautiful. Just after the bridge we decided to stop and talk for a bit. We'd both started the day pretty grumpy and decided that our current timeline and pace had been leaving us tired, rushed, anxious and grumpy. We decided to slow down and commit to only Charleston (rather than Savannah) before Thanksgiving. We decided to stay the night just a bit further on down Topsail Island in Surf City.

We rented an Air B&B and were lucky to get an early check in. After dropping our stuff off, we explored the town a little and spent the afternoon on the beach. On the way home we stopped for groceries and Camille cooked some delicious food; sweet potato gnocchi and veggies; an egg and veggie bake; and delicious cottage cheese pancakes with jelly.

Setting out to leave TopSail island, we enjoyed more good bike infrastructure. There was a nice dedicated biker/walker path crossing the bridge. Shortly after the bridge we waited for the post office to open and shipped out some post cards and goodies for friends/family. We stopped by the grocery store while waiting.

Continuing on, there was a pretty long stretch on US 17 that left both of us feeling very uncomfortable. Thankfully, the route eventually detoured off 17 and we followed lower traffic roads most of the way into Wilmington, NC. We stopped for rest and snacks at the library and played a not so quick game of checkers on the ~15 foot squared board on the ground outside. After almost an hour of battle, we decided to end in a draw. We took a quick ride down by the river before heading out of the city.

Just south of Wilmington didn't seem that terrible on the map, but there were a couple encounters with aggressive drivers that left us unsettled. We mostly followed the Cape Fear river down Cape Fear only turning onto a higher traffic road for a brief period to follow a bridge across Snow's Cut. Afterwards we turned off into a shopping center to pick up groceries and donuts at Wake N Bake Donuts. Camille picked up two absolutely delicious donuts (couch potato and strawberry cheesecake). They were probably two of the best donuts we've ever had so Greg went back for more. This proved to be a mistake. The ghost pepper & chocolate donut was way too spicy for either of us to handle.

We arrived at the state park near dusk, set up the tent and enjoyed a nice campfire before bed.

It was pretty chilly in the morning and we had a bit of trouble getting on the road. We biked about 10 miles down Cape Fear hoping for breakfast along the beach just before Fort Fisher state park. Unfortunately, most of the breakfast spots were closed. We found a small coffee shop, but their breakfast options were limited so we mostly ate from our dry sacks.

Continuing on, the scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed a short stretch through the park on off-road trails. We spotted a kite surfer pushing in towards the shore. It was pretty exciting to watch and definitely seemed like something we'd want to try down the road. We lazily rode the rest of the way to the ferry, exploring a bit as we had some free time before the 11:30 am ferry to South Port.

On the ferry, one of the workers was interested in our trip. He told us that they get about 1 group of bike tourists per week throughout the year. This is right on route for both ACA's Atlantic Coast route and the East Coast Greenway, so it's a pretty good indicator about combined number of people making the journey. It's likely that a good percentage of those people aren't doing the whole coast though. That's definitely a lower number than we expected.

Southport was really cute and the neighborhoods definitely had a bit of a Cape Cod vibe. We stopped off at Local's Family Diner for lunch-ish. There was a bit of a wait for seating, so we got take out and ate on the bench outside. We each got an omelettes (with grits) and split a helping of french toast.

The ride to Shallotte was apparently pretty uninteresting, as neither of us remember a lot of detail. A lot of side roads, but with little shoulder and a moderate amount of traffic. In Shallote, we stopped off at Hill's grocery to resupply and checked into a hotel with sunlight to spare.

A lot of today's route was awful with Route 17 along the NC/SC border easily one of the worst stretches of the entire trip. Narrow or no shoulder with lots of cars rushing past, often brushing way too close. We turned off 17 as we approached North Myrtle Beach with a short stretch on a multi-use trail followed by a lot of time on sidewalks. Eventually we followed roads parallel to the beach that seemed low traffic. There were lots of people riding in golf carts which probably helped the area to feel more bike friendly.

The stretch between North Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach mixed off-road trails (mostly alongside golf courses), some local neighborhoods and a lot of sidewalks including alongside route 17. We didn't actually bike along the beach in Myrtle Beach and we hated all the big box stores, golf courses, mini-golf and other touristy/gimmicky establishments. Overall, we were not impressed with the area.

A bit south of Myrtle Beach seemed much nicer. We were again biking along a road next to the beach and the communities still seemed to have a lot of golf carts and infrastructure to make it golf cart friendly. There was a nice, off-road trail heading further south with frequent road crossings. The same older rider seemed to catch up to us while waiting for the light at every crossing.

We arrived at the park just after sunset (5:30-ish). Taking a few wrong turns while trying to find our site in the dark, we decided to stop at the beach before returning to the hunt. We finally found the site tucked back in the woods. The camp site had a nice raised platform and both hooks and a large metal locker to secure food. We set up camp, ate dinner and passed out pretty early to the sound of nearby crashing waves.

We woke up a bit after dawn and it actually felt pretty comfortable outside. We packed up camp and explored the state park a bit on the way out, stopping at: the beach to see a cloud covered sun low on horizon over the water; Atalaya, the Moorish style castle built in the park; and the causeway through the swamp. The causeway in particular was beautiful with lots of birds active and a handful of photographers with SLRs all trying to snap interesting shots.

The ride to breakfast was on nice, low stress off-road paths and after only a half-dozen miles we were at our destination, Bagel Cafe. We snacked on a couple breakfast sandwiches and coffee. While we were eating, an older couple stopped by and asked about our trip. Small world, but she was originally from Wilmington, Delaware. He was a fellow cyclist and had loved biking around the Chadds Ford area. He was originally from the Netherlands and had worked for Dupont. He moved to Delaware for work and that's how they'd met. They seemed excited about our trip and about the interesting coincidence. It was such a satisfying encounter and a great start to the day.

Continuing on, we were on some side roads for a bit but pretty quickly it turned into more stressful, narrow shoulders on route 17. We followed it for maybe a dozen miles until crossing an especially windy bridge into Georgetown. Georgetown itself seemed pretty cute and we stopped for another quick coffee break. While crossing another bridge on the way out of town, Camille rolled over some debris and to pick up her 4th flat of the trip. She fixed it up just before the rain started to sprinkle down.

After another half mile on route 17, we turned off onto rural back roads. As we travele farther on these roads, we started seeing fewer and fewer signs of human habitation and most exciting, less traffic. We passed maybe a half dozen vehicles over one 45 minute stretch. The scenery was predominantly forest with trees overhanging the road, often with a nice coating of Spanish moss. Occasionally the forest gave way to swampier scenes and there were several old, picturesque plantations interspersed throughout.

Eventually, we were forced to turn back onto route 17. Thankfully, we were now in the Frances Marion National Forest. There were nice wide shoulders and much lower levels of traffic. We tried to invent a detour at one point, but unsurfaced roads and a pack of 4 dogs chased us back onto the shoulder of the highway.

We stopped one more time before our destination for groceries. Here, a woman in the parking lot came up to us and handed us a few crumpled dollars. We tried to protest but she insisted placing them on the surface next to us before walking way. The encounter was really confusing for us. Did she think that we were homeless/needy or was just trying to be supportive of our adventure in whatever way she could?

We arrived at the campground at Nature Adventure Outfitters around 4 pm, with roughly an hour until sunset. The bathrooms/showers were roughly a quarter to half mile from the sites so we stopped off to shower before heading to the site. Having not showered the night before, it was pretty satisfying. Just as the sun was setting, we biked down to our sites to enjoy a breathtaking view of the marshlands. After a quick dinner of tuna and cous-cous, we settled in for the night.

We awoke just before dawn and were greeted by below 40 degrees temperatures. We popped out of the tent to enjoy a bit of the sunrise and then hid in the tent until the sun had restored some warmth and sanity to the world.

By 8:30 am, we were back on the road, first on route 17 and then a comfortable stretch on side roads. As there wasn't any coffee within 25 miles of the camp site, Greg spent the first couple hours in a sleepy haze with Camille leading the way. Just short of our original planned stop; however, we saw Seewee Restaurant just across the street. They would open in 10-15 minutes and the menu looked promising, so we decided to wait. It was well worth it. The meal started with a bowl of delicious hush puppies, fresh from the oven. Greg had a a bowl of the fish stew and a poboy with blackened scallops, green tomatoes and some delicious sauce with a side of onion rings. Oh, and two cups of coffee! Camille had fried calamari with fried green tomatoes and sweet potato casserole. The place was creatively decorated with a lot of local flavor on the walls and the service was fast & friendly.

