Day Ninety-three, Date Monday, June 1, 2009
Time in Saddle: 9:48
Distance for the Day: 106.56 miles From Naples To Homestead, FL
Accumulated Trip Distance: 4355.83
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 33’/32’, Highest: 47’ Accumulated: 282’
Speeds: Avg: 10.8 mph, Max: 14.6 mph
Weather: 68°, clear and somewhat humid, becoming rainy by late morning and thru the afternoon
Expenditures: $4
Got up Mon June 1 at 5:30am ready to roll at 6:34am. The mosquitoes here are particularly numerous and aggressive, and I got several bites, but was now ready to go through Everglades to the Miami area. At 10am I saw my first (dead) alligator on the roadside – poor fellow. In the distance (not quite distant enough) I could see large, dark looking cumulus clouds, and all too soon, I got underneath them and the rain started. I put on my rain gear, and forged ahead. The road quality varied from a somewhat nice but narrow strip, to rough with nasty shoulder-wide (why
do they do that?) buzz strips every 20 yards. It wasn’t too bad, though, because the road was lightly traveled, and I could go out into the main roadway for long stretches, keeping a constant eye on the road behind using my rearview mirrors. When traffic showed up, I’d pull off to the no-goodnik shoulder, let them pass, and then pull back out into the main road, again. The rain was on-again/off-again, but pretty steady, and sometimes heavy. I stopped at rest stop at 11am to wait out one of the heavier downpours, and used the downtime to eat an early lunch. The sun came out again at 11:24am, so I continued on. I stopped for about an hour at 12:00pm
at the Oasis Visitor’s Center, a nice interpretive center for the Everglades, to read about the local flora and fauna. They had a view platform along a section of river where you could see live alligators and big fish. I left a $1 donation in their box. I saw at least half a dozen airboat tour operations along the way. Coming out of the everglades was a long, straight, rainy road with a lot of pretty heavy industrial traffic. I stopped in at one of the bigger tourboat places to get an ice cream ($3), and they advised me to take Hwy 997 south to bypass Miami, and get the quickest to the Keys. Unfortunately, it had a very narrow shoulder and lots of rush hour traffic which made things a
bit tough, but it was still do-able, and got me down to the city of Homestead, the entryway city to the Keys. I passed a lot of orchards of palm trees, and mangos and even corn along the way, and, incidentally, achieve my second century (more than one hundred miles in one day). Cool! I actually passed through Florida City (the southend of Homestead) and began going down the road to the Keys, but it was dark by now, and noticed there weren’t *any* good camping sites, so went back through Florida City and into Homestead to a Methodist church I saw (N25 28.548’ W80 28.718’), and stealthcamped, there. I looked through Florida City, but it was a low-income
neighborhood, and didn’t quite feel safe. The church was well-lit, but I chose a small corner under a covered drive-through in which to pitch the tent. There was some incredible lightning forks flashing across the clouds to the northwest, and I thought it might rain that night, so I’d best be under something for protection, though it never did rain. As usual, I resolved to get up early, to avoid contact with the church people.
Time in Saddle: 9:48
Distance for the Day: 106.56 miles From Naples To Homestead, FL
Accumulated Trip Distance: 4355.83
Altitudes: Starting/Ending 33’/32’, Highest: 47’ Accumulated: 282’
Speeds: Avg: 10.8 mph, Max: 14.6 mph
Weather: 68°, clear and somewhat humid, becoming rainy by late morning and thru the afternoon
Expenditures: $4
Got up Mon June 1 at 5:30am ready to roll at 6:34am. The mosquitoes here are particularly numerous and aggressive, and I got several bites, but was now ready to go through Everglades to the Miami area. At 10am I saw my first (dead) alligator on the roadside – poor fellow. In the distance (not quite distant enough) I could see large, dark looking cumulus clouds, and all too soon, I got underneath them and the rain started. I put on my rain gear, and forged ahead. The road quality varied from a somewhat nice but narrow strip, to rough with nasty shoulder-wide (why
do they do that?) buzz strips every 20 yards. It wasn’t too bad, though, because the road was lightly traveled, and I could go out into the main roadway for long stretches, keeping a constant eye on the road behind using my rearview mirrors. When traffic showed up, I’d pull off to the no-goodnik shoulder, let them pass, and then pull back out into the main road, again. The rain was on-again/off-again, but pretty steady, and sometimes heavy. I stopped at rest stop at 11am to wait out one of the heavier downpours, and used the downtime to eat an early lunch. The sun came out again at 11:24am, so I continued on. I stopped for about an hour at 12:00pm
at the Oasis Visitor’s Center, a nice interpretive center for the Everglades, to read about the local flora and fauna. They had a view platform along a section of river where you could see live alligators and big fish. I left a $1 donation in their box. I saw at least half a dozen airboat tour operations along the way. Coming out of the everglades was a long, straight, rainy road with a lot of pretty heavy industrial traffic. I stopped in at one of the bigger tourboat places to get an ice cream ($3), and they advised me to take Hwy 997 south to bypass Miami, and get the quickest to the Keys. Unfortunately, it had a very narrow shoulder and lots of rush hour traffic which made things a
bit tough, but it was still do-able, and got me down to the city of Homestead, the entryway city to the Keys. I passed a lot of orchards of palm trees, and mangos and even corn along the way, and, incidentally, achieve my second century (more than one hundred miles in one day). Cool! I actually passed through Florida City (the southend of Homestead) and began going down the road to the Keys, but it was dark by now, and noticed there weren’t *any* good camping sites, so went back through Florida City and into Homestead to a Methodist church I saw (N25 28.548’ W80 28.718’), and stealthcamped, there. I looked through Florida City, but it was a low-income
neighborhood, and didn’t quite feel safe. The church was well-lit, but I chose a small corner under a covered drive-through in which to pitch the tent. There was some incredible lightning forks flashing across the clouds to the northwest, and I thought it might rain that night, so I’d best be under something for protection, though it never did rain. As usual, I resolved to get up early, to avoid contact with the church people.
3 comments:
Good luck for the "leftover" of your tour.
Hope we see you once more.
Thanks for posting the picture.
From Florida City, the "German tourist" Axel and Karin
Hi Don- r u going all the way down to Key West on that skinny bridge? U r making great time! See u soon!
xoxopoo
Hi Axel: Arrgh! I'm terrible with names. I'll fix "Susan's" name to read Karin. Thanks for the correction! Hope you two had, and will continue to have a good time visiting America! :-Don
Hi Julie: Yep - made it to the end, and am on my way back up. Yeehawww! Love ya! ;-Don
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