What a tough day! Tim and I left before 8:30 AM and did not make it to Vero Beach until after 5:30 PM. We rode 78 miles into a 19 mph wind for most of the day. It was definitely one of our most difficult rides. Well, anyway, here are the photos I took on the ride today.
The scenery on U.S. 1 was not much to look at, but the sky was expressive. However, we did not have any rain today.Tim eats a yogurt every day. Here he is eating his yogurt on our first stop of the day, 15 miles into the ride.Tim at our 2nd stop of the day before Melbourne, FL.This is the bridge on Florida 404, which links SR A1A with U.S. 1 near Rockledge, FL. This was our 2nd stop of the ride, after about 30 miles. Shortly after that, Tim got 2 flat tires. This is typical of the scenery by the side of U.S. 1, on the way to Vero Beach.Flags at the Landing Site of Ponce de Leon, on A1A. Unfortunately, we were headed into the wind, and not with it.
When I was a kid walking to school in the morning with Mark, whenever it was really windy, I would wish for a glass half dome to come down over Drexel Hill and block out all of the wind. That’s what I was wishing for today. It would have made today’s ride much easier.
Tomorrow’s ride is about 55 miles, and the winds are predicted to be 17 mph, in our faces again. So we’re going to try to leave early, since the winds pick up in velocity as the day progresses.
Tim and I got an early start this morning, leaving at around 8:15 a.m., and riding through the southern end of Ormond Beach into Daytona Beach. Shortly into Daytona Beach, we left A1A and went over a bridge and onto U.S. 1 South. We stayed on U.S. 1 for most of the ride today. Believe it or not, there were some grades we had to climb. I wouldn’t call them hills per se, but the entire ride was not flat, the way it was our first two days. Here are some of the photos I took today.
Tim is pulling out a map on our first stop at New Smyrna Beach, FL, 15 miles into the ride.A fisherman in an orange boat in the waterway we crossed in New Smyrna Beach.Another fisherman in the New Smyrna Beach waterway. There were about a half dozen fisherman in this waterway early on Sunday morning.We got a chance to sit down on our 3rd and last stop, which was in Mims, FL. Here Tim is enjoying his 2nd of Nancy’s excellent sandwiches. We were about 15 miles away from Titusville and our hotel.Nancy took this photo of me relaxing at the pool at the Hampton Inn, Titusville. I took a nice nap after coming back into our hotel room.Dinner tonight was Dominoes pizza, one plain and one pepperoni.
Tomorrow we bike to Vero Beach, which will be almost an 80 mile ride. Tim thinks we’re going to have a head wind – I really hope not!
Riding across country with Brian and Mark, a few years back, we all concluded Florida had the best roads by far. That observation continues. Most roads we’ve been on so far have been wonderful. We encountered some bumpy roads today that were better than most roads up north. We also road on some sidewalks thru one stretch where the shoulder got narrow and bumpy. We also were on the East Coast Greenway (Maine to Florida) for a short distance today. We saw more bikers on that trail, which was parallel to Rt. 1, than we saw all 60 of our miles today.
First of our stops today. This is along Rt 1. Most of our ride today was on Rt. 1
Our final stop today. We had a nice smooth log to sit on and lean our bikes against. US 1 is about 100 yards down this side road.
Tomorrow is the toughest ride of this trip simply because of its length. The winds will be out of the south so no help there. Lots of sleep planned tonight.
On Friday morning 2/28/2020, Tim and I started riding from Jacksonville to St. Augustine, FL It was on the cool side when we left, about 37 degrees F, but I was prepared and dresses appropriately. I had assembled my bike the afternoon before in the room at the Hampton Inn. I got everything right, but somehow I criss-crossed the cables for the gears and was not actually able to shift any gears at all. But fortunately it was flat and we at least didn’t have any wind in our faces, so it was OK. We made it to our hotel around 2:15 p.m. It was the Casa Monica Hotel in St. Augustine, FL, and it was built in 1887. But it was really really nice. Here is a photo of what it looked like from the parking lot.
The view of Casa Monica hotel from the parking lot.
From inside the hotel, especially from the pool, the hotel reminded me of the French Foreign Legion fort in the 1939 movie Beau Geste. All that was missing was the French flag. Here is a photo in the stairwell of the hotel. I really like this picture because the moon is not full – in movies and TV shows and most pictures, the moon is always full, so I really liked this picture.
Nancy and my favorite picture in the Casa Monica Hotel, St Augustine, FL.
After getting to the hotel, Tim and I drove to Island Bike Shop at St. Augustine Beach, where in about 2 minutes, the bike mechanic diagnosed and fixed my gear problem.
The ride today was, as a result, much easier. The entire ride was on A1A South, so there was no chance of getting lost. We only stopped twice, and the first time was at Fort Matanzas, an old Spanish fort that was constructed in 1740. We didn’t take the short ferry ride to the fort – so we just took some photos from the National Park we entered right off of A1A. Here is a view of the fort.