Traffic was clearly starting to pick up as we left the national forest and before too long the nice wide shoulders disappeared to be replaced by a decent sidewalk. We turned onto local roads before long hoping to escape what had become heavy traffic, but unfortunately, our new route was probably even less safe with little to no shoulder, a 45 MPH posted speed limit and moderate traffic. We spent a lot of time with cars hovering over our shoulders waiting for an opportunity to pass. Every attempt to pick up side walks that appeared pretty quickly gave way to disappointment as the sidewalk ended.

Eventually we turned onto a nice off road path for a couple miles before crossing a pretty long bridge (with separate pedestrian and bike lines!) onto the Isle of Palms. Somewhere along the bridge, Greg's bike started producing a rattling sound. Stopping to examine the bike just after the bridge, we could see that one of his spokes was broken. We stopped to remove the spoke and as the wheel was now also out of true, loosen his brakes to compensate.

Leaving the Isle of Palms, we faced some nasty headwinds and it felt like slow going. We enjoyed riding through some beautiful and varied neighborhoods on the way into Charleston before crossing over another enormous suspension bridge into center city Charleston. Charleston had a lot of character, but regrettably we didn't have much time to explore the city. We agreed that we'd plan to explore when we returned after the holiday.

We planned to take a short break from the trip to join Camille's family for Thanksgiving. We had a car rental pick up scheduled at 5 pm and arrived right on time. We were helped by a very stocky man who seemed really impressed by our journey and wanted to hear more when we returned after the holidays. For dinner, we enjoyed some tasty Thai curry. We did not, however, enjoy the noisy neighbors who chatted late into the night.

We hopped in the rental car and drove more than three hundred miles to Acworth, GA, Camille's hometown. Camille's parents had graciously invited us to join them for the holiday weekend. We were joined by her two sisters, Sophia and Larissa, and the delightful puppy Luna. We spent several days relaxing, cooking, chatting, playing games and hiking.

The centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner was a non-traditional but delicious spread of various homemade dumplings along with a wonderful variety of sides. Other highlights of our stay included hikes at a few local parks, a hike at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park with Camille's mom Czarina, a nail biting chess match between Greg and Camille's dad George and a day trip into Atlanta where we explored the Georgia Aquarium, National Center for Civil and Human Rights and wandered the city. Sophia and Luna sent us off with a pleasant hike on the East Palisades trail, eventually discovering a copse of bamboo trees safely tucked away at the far end of the trail.

We slept in a bit, but probably not enough to justify the late arrival last night (almost 1 am). We spent time in the morning doing bike maintenance, primarily installing new bike chains. After squaring away the bikes, we loaded up the car and drove into Charleston.

We gave ourselves a self-imposed 2:30 pm deadline for the car drop off only leaving a couple hours to explore Charleston. We started out by visiting the the Postal Museum which was perfectly sized for a quick visit. Next, we walked a few blocks away to the Charleston Market. It looked cute from the outside, but once inside it felt more like any shopping mall, just in a non-standard form factor. Most of the stalls were clearly targeted at tourists. Leaving the market, we stopped for some expensive, but tasty pizza and walked by the historic Rainbow Row heading back to the car.

At the car rental drop off, we briefly caught up with employee who'd helped us before the holidays. We chatted for a bit and he asked a bit more about the trip. We were glad to catch up with him. It was nice to bring some closure to that story.

We were not given an easy transition back to the trip. After a short stretch on trail, we were pretty quickly we were back on US 17 for ~10 miles, surrounded by heavy traffic and often with a narrow or non-existent shoulder. Even after turning onto a smaller 2 lane highway, the experience was still pretty bike unfriendly, now with no shoulder but still heavy traffic.

Finally, we turned off the highway onto a low traffic dirt road, initially optimistic that the ride would improve, but the further we traveled on this road the less stable the surface became. We stubbornly kept riding (and falling) but eventually hopped off the bikes and walked/jogged while pulling the bikes alongside us. It took us half an hour to move the bikes 1 mile before the road finally became more firmly packed.

After this setback, we were no longer on pace to reach our Air B&B before dark. Especially with how unfriendly the roads had been that left us feeling a bit anxious. Thankfully the traffic and the road surface both seemed to improve from here and with a bit of a sprint, we ended up safely arriving just after sunset but still with plenty of light.

Our Air B&B host Wallace let us into the house through there garage. There place seemed really interesting with a lot of chickens, ducks and other wildlife scurrying around the backyard and a giant tree house under construction that's apparently going to be their next Air B&B. We went up to our private space on the third floor and ate, relaxed and turned in for the night.

We were not excited to return to US 17 today and started the day out by trying (but failing) to find an alternate. It ended up being one of the better stretches on this highway though. There was still steady traffic but the shoulders were plenty large and we enjoyed decent views of marshlands and rivers. Further on, we even decided to skip an alternate that would have bypassed 10 miles on the highway with 20 miles on back roads.

Just short of half way through today's ride, we said good bye to US 17 for the day and turned onto back roads through unpopulated woodland. It felt great having the entire road to ourselves, even if only for a short while. After several miles, our surroundings became more residential and eventually we were forced onto another local highway. After only a short distance though, we were able to pick up the Spanish Moss Trail, a clean and well paved off-road trail with some beautiful views of salt water marshes and other water bodies.

Our original planned route was supposed to only briefly pass through Beaufort, but we'd decided to go off route ~20 miles to stay at Hunting Island State Park. Its the most popular state park in South Carolina and has the only tour of a lighthouse available in the state. We'd talked about stopping at a half dozen other light houses, but never seemed to have time. This seemed like a great opportunity.

As we passed through Beaufort, Greg heard an older couple shout "Warm Showers? Warm Showers?" He stopped to chat and learned that they're Warm Showers hosts from Charleston. The exchange was pretty brief as Camille had already passed. They acknowledged that biking around here (South Carolina) is pretty terrible, but insisted that the experience in Florida was going to be wonderful.

Despite some heavy traffic, the route heading south from Beaufort was pretty friendly, providing a nice dedicated bike lane. We were routed off route 21 for a stretch through a lower traffic area, but we were chased by a couple dogs and noticed a bunch of others off leash. We actually felt safer on the highway and agreed to skip this detour on the way back tomorrow.

Eventually we reached the island and set up camp. Both the park employee who checked us in and our camp site neighbor (Kelly) were pretty excited to learn about the trip. Kelly is from Pittsburgh and had come down with his dog. He had a bike in the site with a trailer attached to carry his dog. From our brief discussion, it didn't sound like he tours at all, but we regret not asking about the experience biking with the pup in the back. We're both intrigued by the idea some day. We set up camp and turned in pretty early.

We were camped only a couple minutes from the water and could hear the waves crashing all night. We woke up while it was still fully dark and walked to the beach, enjoying the sight of a slender crescent moon hanging over the water. With sunrise approaching, we both returned to the beach. There were a couple other campers setting up in folding chairs, so we strolled down the beach walking towards the lighthouse. We enjoyed the sight of the lighthouse towering over the forest in the distance and were enamored by the plovers scurrying around the waters edge. When the sun finally started to crest the horizon, we sat in the sand and took in the view.

Back at the campsite, we were prepared for breakfast, but discovered the dry sack containing our snacks ripped open on the ground. There was a protein bar missing, teeth marks in several other snacks and the bag appeared to be completely soaked (possibly with slobber or urine). Reflecting on this incident, we'd definitely been getting a bit lazy securing our food and we were past due for this type of incident.

We packed up camp, hopped on the bikes and rode a couple miles to the light house. The website said the light house was open at 6 am, but apparently it's actually 10am. We decided to wait for the hosts to show up and thankfully it was only another 15 minutes (9:30am). Dick and Lori (a married couple) were the hosts. Dick was really excited about our adventure and kind of talked our ear off, but he was very sweet. He and Lori were fellow bikers but had recently turned in their road bikes for e-bikes.

Finally heading out, we were a bit worried to be getting on the road so late. Even worse, we were biking against headwinds leaving Hunting Island and moving slower than expected. We wondered if maybe we were more tired from the previous day than expected. Just outside Beaufort, we stopped for brunch/coffee at Low Country Cider & Superior Coffee. Food was tasty, but we were hungry and portions weren't very generous. We felt a bit silly going back in 3 times...

Back on the road around 11:30, we passed through Beaufort and picked up right where we'd left off the previous day on the Spanish Moss Trail. We rode the trail another half dozen miles to its end.

The rest of the day was mostly on roads and after the first stretch some of it was pretty unfriendly. We were on SC 170 for a very long time, which started out alright but as we progressed the shoulders continued to narrow until we barely fit. Later, they disappeared entirely, replaced with an annoying rumble strip.

We passed through the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge as we approached the Georgia state line. There were definitely things we liked about South Carolina, in particular the state parks, but we're very glad to be done with the roads. Its reputation as the worst cycling along the East Coast Greenway is well deserved. The wildlife refuge was somewhat scenic, but with lots of traffic passing through (especially commercial), it didn't actually feel like much of a refuge. We reached Savannah just as it was getting dark and checked into our hotel, another Best Western. After a long day, we didn't have much energy to explore and turned in early.

We started out the day with breakfast at the hotel before heading for a walk down by the river front. Originally, we had intended to ride the ferry across the river and back, getting dropped off at the end of River Street, but after waiting 15 minutes behind a crowd of school children, there narrowly wasn't enough room for us on the ferry. Rather than wait 30 minutes for the ferry to complete a full circuit, we decided to just explore the street on foot.

We walked a half mile down the brick road occasionally peaking into shops lining the street. We stopped at Savannah Candy Kitchen for some gelato and pralines. Elsewhere we found a few nice post cards. After taking in our fill of the sights, we returned to the hotel and packed up leaving just before the 11am checkout.

The road out of Savannah was really beautiful. There were huge old trees well integrated into and creating a canopy over many streets and more than a few green spaces in the middle of city squares. Apparently there were originally 24 squares with 22 still preserved today. We passed through Forsyth Park and were treated to some musicians along the way.

Leaving the city, we followed a very wide bike lane through low density neighborhoods. As we progressed, traffic gradually became lighter and lighter and there were stretches with very few cars. Eventually, we turned onto the shoulder of the highway for a short stretch but were treated with a massive shoulder. After some of the highway sections in South Carolina, we felt like we were riding in luxury.

We stopped for groceries along the route and reviewed our options for the night. There was roughly a 40 mile dead zone with no available lodging and rather than trying to rush it before sundown, we decided to accept a very short day. Tomorrow would have to be a very long day to get back on track, but we both felt okay with it.

After checking into a hotel, we relaxed for a bit (escaping what had felt like excessive heat) and walked down the street to do laundry and get more groceries. At night, we enjoyed some computer time and watched our friends back home give Chomsky Day presentations.

Today was a long, but very pleasant and memorable day. With a 95 mile day looming ahead of us, we made an effort to get on the road early and managed to get rolling by 7:30. The route started out for a decent stretch just as the previous day had ended, biking in comfortably wide shoulders alongside US-17. Over time, the traffic progressively became lighter and the hotel dead zone we'd noted yesterday was also largely devoid of any traffic. Our original planned route would have had us detouring off US-17 on a couple occasions, but we felt comfortable with just staying on US-17, shaving some mileage from the day.

At Eulonia, we briefly stopped for snacks and and to send mail before, before turning off onto backroads. There were some decent views and nice, lower stress biking. Just before reaching Darien, the day really started to shine. There were some dedicated off road trails running parallel to the road and nice views of nearby waterways. We stopped for snacks and scenery at the picnic area outside the Fort King George Historic Site. The bugs seemed to be enjoying the meal too though, so we moved after only a short break.

Continuing into Darien, there were houses to our left lining a hill with clear views to the marshlands and river beyond. Combined with the huge trees hanging over the road covered in spanish moss, this area really felt like it had a very unique character. Eventually we turned left onto a bridge crossing the river and stopped to enjoy the scenery. This was the first of many bridges we'd cross in the afternoon.

A bit further along, two bridges ran parallel one carrying automotive traffic while the other seemed to be an old bridge repurposed for pedestrians. It was crowded with recreational fishermen/women.

Much further down the road as we approached Brunswick, we stopped off for some groceries and lots of snacking. Even the grocery store here was right by the water and had a surprisingly pleasant view. We followed some back roads through town passing by preparations for a parade. On the way out of town, we crossed the Sidney Lanier Bridge, an absolutely massive suspension bridge. It was probably the steepest climb since we left Delaware heading south, but the spectacular views at the top made the climb well worth it.

After descending from the bridge, we turned onto the causeway leading to Jekyll Island. There were two large pillars at the entrance and then a long stretch of well maintained plants on the left. To our right there were clear views of Jekyll Sound and the setting sun. Once on the island we passed through a shopping district before biking a mile or so along the beach. There were Christmas decorations everywhere with golf cards covered roof to wheel in ornaments and christmas displays propped up along bikeway. We cut across to the west side of the island and were treated with a beautiful woodsy trail and more nice views of the setting sun over water.

We reached the campground just as it was getting dark. It was surprisingly packed and pretty noisy. We setup camp, ate dinner and thankfully just around the time we were getting ready for bed the commotion seemed to settle down.

We woke up well before sunrise, but enjoyed a relaxing start to the day. Finally setting out a bit before 8 am, we decided to continue clockwise around the island exploring some areas we'd skipped the night before. Once we were on the beach, we stopped and enjoyed a nice view of the crashing waves and a surprise performance by some singing and dancing corvids.

As we got back on our bikes and peddled along the coast, fog started to settle in. Back in the shopping area near where we'd entered the island yesterday, we stopped for some coffee. We stopped for a bit longer than ideal, but a thick layer of fog was still surrounding us when we got back on the road. It was probably for the best, otherwise Greg may have stopped for a lot more pictures.

Late morning, the fog finally started to lift but by this point we were on the side of US-17 again and traffic was passing us at a steady rate. We were really excited as we approached Waverly, noticing a nice detour along the Georgia Coast Rail Trail. It seemed like a better option than both the Adventure Cycling and East Coast Greenway routes, both saving distance and keeping us off-road.

We had trouble finding much documentation online though and it turns out that some of what we found, wasn't quite accurate. The start of the trail labelled on Google Maps actually had tons of no trespassing signs. Further along we did find an entrance, but it was unpaved and not particularly road bike friendly. Only after crossing the Satilla River did it turn into an actual paved multi-use trail. It was fairly nice for the 5 or so miles we rode on it, but we wasted a lot of time trying to make this detour work.

The rest of our journey through Georgia was pretty uneventful with low enough traffic that we felt comfortable. Traffic picked up considerably after crossing into Florida, especially once we reached A1A. Thankfully there were decent bike lanes most of the way. At one stop light a family joked with us about drag racing and started inquiring about our trip. They were friendly, seemed impressed and wished us well.

With maybe 10 miles to go, we stopped at an Aldi's for groceries and to figure out lodging for the night. We made two mistakes while shopping here. First, deciding to get carbonated water since they didn't have any distilled/spring water available. The bumpy ride that followed did not agree with the carbonation. Secod, we both indendently picked up packs of dried mangos for a total of 5. Honestly, maybe that wasn't a mistake, they're so delicious.

We'd tried booking a campsite at Fort Clinch State Park earlier in the day but failed both on the website and phone. Outside Aldi's we managed to get through this time, but it seems the central booking number doesn't accept reservations after 1pm. Thankfully, calling the park directly, a park ranger told us there were a few first come, first serve sites still available. We raced there arriving just a bit before 5.

The park ranger who checked us in was friendly. He seemed a bit frazzled with new cars constantly coming through and we could hear him on the radio also trying coordinate care of a severely injured turtle.

After booking the site, we continued along canopy road for the 3 miles to our site. The road was true to its name with trees lining the road creating a beautiful canopy overhead. We went a bit further past our site to catch a glimpse of the setting sun along the beach. We set up camp, had dinner and enjoyed the comfortable showers before settling in for bed.

We started out the day with a delicious bag of mangoes. With 3 bags left and just after 9 am, we set out pedaling down Canopy Road to the entrance of the park. We turned back towards Fernandina Beach to explore and search for some breakfast. While sipping on some coffee at a local cafe, we were joined by several other cyclists, many of whom seemed like regulars catching up with each other on their lives. On the way out of town, we stopped by the harbor for some bird watching and a surprise siting of old man in a captain's outfit driving a boat shaped car. Was this our first glimpse of Florida man?

Back on route, we followed lightly wooded roads with comfy shoulders and moderate traffic out of town. We passed through a series of state parks: Amelia Island, Big Talbot Island, Little Talbot Island and finally Fort George Island. The views of woods and waterways here were breathtaking. We had plenty of company as our path zipped followed miles of off-road trails mixed with safe stretches on bridges and roads.

At Fort George Island we took a quick ferry across to Mayport before continuing on our way. En route, we chatted with a guy hanging out of his truck about the trip. He shared some of his own adventures and wished us like. We downed another bag of mangoes, only 2 more to go.

We reached Atlantic Beach around 1pm and stopped for some custard a couple blocks from the ocean. The next dozen or so miles followed along roads pretty near to the beach but never with a great view. The city streets were lined with businesses, hotels occasional residences and more rarely entrances to the beach. Here we might catch a quick glimpse of the ocean.