Photo of 1740 Spanish Fort Matanzas on the way out of St. Augustine, FL.
The next time we stopped was at Flagler Beach, where the colors of the beach and the Atlantic Ocean were very striking. Here are two photos I took at Flagler Beach, where Tim and I sat at a picnic bench and ate the excellent sandwiches that Nancy made for us. Today they were turkey and cheese, much better than the peanut butter and jelly we ate on the ride yesterday, since it was the first day of Lent.
This photo captures some of the vibrant colors of Flagler Beach, FL. It was better in person, trust me. 🙂
We made it to our hotel in Ormond Beach at 1:15 p.m. and had to wait until 2 p.m to check in. So Tim and I sat at the hotel pool reading while Nancy and Beth made a run to a local Wallmart. Once they were back, we showered, went to the 4 p.m. Mass at St. Brendan the Navigator Church in Ormond Beach, and then went to dinner at the Black Sheep Pub, also in Ormond Beach. Then it was back to our hotel for a refresher course in blogging from Beth.
We had a delightful stay in Casa Monica, formerly the Coronado Hotel It was built in 1887 in the heart of St. Augustine. 2nd day was another relatively short one at a little less than 50 miles. Perfect way to start such a long trek.
Obligatory morning photo at about 9:30. Later start than usual for us. No buffet at this hotel. Sit down breakfast Plague Brian was photographing. Couldn’t do anything about the shadow One of many vistas of the Atlantic Ocean today.Lunch stop. Brown sand. Covered table and bench for lunch today I doubt we will be this lucky every day.
The girls caught up to us at a traffic light less than a mile from tonight’s hotel. Right on the ocean. Tomorrow is our first of two long days. Supposed to have a tail wind again. Time to go to bed.
We had 75 miles of riding today and we wanted to make the 4:30 PM mass near our hotel in Windsor Locks, so we were on the road by about 7:30 a.m. I think today’s ride was not the hardest, but very close to it. We had about 3700 feet of ascending and close to that in descending, and after a while, that can get old. We passed one Civil War statue today, as we have almost every day, but today we stopped for a photo. We passed close to a dozen small towns, and about half of them had small cemeteries. The other memorable part of today’s ride was all of the motorcycles. I would guess Tim and I were passed by close to 3 dozen motorcycles during our ride.
We made it to our hotel by 3 pm exactly, after which we showered and then headed to Beth’s room for our daily end of the ride beers and snacks.
Having Nancy along was really nice, and the daily lunches she packed for Tim and me were fantastic!
Here are some photos from today’s ride.
Tim taking a photo of the Civil War statue we passed today.
Tim and I at the hotel in Windsor Locks, CT.
We’re both happy that this was our last day of riding. All told, we biked 435 miles in 7 days of riding.
Very nice hotel but breakfast is not their strong suit. Burned two slices of bread trying to make my own toast. Easy ride today. At least a quarter of it was on macadam bike trails.
Forgot to mention in earlier posts that we have seen traffic circles this ride. First time since Europe. Total mileage today was 46.
Even though it was short, I still took a nap after the ride. One of my favorite things to do on a bike trip. Helps me rejuvenate for the next day’s ride.
One of many lakes and reservoirs we have passed this trip.
Tim and I got a fairly early start and passed through Lowell first. The really nice aspect of the ride today was that we were on three different bike trails, all of which were beautiful and well maintained. I used my phone and Google bike maps for directions, which worked great. I’m not sure we will ever just rely on the Adventure Cycling Association maps again, since Google maps have been working so well. We only rode about 47 miles today, and made it to our hotel by 1 pm, another nice aspect of today’s ride. I managed to take a few photos today and here they are. I think these photos were taken on the first bike trail.
As usual, Tim, Beth and I head to the pool and the hot tub after checking into the hotel. Tonight we again are dinner at our hotel, which is where I took this photo.
The four musketeers at dinner on Friday night after our ride.
Tomorrow we head to Windsor Locks for our last ride of this leg. It’s a 77 mile ride and will probably take us a good 8 hours.
Got a great start after spending 20 minutes attempting to clean the gears on our bikes–it worked– our gear shifters were operating without a hitch. Stopped in Dover,NH for our first break. Nice nice, young lady took this picture of Brian and I.
Entering New Hampshire. Brian didn’t stop. He is barely visible, way down the road.
We switched to Google Bike Maps instead of ACC. We were rooted on some more bike trails. One was gravel and we had to dismount to walk our bikes around some huge puddles.
Today’s ride was not as difficult as we feared. The hills were not as steep as they were in Maine.
Total mileage was 82. Ate dinner at the hotel after a visit to the hot tub. Beddy bye at 8:15.