As we continued on, our surroundings transitioned to residential neighborhoods. We were closer to the water, but as the houses kept growing larger, our view of the nearby didn't improve. Some of the mansions along this stretch had interesting architecture in a variety of styles, but especially farther along, many had landscaping that blocked any view of the property aside from the start of the driveway. For at least 10 miles, it continued like this and we spent a lot of time dwelling on how wrong it seemed for all of this beach to be so private.

As we entered the Guana River Wildlife Management Area, any development abruptly disappeared. We were on a narrow strip of land with the Atlantic Ocean to our east and the Guana River to our west. Unfortunately, even with water a short distance away on both sides, we still couldn't often see any water. Dunes or more often just thick forest blocked our view. The highlight of this stretch was really a number of small lizards scurrying away and a live armadillo chomping on some plants just a few feet from the bike trail.

South of the wildlife management area, we started to pass by a number of residences again but now not quite as grand. There actually seemed to be wonderful variety to the houses with plenty more mansions, many new ones under construction and others that looked like typical suburban homes. There were even a couple that seemed more like shacks and we couldn't help picturing some person/family holding out as their neighbors sold to the ultra wealthy. Between most of the houses, we enjoyed beautiful unobstructed views of the water.

As we reached the end of the strip, we turned east crossing a bridge into St. Augustine. The view was beautiful on all sides. The sun was almost set but had already settled behind a bank of clouds producing some spectacular colors.

We checked into the hotel and snacked a bit before dinner. One bag to go. We walked a few blocks to Ayara Thai and Sushi Cuisine. The restaurant was operated by a young couple and they were helped by their very young daughter. She was very social and kept sitting at patron's tables and interacting with them. We split some delicious curry (green w/scallops and red w/salmon) before walking back to the hotel.

We woke up at a reasonable time, but enjoyed some computer time until hotel check out at 11am. Heading out, we retread the path to the restaurant from the night before. As we arrived at historic downtown, we started to slowly coast our bike through, but a nearby local with a bike and rolled up sleeping bag on the back warned us that cops would ticket us so we walked it the rest of the way. It was really interesting to see all the old buildings on the street, but the area was also clearly very touristy. We were curious if any of the buildings weren't truly old but instead just recreations. At the end of the street, we caught decent glimpses of the old cathedral and governor's mansion before taking a another bridge back out of town.

The next 10 or so miles on an off and on bike lane passed really quickly without any particularly memorable scenery. We did, however, pass an old man in a gold colored captain's suit, a white captain's hat, and a beat-up car straight from the 80s pulling out of a parking lot in front of us.

A long while after we'd left anything recognizable as city or even suburbs, we stopped at Fort Matanzas National Monument for a quick rest. There was a cute little turtle sun-bathing just outside of his home on the way in. In the park we set up at a picnic table under some tangled looking trees.

The next (flat) 15 or so miles flew by. As we passed Flagler Beach, we knew we had to stop. The area was very reminiscent of our favorite areas along the coast of Maine. The road along the beach had completely unobstructed views and a nice rocky barrier separating the beach from the road. On the side opposite from the beach, the road was sparsely dotted with reasonably sized houses and small businesses. Upon closer examination, we saw the sand had an interesting orange color to it, much coarser than the usual white granular shores. We also realized that the rocky barrier was actually comprised of collections of shells smushed together, held together by limestone (called coquinas). Camille claims this is her favorite beach ever.

We went the rest of the way to the campsite at a more reasonable pace and ended up taking a different route from both East Coast Greenway and Adventure Cycling routes, but it was beautiful none the less. It definitely had more of a swampy, jungly feel to it. Along the way to the campground, we made a quick detour for some groceries at Publix and arrived at the campground just before dusk. We set up camp, ate dinner, and turned in just after a nice sunset view over the water.

The critters strike again. After dinner, the recyclables had been washed and left on the table. A few minutes after we were in the tent, we heard some rattling. We got up and could clearly see they'd been knocked over, so we put them in a plastic bag and hung them next to our food and trash. Greg could see a pair of eyes glowing in the brush ahead.

In the middle of the night, he woke up again to hear a scratching noise by the hanging food. He vaguely recalled hearing chitters, some movement, and then the scratching stopped. We like to imagine that one raccoon had communicated to the rest of the clan about a discovered score elsewhere in the campground. Greg got up and saw that our bags all still appeared to be safe and secured, so he settled back into bed. Shortly after, the raccoons returned, and we could hear a plastic shopping bag being trampled on. They'd returned with their score.

In the morning, we found the smaller dry sack containing mostly snacks was completely gone. There was no debris from it being torn open or any sign of it whatsoever. Damn raccoons.

We'd planned to get an early start to the day as Camille had a 3 pm meeting scheduled, but that didn't quite happen. Around 8 am, we packed up camp, scarfed down most of a bag of cereal, and some cold-ish brew (Camille's attempt at getting Greg some early coffee). We biked through the park and some woods on the way out and then mostly through neighborhoods until Ormond Beach. It was really hot really early, but the biking earlier in the day was very scenic. We biked along the coast of the mainland with views of the intracoastal waterway.

South of Daytona Beach, we veered away from the coast and onto US Route 1 with a nice bike lane. We were curious about some franchises there, specifically Cumberland Farms and Wawa which we'd thought was more regional. Before long, we were back on the coast and enjoying the pleasant views. New Smyrna Beach, around the halfway mark for the day, was our first stop for some coffee and brunch. The waitress at Jason's Coner seemed interested in our trip but didn't want to annoy us. She seemed really sweet though and gave us an entire pitcher of water after hearing about the trip. Greg had coffee, and we both enjoyed omelettes and french toast.

After breakfast, we picked up where we left off along the coast, now with a nasty headwind and ever more brutal heat. A lot of this stretch had us biking on paths which were probably meant more as a sidewalk than a multi-purpose path. The on-road stretches no longer had a bike lane though, just a mostly acceptable shoulder sadly with no shade. We turned off a bit earlier than the Adventure Cycling route to hop on a nearby rail trail and followed it for the last 8 miles into Titusville. The trees along the sides were welcome refuge from the sun's harsh rays.

At the Airbnb, we met our host Kelley. She was an enthusiastic host, yet understandably preoccupied by the recent passing of her neighbor. We learned that their family had moved from Colorado, then Alabama to her husband's job here at Blue Ocean. Kelley was so knowledgeable about the area and activities to do. The boat tours to see bioluminescent acquatic life sounded especially interesting; we're excited to return when they're in season!

We squeezed in a quick visit to the Space Museum, 45 minutes before closing. Although we mostly only had time to read through the exhibits on the Mercury and Gemini programs, it was interesting to read about the objectives for those programs and for individual missions. Frustratingly, they asked us to leave 15 minutes before closing, so we headed over to Space View Park to scope out a spot for watching tonight's launch.

We woke up at 12:30 am last night for the launch. Our host Kelley had warned us that the area wasn't very safe, but we didn't run into any issues on our walk to Space View Park. The park was full of people along the shore and two docks. A few people had live streams playing on their phones so we could hear dialogue discussing what was going on. At key times leading up to the launch, someone in the crowd would shout out "XXX minutes" to let everyone know. We were glad to be part of the excitement for what seemed like a minor launch.

Leading up to the actual takeoff, we scanned the horizon, not completely certain where the right spot was and thinking maybe there was no way we'd actually be able to see anything. T-minus 10 seconds, the horizon quickly lit up. It was so phenomenally bright, the area around us transformed from a couple patches from street lamps to entirely lit up. Over the next minute, the rocket slowly climbed into the sky. We were so surprised by how long it stayed in sight. Soon, the rocket finally faded away to a tiny speck and vanished.

We'd agreed to a somewhat shorter day than usual, only targeting Melbourne (40-ish miles away). Compared to the schedule originally drafted a couple weeks earlier, we decided to trade a rest day to convert an 80 mile day into two 40 mile days. We chatted with Kelley for a good bit in the morning. Apparently, she was actually from Colorado, and they'd only lived in Alabama for 17 years before moving to Florida. We discussed a bit about politics, the state of the country, and ranked choice voting.

Eventually, we said our goodbyes and set off. Camille's laptop charger had mysteriously stopped working yesterday so we stopped at Target to pick up a replacement. We also got dry sacks to replace the ones lost to raccoons. Next, we stopped at Aldi's where Greg emerged arms completely full of food. Camille went in next for a few more things while Greg started reading an article on raccoons. They really are such fascinating animals.

Both the beginning and end of the ride today weren't particularly enjoyable. We rode largely along the side of highways. There were often dedicated bike lanes, but even when there weren't, we never felt particularly unsafe. That's pretty typical of how we've felt in Florida.

The middle of the day though was absolutely wonderful. We rode along sleepy residential streets right along the shore. Typical suburban neighborhoods lined the road to the west right but the east revealed views of the water water lined with private docks at about the same frequency as the houses. Most docks were empty or had a couple birds perched, but periodically we'd come across a dock completely covered in a mix of several types of birds of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. They were all chattering, sometimes bickering, with each other, and the overall atmosphere seemed so exciting. As we got back on our bikes after probably the fifth time stopping for pictures, we gushed about how wonderful Florida has been and how much it's exceeded our expectations.

Early afternoon, we lunched in Cocoa, Florida at the riverside park. A boat zigzagged over and over in the water nearby, the pilot back at the wheel and his dog at the front. We came up with hypotheses about what he was doing; our favorite was that he was just trying to give his dog a good time. Nearby, a group of children ran back and forth through some fountains blasting water jets up from the ground in a rhythmic dance. Every time they started up again there was a chorus of excitement and a shout of "Yes, Yes, Yes!" from a couple of the boys. It was adorable and Camille was absolutely farwning.

Just before continuing, we booked a place nearby whose reviews claimed they'd seen manatees and dolphins at the waterfront property. On the way, we passed by a fellow biker with a bright red shirt, big round belly, full white beard, and a santa hat over his helmet. We're pretty sure he had some boxes bungied to his back rack. He gave us a high pitched "hi".

En route to the AirBNB, we stopped off once more for groceries just as the sun was setting. We briefly sat outside once we arrived, but it was a bit buggy. We cooked some microwave pizza (woops there wasn't an oven like we thought) and watched the latest episode of Wheel of Time. Afterwards, we had some more computer time but turned in for the night at a pretty reasonable hour.

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.

We set out 9:30-ish by retracing our route back north and crossing onto South Hutchinson Island. Everything seemed really clean, well manicured and well planned and we enjoyed cycling through multiple rotaries. There wasn't too much interesting scenery along this stretch with woods on either side again blocking our view of the water, but we did get to share the bike lane with runners participating in some type of event.

We were fighting brutal headwinds at this point and made very slow progress, likely not passing 11 mph along this stretch. After only 20-ish miles, we stopped for snacks and to plan lodging. We foolishly booked a place in Lake Worth, committing us to another 60 miles on the day. It was just after noon at this point and the wind still had us crawling, what were we thinking?

We crossed over a pair of long bridges leaving Hutchinson Island, with the first bridge crossing the intracoastal waterway to a peninsula jutting out south from the mainland. The next bridge immediately followed crossing the St. Lucie River to the rest of the mainland. We followed a mix of sleepy residential and busier commercial roads here. Some of it was nice, like one residential section featuring a thick tunnel of trees. Some of the drivers were not friendly though, frequently ignoring us at crossings where we had the right of way or, in one case, actively shouting curses at us from the cab of a truck.

We felt pretty frustrated biking near the drivers in this area and were excited when we noticed an alternate route going through Seabranch Preserve State Park. The detour ended up being really nice. We were treated to more than a few turtles alongside the path and a nice break from the aggressive drivers.

Just after leaving the park, we had another cyclist pedal up beside us and start chatting. His name was John. We probably talked for at least 30 minutes, first pedaling beside each other as we approached the bridge to Jupiter Island and then stopping just before the bridge for a bit. We talked about our trip of course and he seemed very interested, but he also told us about his own adventures. He'd apparently biked from Florida (near Miami) to Massachusetts with a friend mostly following mountainous routes including the Blue Ridge Parkway! He said they'd averaged well over 100 miles per day the whole way. Wow!

Eventually we said our good byes and pedaled different directions on Jupiter Island. Jupiter Island definitely was picturesque, but the level of obvious wealth was also pretty absurd. There was one mansion with the title "guest house" that was probably as large as anything in the Wilmington area short of the historic Dupont mansions.

It was pretty late in the day by the time we left Jupiter Island and we had a fair amount of distance left to cover. We looked at our options for any kind of shortcut, but nothing appeared to shave more than a couple miles and likely at the expense of safety. We biked a long stretch beside Juno beach, block after block enjoying the excitement of beach goers coming and going at what seemed like a hundred entrances.

The rest of the day actually turned out much better than it could have. Biking through West Palm Beach ended up being a pretty magical experience. For long stretches, we were on multi-use path right along the water's edge. It was a bit dark by this point but we could still make out reflection from nearby lights on the choppy water. Further on, they'd closed off traffic for several blocks and seemed to have some Christmas festivities going on. After leaving West Palm Beach, the rest of our ride was through a heavily residential area organized into a very uniform grid.

We stopped off at Publix for groceries just a mile past the Airbnb then doubled back to arrive around 7 pm. We brought everything into the small but cozy guest suite and enjoyed a tasty dinner of fake chicken nuggets, two kinds of mochi (creme leche & matcha) and veggies/hummus. We watched 14 Peaks to relax. It was an inspiring story and also a great way to relax at the end of a long day.

We started the day with a pair of phone calls to catch up with family. First there was a call with Camille's family including her parents, Auntie Malou, Uncle Duane and Tita Marlene. Next, we had another call with Greg's parents and sister Erika. It was great to catch up with everyone.

Once on our way, we were quickly back on the barrier islands. Right at the start we noticed a ton of large lizards much bigger than the ones we'd seen scampering underfoot elsewhere in Florida. They were likely a foot and a half long and did not seem at all intimidated by our presence. No one else on the path seemed to even notice them. Continuing on, we biked through South Palm Beach. The area seemed extremely wealthy, maybe second to only Jupiter Island so far this trip.

Despite the wealth, the bicycle infrastructure was not great along here with a long stretch featuring no side walks and minimal to no shoulder. At one point, Greg had a near accident bouncing off a bush hanging into the road. He barely retained control of the bike while a car hovered over his shoulder eager to pass.

Shaken by the experience, we continued on for a few miles but stopped at a bench by the nature center at Delray Beach. We snacked and just sat there people watching and enjoying the nice weather for at least an hour, likely longer. We decided to make it a short day and booked a hotel only 5 miles down the road in Boca Raton (with still 50 miles left to Miami). We stopped at a nearby Publix to pick up dinner and then checked into the hotel.

Today had a very similar vibe to a lot of recent days, starting with a bit of back tracking and then cycling along the barrier islands. We enjoyed more of the large lizards from yesterday and some nice views cycling along the intra-coastal waterway. At Fort Lauderdale Beach / Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the beach seemed really nice and there were a fair number of beach goers already relaxing. We stopped for a nice shady escape from the oppressive heat while we snacked and took in sights of crashing waves.

We were a bit cautious continuing on as we'd been warned that Fort Lauderdale was the worst stretch of the East Coast Greenway remaining in our trip. It certainly wasn't great, but not as bad as we'd expected. Traffic was busy but with the exception of where turning lanes interrupted our way, we had near constant shoulder or bike lane.

Half way through Fort Lauderdale we stopped off at a Publix for a rest room break and to pick up food. Just as we stopped, Camille checked her phone for some really exciting news. She'd heard back about her job application for the Wilmington GIS analyst position! We were both excited by the news and what seemed like potentially great timing. She called back to set up the interview while Greg shopped inside.

We got back on the road and followed some not particularly spectacular roads out of Fort Lauderdale. They didn't feel unsafe but passed through areas that seemed mostly commercial/industrial. Near Dania Beach, we turned back onto the barrier islands and picked up a nice service road that ran right along the beach. There was a small amount of automobile traffic but we mostly enjoyed the company of pedestrians and fellow bikers. Nearer Hollywood there was more of a board walk vibe (although paved). There was pedestrian and biker traffic only, tons of shops and generally lots of exciting activity. We loved the atmosphere, especially Camille.

Leaving Hollywood, we were forced into the road for a stretch passing through Beverly Beach, Golden Beach and Beverly Isles Beach. It was absolutely awful with heavy traffic, lots of intersections and inconsistent shoulders. It was near rush hour so initially we thought that was the cause, but after almost an hour of terrible cycling we stopped to reassess. Our experience clearly didn't line up with with the earlier warning we'd received. This was dramatically worse than anything we experienced in Fort Lauderdale. Checking the official East Coast Greenway map, there was another low traffic service road running parallel for a decent stretch. This route was much more relaxing with only periodic stretches where we were forced into the road. Often we could just jump onto lower traffic sidewalks instead.

When we crossed over into Miami, it was already a bit dark and stopping for some errands set us further behind. Close to 7pm, we finally arrived at the Air Bnb. It was a cute place and both the size and lofted bedroom were very reminiscent of our friend Eric's Air Bnb in Wilmington. A few details seemed a bit off though (trash bag outside the door, potentially damp towels and a pile of sheets stripped from the bed) and the host had never actually sent any messages to us aside from the automated instructions. We decided to message our host Natalia and pretty quickly she replied and met us outside the unit. Apparently, her cleaner had cancelled that day and she'd completely missed the notification of our booking (it was an instant booking). She seemed really embarassed but very genuinely apologetic. She asked that we step out for a bit so we took a brief stroll around the neighborhood while she and her husband (Mauricio) cleaned up. It certainly was an unexpected aspect of our stay, but Natalia and Mauricio seemed like such sweet and genuine people. We're glad to have met them and in the end, the experience actually enriched our stay.

Today was an off-day in Miami. Camille woke first and walked to a nearby local grocery store to pick up food. The rest of the morning was pretty lazy as we relaxed and caught up on computer time.

We'd booked kite surfing lessons in the afternoon at 2 pm on Key Biscayne. Around noon, we left the AirBnb where we were staying and biked across the causeway. There were nice wide bike lanes along the route and multi-use paths running parallel for long stretches as well. It pretty exciting to see all the activity with lots of people pulling into parking lots for beachs along the causeway and tons of bikers/hikers active on the trails. We veered off onto a path through the woods and reached a nice look out point with a view of some fossilized coral and Miami Beach far off in the distance. We could also see a kite boarder slowly work his way from the limit of our vision to the right to the shores far to our left before swinging around and heading back.

Eventually, we made our way to the kite surfing school. The employee that initially helped us seemed a bit gruff, but he gave us a spot to leave our stuff. A little after 2 pm, we were greeted by our instructor, Hector. We spent about an hour on land going over how to set up the gear on ourselves, how to set up the kite, how everything would be attached, safety procedures and then how to manipulate the kite, etc.

Finally, we walked out into waist deep water and the lesson started. Camille went first and we were surprised by just how much the kite pulled her around. The instructor spent a lot of the lesson holding onto a strap on her back to keep her grounded. We went through different drills swapping off every 10 minutes or so. First we tried just to keep the kite steady with two hands alternating back and forth between 11 and 1 o'clock. Then we switched to 1 hand doing the same. Every time the kite crossed 12 o'clock, we were supposed to switch hands. Finally, we started adding movement (walking around) and focusing on details in the distance while maintaining control of the kite. We both improved a lot throughout the lesson, but still struggled whenever the wind dramatically changed speed or direction.

On the way back in, Hector asked us about ourselves and we mentioned the trip. We learned that apparently Hector was a high level cyclist back in Spain (even on the national team at one point). Apparently, only afterwards did he get into water sports and then started traveling the world spending time in California, Mexico, Miami, the Middle East teaching as the seasons permitted. We said our good byes and then packed up and returned to the Airbnb.

Back at the Airbnb, Camille needed computer time so Greg volunteered to pick up dinner. We were craving empanadas and eventually settled on a place near center city. The ride was a bit longer than expected, 3.5 miles each way, and he was further slowed by a ten minute wait at a draw bridge. We were initially excited about the restaurant seeing that they had locations both in Miami and Argentina, but on arriving he quickly realized that it was right in the middle of a college campus and gave the impression of a typical college fast food restaurant. Back at home, the empanadas certainly weren't bad, but we were both definitely disappointed.

We'd intended to wake up around 5:30, but struggled a bit and only fully got up 6:30-ish. After coffee, hygiene, packing and foolishly trying to finish the rest of the perishable food we didn't walk out the door until 7:30. Biking out of Miami was a bit stressful. The traffic was pretty crazy and for the first couple miles we were either on the shoulder of roads or side walks in the midst of the early morning rush.

Eventually, we made it to a dedicated multi-use trail that took us about 20 miles all the way to Homestead. The trail varied a lot over this distance but much of it was along the side of a two lane road dedicated exclusively to the local commuter buses. We didn't move as quickly along this stretch as we frequently stopped at crossings, busy with morning commuters.

In Homestead, we stopped off at John is Here, a popular fruit stand. Their shakes are supposed to be famous, but we focused more on some of their exotic fruit options. We picked up some Sour Sop (aka Guanabana), both a full unripe one and a half fruit to eat immediately, some black Sapote which we were told would be ready in a day or so and a few jars of preserves to gift to our Warm Showers hosts tonight.

Leaving John is Here, we had ~25 miles to go and only 1 hour 45 minutes before our check-in for a snorkeling expedition. We both felt a little stressed about that timeline especially given how slowly we'd gone in the morning. Pretty soon we were biking in the shoulder along route 1. Without the constant stops at intersections, we maintained a pretty steady 16 mph. We were starting to feel more comfortable about the timeline when Camille went over a fist sized rock picking up a pinch flat. She quickly swapped it, but once again we were stressed about our timeline.

We became even more discouraged when the road turned to the east and and we were biking directly into the wind. Our progress slowed to a crawl. We were certain that we were going to miss the expedition, but with 2.75 miles to go, we received a call from the snorkeling operators. They called to check on our timeline. We told them how far out we were and with renewed energy we raced there.

All the other guests were waiting on the boat and we felt a bit guilty that we may have kept them waiting (or maybe we just timed it that perfectly). The boat had two crew members, John (the captain) and Gia (who gave instruction on snorkeling). The boat went out to an area of the reef called the Grecian Rocks, passing through a mangrove swamp/forest on the way. We'd had a lot of sun exposure, some strenuous riding and not enough water and realized we weren't actually feeling that great. The choppy waves and rocking of the boat certainly didn't help either.

At the dive site, we slowly put on our gear and jumped into the water, probably the last guests to jump in. The water felt absolutely wonderful after all the sun and heat. Some of the more interesting highlights from exploring was a beautiful school of bright blue fish that seemed pretty un-phased by the swimmers, a lone darker blue fish and a rainbow fish with a flat derpy appearance.

Back on shore, we'd missed a couple messages from our Warm Showers host and made our way over. We arrived shortly before they returned home. Their place had a ton of character, with both a main house and smaller house, a trailer and tons of hand made decorations and tables/chairs all over the yard. There was running water into a small pond and wind chimes constantly ringing to give the property a perfectly tranquil feel. After a few minutes, our hosts Jacquelyn and Breaze returned from work. They gave us a tour of the place, showing us where we could set up the tent, where the bathroom and outdoor shower were located and generally made us feel at home. We chatted a bit, but we were feeling pretty exhausted and not as social as we would have liked.

We cleaned up and ate dinner. Checking on the black sapote, it had split open and was weeping black juice. According to the employee at John is Here that meant it was ready to eat. Neither of us really agreed with the chocolate pudding description commonly attributed to it, but it was tasty nonetheless. We offered some to our hosts as well, but they declined as they had dinner plans. We chatted for a bit about their experiences mountain biking, the school bus they'd refinished for use while traveling and some good advice on spots to stop through the keys.

We woke up around 6 am and started the day with coffee and breakfast sandwiches from a nearby cafe. Breakfast in hand, we walked down to the end of the street and sat on the dock in our host's community's private beach. The wind was blowing pretty hard and sloshing water up near our feet. Clouds covered the horizon, so we never did see the sunrise, but it was a peaceful way to start the day.

We walked back to our hosts' house. They were busy getting ready and rushing off to work. We said brief good byes and finished packing up.

We stopped off at Harriet's for a second breakfast: more coffee, muffins (including their famous key lime muffins), a conch fritter and a mahi mahi eggs benedict. We ate in the shade behind the building by a nice mural depicting. After finishing our meal, we got back on the road biking through the heat to the public library where we enjoyed some computer time in the air conditioning. What a great escape from the heat.

After a couple hours of computer time, we set back out on the path towards Robbie's and our final destination for the day at Curry Hammock State Park. Robbie's was supposed to be a spot where we could feed Tarpons right from the docks. It had a very different vibe than we were actually expecting, with a bunch of small touristy shops, a restaurant and lots of people gathered by the marina. We could see the dock where people were walking out with buckets of food, but it looked like they were mostly just feeding the pelicans. There were lots of pelicans close by that seemed really comfortable with all the people. One of the workers here approached us and started asking about our tour. He asked us about our trip and mentioned that he'd done some touring himself. We had a brief chat before he rushed off back to work.

We then traveled the last 20 miles to Marathon Key. We alternated views of water on our left, on our right and sometimes biked across narrow stretches of island where we could see it on both. The water was absolutely pristine and we were disappointed that our photos never really seemed to do it justice. Lots of iguanas lined the paths in front of us and kept darting into the brush when they noticed us coming. We hopped from key to key across a series of bridges. Often there was an old bridge running parallel to the current Route 1 bridge that had been repurposed for pedestrians and frequently had people fishing. Some such bridges were closed due to structural issues and it wasn't always obvious leading up. We missed biking on a lot of them, but thankfully, we managed to get on the pedestrian bridge for the longest stretch of the day, running maybe 3 miles between Long Key and Conch Key.

A bit before 5 pm, we arrived at Curry Hammock State Park. We checked in at the entrance to the state park and proceeded to our site. They put us right on the beach and it was absolutely beautiful. It seemed like our site is usually a group camping site, but bikers/hikers/paddlers passing through are allowed to use it. When we arrived a bunch of other campers were hanging out in the area as well. An older couple from Vermont said they were jealous that we got to camp so close to the water. We were maybe 15 feet away from the water when setting up (which appeared to be high tide). We got lots of funny looks from passersby and Greg was a little anxious that they may think we were just squatting without permission. Pretty soon he stopped caring.

Despite a bit of bugginess, we enjoyed a pleasant sunset over the water. For dinner we had cous cous, tuna and almond butter/sweet potato butter/passion fruit jam wraps. We both cleaned up before bed. Greg particularly enjoyed reading all the great educational signage near the bathrooms, especially the sign discussing light pollution. It's easy to forget how many different ways people can negatively impact their environment, not just through generation of trash.

We woke up to the roaring wind a few times during the night and took a midnight stroll. In the morning, we woke just before sunrise and enjoyed sun rays peeking through thick clouds over the ocean. Sitting right by the water while eating breakfast was a wonderful way to start the morning.

We packed up to get on the road just as the camp host arrived to paint the picnic tables. Martin asked us how our stay had been and wanted to know a bit about our journey. He was really impressed by our trip and and also talked a bit about his own experiences. A well-seasoned traveler, he listed Curry Hammock in the top 3 campgrounds (other 2 were Topsail and Rainbow Springs) of the 40 or so that he'd been to in the last couple years. We agree. It was our favorite camping experience of the trip so far, and there have been a lot of great ones. He seemed like such a kind and genuine person and wished us safe travels at least 3 times before we moved on. We were both really glad that we'd been a bit sluggish to get on the road and were able to meet him.

We started out by biking 8 miles down the road (there really is just one main road) to Food for Thought, a health food grocery store that also had coffee and meals. We had coffee, some breakfast bowls, and smoothies there while enjoying computer time and an escape from the heat.

Just a mile down the road, we stopped at Crane Point Hammock, a nature museum. We spent half an hour exploring their indoor exhibits before heading out to the trails. They did a great job summarizing the history of the keys and the varied ecosystems without overwhelming us with detail. One of the exhibits described Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, who apparently had been captured by the Calusa tribe in the early period of European settlement in the keys. After living with them for 17 years, he was traded away and wrote a book describing his experiences. Heading outside, we followed a couple miles of trails that had some good views. We were surprised to stumble upon their hospital for injured birds. It was kind of sad to see all the injuries, but a relief they were getting help.

After the nature center, we set out towards our campground for the night. The rest of today's ride was predominantly on the seven mile bridge. We'd been warned about it earlier in the day at a local bike shop while picking up an extra pair of tubes for Camille, but with the nice wide shoulder, it really wasn't too bad. It was a little disappointing looking to our right though and seeing the old rail bridge running parallel, with only a couple sections left to be finished. Hopefully they will repair those sections someday and make a completely separated bike way.

We arrived at Bahia Honda just a bit before sundown. En route to our campsite, we noticed warnings about crocodiles in the area. We'd just read about how rare they are earlier in the nature center! We never ended up seeing any, but it was still exciting. The campsite was right on the water and had a bit of a swamp smell to it. The biting no-see-um flies were absolutely brutal. We set up the tent, quickly ate dinner and went to bed. It was a hot and sticky night interrupted by a couple periods of heavy rain.

We woke up pretty early in Bahia Honda hoping to get a lot of biking in during the cool morning air. We packed up camp pretty excitedly, feeling plenty of fresh bites from the no-see-ums. Just after dawn, we were on the road biking again through the keys. The route felt pretty similar to what we'd experienced the last couple days with stretches on the shoulder of Route 1, some separate pathways running parallel and old railway bridges running parallel to those carry traffic. One particular nice stretch darted into the woods and we could barely hear or see the main road for a few miles.

After 23 of our 38 miles today, we stopped at Baby's Coffee for Greg's first 2 cups of coffee today. We setup on the picnic tables outside. Camille started up a conversation with another biker sitting on a bench nearby. His name was Don and he was excited to hear about our trip. Apparently, he's retired military so was able to park his RV in one of the military bases for a cheaper rate than usual during the winter. He also talked about how he'd taught just outside of Dover, DE when he was younger. We probably spent half an hour chatting about various topics with Don before moving on. He offerred us a place to relax/recharge devices while waiting for the ferry later in the day if we wanted. We didn't end up taking him up on the offer, but it was a great chance encounter.

Leaving Baby's we biked another 10 miles or so until we reached the Key West Tropical & Botanical Center. There was a fair bit of variety to the flora and most of the center was well shaded. We wandered their grounds for maybe an hour and a half snapping pictures before finally moving on. Next, we continued on the actual end of both ACA's Atlantic Coast route and East Coast Greenway. Leading up to it felt pretty exciting. There was a long stretch spent biking a few feet from the water on a nice off-road trail, followed by a really busy stretch along the beach. Our final destination, the southern most point of the United States ended up being pretty lame though. There was a red pillar with some writing on it with long line of people waiting for selfies.

Next, we biked over to Fort Zachary Tailor State Park. Don had recommended it as a nice place to escape from the crowds of Key West. We snacked on the rest of our food here (worried about the limits the ferry had on bags), explored the fort a little bit and took some pictures on the beach. We decided the beach felt like a much nicer final destination for our trip than a monument.

On the way to the ferry, we biked through Duval Street. Everyone kept talking about how hectic it was and it felt like something we had to at least see while in Key West. It seemed like a pretty typical touristy main street in a beach town, with one exception. There were chickens and roosters everywhere! We'd noticed them intermittently throughout the keys, but they were especially common in Key West. Don had mentioned earlier that they were initially brought in to control the bugs and they're protected by the local governments now.

We arrived at the ferry with a couple hours to spare. I'm not sure why we were so worried about the baggage rules. They ended up not being very strict at all and the ferry ride over was pretty uneventful. We arrived in Fort Myers Beach around 9:30 pm and checked into our hotel.

Today started pleasantly enough with a predawn stroll to 7-11 for some breakfast and coffee (on the house). Back in the hotel, we spent some time discussing our route for the day. We'd originally planned to take the ferry from Key West to Marco Island, but that ferry didn't run until January. Fort Myers Beach is a fair bit further north and we hadn't yet decided on how to update our route.

On review we had two options. Option 1 stayed mostly on roads following US 41. We'd heard the section of US 41 through the Everglades would be fine, but didn't know enough about the sections near Fort Myers and Naples. Option 2 had about 20 miles through state parks and we'd heard there was sometimes flooding. We called the Picayune State Park office and were told that flooding wasn't currently an issue in the park. Option 2 seemed both safer and more scenic so it was an easy decision.

Leaving Fort Myers Beach, we biked through barrier islands along the coast enjoying a mix of sidewalk biking, dedicated bike lanes and acceptably wide shoulders. Most of the early day felt like pretty typical beach side city/town with all the touristy attractions you'd expect. At Bonita Springs, we stopped to replenish food and tried to savor our last expected Aldi's of the trip.

After biking alongside US 41 for a bit we turned off just before Naples. While passing through a touristy shopping district we stumbled through an auto show featuring tons of intereting cars, both exotic and antique. We snapped some pictures while passing through, but didn't have time for more. We flew for the next couple hours, following a mostly continuous bike lane along the side of a local highway. The road was cleanly paved and we could feel it. We averaged 17-19 mph in this area and it felt really easy.

Just after noon, we stopped for some lunch at a neighborhood bus stop. We enjoyed some dried mangos, apples and other treats before continuing on. It turns out this bench was just before our route passed over Alligator Alley (the interstate through the Everglades) and into the Picayune State Forest. This was the last stress free part of the day.

Entering the Picayune State Forest, our surroundings quickly seemed pretty desolate. We didn't see anyone for at least half an hour. The road was very poorly maintained with dirt roads, patches of sand, lots of random pits and large rocks everywhere. There were islands of pavement intermittently, so it may have been fully paved once long ago. We passed a couple cars along this stretch and even they appeared to be moving slowly and cautiously, zig zagging to avoid the many rocks, potholes and sandpits.

At the entrance, there were warnings that this was Florida panther habitat. We'd entirely forgotten about Florida panthers and weren't really sure how much of a concern they should be. All we could recall was that they were the same species as mountain lions and mountain lions have been in the news on more than one occasion for killing people out west. The rational part of our brains told us that we're big (especially on our bikes) and making all kinds of strange noises. We wouldn't likely be something it would consider as prey. Still, every noise in the brush to our side left us a bit on edge.

After maybe 7 miles on this stretch we took a left onto another road that was pretty similar in character. There was at least a bit of vegetation closer to the road here providing some minimal, intermittent shade. The previous stretch had been pretty brutally exposed with oppressive heat and sun. On the other hand, more brush closer to the road just meant more opportunities for panthers to get close and remain hidden. Just as we were reaching a bridge to cross one of the canals, Camille called out. She had a flat and on further inspection also a broken spoke. We removed the spoke and while Camille swapped in her last tube, Greg spotted an alligator swimming around in the water below. We were pretty excited, finally seeing one after all this time in Florida.

We continued forward and before too long we started seeing ankle deep puddles in the middle of the road. We thought "maybe this is the area that's pretty bad when flooding is present". As we pressed forward the puddles started getting a little deeper slowly crawling up our shins. Not too far into this area we passed a truck coming through one of the deeper puddles. It was a park ranger. He seemed pretty relaxed but left us with a comment "it's pretty wet up there" and "be safe." If only we'd questioned him more, maybe we would have reconsidered. We were already at least 10 miles into the park and it felt like we'd passed so many obstacles already. Pressing forward, the pools kept getting deeper and eventually we were wading in up to our thighs. We're not sure at what point we should have known to turn around. The whole time we couldn't tell if it would be more challenging to press forward or turn around. We continued along like this for 2-3 miles, finally reaching the state forest.

The path from here was much more enclosed with a thick growth of trees on either side. To our left (upstream) was much more open and we were pretty often able to view the water. Periodically it would open up a bit more for an exposed bank and along one of these stretches, Greg saw a large alligator quickly scramble into the water followed by a large crash of water. We biked by and not too long after Camille shouted that she had another flat. We continued a short stretch to an area that seemed a bit more isolated from the water. Camille didn't have any more spares and we spent at least 40 minutes trying to patch her tube. Every time, we tried to patch a tube and swap it in, it would start to inflate and then we'd hear a gasp of air.

Eventually, with sun rapidly setting, we tried to jam one of Greg's tubes in there (meant for 28-32 mm tires rather than Camille's 25 mm rims). It worked for about a mile before bunching up and puncturing. We tried once more, but it failed after only half a mile this time. We didn't really have any great options at this point. Our navigation app still showed that we had 10 miles before leaving the state park and the sun was going to set in about 30 minutes. We resorted to walking bikes / riding slowly on the rim. Along the way we passed at least two more large alligators relaxing on the bank, one dashed into the water but the other just studied us as we pedaled by. We also periodically noted piles of what we were pretty sure were black bear poop mostly based on the size and that it was full of berries. An Everglades scat guide we found the next day later confirmed this to be the case. We were trying our best to keep calm but the next couple miles felt very anxious and tiring.

Eventually off in the distance, two figures slowly came into view. We excitedly approached and the hikers told us there was a parking lot 1/4 to 1/2 a mile further along. We raced to the parking lot and when we saw the path open up to an area more than 10 times as wide. We remember feeling so much more safe and secure. We set up at the picnic table and reassessed our situation. We tried calling a contact we had from Everglades City (Patty), but we still had poor/no service.

When the two hikers returned from the trail (we later learned their names were Jeff and Nicole), we approached and introduced ourselves. We asked if they could either give us a ride or maybe had a spare tube (they had bikes racked on the back of their car). They didn't have a spare tube, but agreed to give us a ride to Everglades City (where they were staying). We enthusiastically thanked them, locked our bikes to the nearby bench and climbed into the car.

The next 7 miles out of the state park seemed much more open than before, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad after all. While driving, Jeff & Nicole told us they were from Orlando and they liked to come out here for photography and nature watching. They'd starting out trying to see all the mammals in the area and were still excited to try and see a panther. They seemed to be pretty good at bird identification too, calling out a few along the way. On the way to Everglades City, we also got to see their car hit 100,000 miles. They came across as just very generous, humble and curious people and we're extremely grateful for the help. In Everglades City, we managed to find a hotel for the night, cleaned ourselves up and finally relaxed.

We were stranded in Everglades City without bikes or any public transit options so in the morning, we set out to find a rental car. Camille reserved a rental car from Enterprise in Marcos Island, just over 20 miles away. We were hoping they'd come to pick us up, but the drive was too far. After a few calls, we found a taxi company. Dewan picked us up in a black SUV around 10:30 am and drove us to Marcos Island. We enjoyed some pleasant chatting with him over the 40 minute ride. He seemed really likable and we were really interested to hear him talk about the struggles Marcos Island has had with Airbnb. Apparently most of the properties are now short term rentals and it's really negatively impacted their sense of community.

After picking up the rental car, we drove back to Facahatchee State Park to pick up our bikes. On the way back in, we were happy to pass by Jeff and Nicole. They told us the bikes still seemed to be safely locked up where we'd left them. We said our good byes and continued on to the bikes, dismantling them and loading them into the car. We drove slowly on the way out stopping for pictures periodically along the way. It really is a beautiful state park.

We picked up Route 41 heading east through Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. At the Big Cypress visitor center, one of the employees was stationed in the entry way to greet everyone. He was giving us advice on places to go and what we might see in the area when another employee ran into the room excited that manatees were nearby. Apparently they've been waiting all season. We quickly followed him out to the observation deck.

Initially, he seemed embarrassed that the manatee didn't appear. We patiently waited while the crowd started to disperse and then we were quietly called over to a another prt of the deck. We could faintly see the manatee just beneath the surface and then it briefly poked its head up. We waited another 5 minutes, patiently watching the bubbles coming up from below for the manatee to appear again and then continued on.

A few miles down the road from the visitor center, we stopped at the local post office. It is apparently the country's smallest post office and basically looks like the size of a shack. We sat in the car finishing up all our remaining post cards (except for 2 from Georgetown) before Camille dropped them off. Continuing on Route 41 it did seem like it would have been a pretty decent bike ride. Traffic was fast, but also pretty sparse.

After maybe 25 miles, we turned off onto Loop Road, also part of our original planned route. Loop Road runs mostly parallel to Route 41 (actually making more of a trapezoid). It's a popular scenic alternate. Traffic ran slowly with people ahead of us constantly stopping to enjoy interesting sights. We stopped periodically too for a nice blend of beautiful landscapes and roughly a dozen gator sightings.

Back on Route 41 for a stretch, this area seemed much less bike friendly, especially along a several mile section with heavy construction. There was no shoulder and traffic was much more congested. This probably would not have been fun to bike.

We ended up booking a hotel for the next two nights in Haileah, stopping at an Aldi's for groceries along the way. At the hotel, we snacked, relaxed and crashed pretty early.

Today was our final off-day before heading back home to Delaware. The day started out with a bit more excitement. Camille had an interview for a GIS position with the city of Wilmington scheduled at 9 am. By 10:30 am the interview had wrapped up and we set out for some errands and fun.

First, we drove back to Homestead and the Robert is Here food stand. In our rush on the last visit, we'd skipped their famous milkshakes so we made sure to try some out this time.Greg picked guanabana while Camille decided on black sapote. Both were delicious. Behind the main building we were surprised to find pens with an assortment of animals. How had we missed them on our last visit? There were parrots, goats, geese, ducks, an emu and a couple oxen.

Back inside, we picked up several guanabana, a black sapote, 2 canastelle along with some other goodies and were excited to have Robert himself check us out! He told us about his childhood experiences starting the stand and his frustrations that agriculture is leaving the area only to be replaced by cheap cookie-cutter development. It was particularly interesting to hear his perspective on why so many local farmers had failed, being undercut by imported goods but not willing to adapt and become a more unique or premium brand.

After leaving the farm stand, we drove back to Miami for some errands and dinner at Vegan Cuban Cuisine. After dropping off the rental car and a long walk, we were back to the hotel for the night. We enjoyed a pleasant call with Greg's parents and sister, before packing up and heading to bed.

We woke up early and, once again, rushed to eat all our remaining perishable food before setting out. Maybe some day we'll learn to buy a little less. En route to the train station, we stopped at Vito's Bakery for some more snacks. After only a few more miles of biking, we arrived at the Amtrak station with plenty of time to spare before departure.

The Miami to Wilmington train is a very, very long ride, taking more than 24 hours. It wasn't particularly comfortable, but it was certainly bearable. Not everyone seemed to agree though and at least one nearby couple decided to make other arrangements after only a few stops. Our car initially seemed to be reserved for passengers going longer distances and we were grateful that after the first few stops, there wasn't much turnover in passengers.

Early afternoon, Camille got a call from the City of Wilmington, but due to poor cell service she had to call them back later. We never ended up getting good service during working hours, but the next morning (still on the train), she finally got through. They offered her a position and she accepted!

Sometime after 11 am, we finally arrived in Wilmington. We biked home, eagerly navigating two miles along a very familiar route.