I slept horribly last night. I finally took Benadryl at 1:30am. I was itching and restless. The ride was going to be shorter today, and it seems like that would have calmed me if anything. Maybe the day before Key West held some special import. Duh. Luckily, the lack of sleep didn't seem to interfere with my ride this morning.
As usual for the Keys, there was some time, especially early, on the Overseas Heritage Trail. Here is a picture, taken while moving (hence the lack of focus), of a typical piece of the trail. In this case, it paralleled the highway, but with a nice buffer. Offers shade and safety from the traffic.
Where there were small bodies of water on the right, there were egrets and herons. Suches friend, Barbara Harkins, had told me that her niece has a tackle shop in Marathon. I looked it up, and decided to stop in. It was just over 11 miles in to the ride, so a perfect time for a small break. Unfortunately, Robyn was not in, but I was able to speak with her husband, Chris. He could not believe a Suches resident had looked them up. Barbara has been supportive of my ride. So this pic's for you. (Sorry it couldn't have Robyn in it!) If you're ever in the Marathon area, I recommend stopping in. Good selection of gear/tackle, clothing, and they do charters. The Tackle Box. Nice store. Nice people.
The one section of my ride today that was exceptionally memorable was the Seven Mile Bridge. It is, indeed, seven miles long. (Just in case you ever wondered.) There was work being done on the bridge that parallels it. (There is a bridge called the Parallel Bridge, but I don't know if that was the one.) But a couple of huge sections are missing. Therefore the Overseas Heritage Trail can't use it. That means, of course, you're riding next to all types of vehicles with the concrete barrier keeping you from being blown over the edge. Also as usual, the wide shoulder contains plenty of bolts, nails, parts of things (who knows what?), and glass. Oh, and a few hats. A couple looked pretty nice, but I didn't stop to pick up extra clothing or to take pictures. Frankly, as interesting as the view could have been, I focused primarily on safely making it to the other side. It would be foolish to think, though, that the colors of the water were not every bit as striking as usual.
DL, Mel, Roxy, and Jack passed me on the Seven Mile Bridge, by the way. It's funny to see them coming up in my rearview mirror. I gave a wave.
Once on the other side of the bridge, the Overseas Heritage Trail would have been available. Due to damage from Irma (I assume), huge sections were not passable, and there were chain link barriers to keep people from using the trail. I used my bicycles flexibility as a hybrid to jump on and off the open sections that really weren't usable, alternating between the bike lane/shoulder of the highway and the trail. Eventually, I settled on the shoulder when it became too much trouble to change from one to the other. Here is a section I elected to skip, even though it was "open." Note the right hand barrier of the trail has broken off (in this shot and in much of the trail from the bridge). There is still a good bit of repairs needed all across the Keys. Irma certainly left her mark.
Made it to the Big Pine Key Fishing Lodge and RV Resort. DL was still in the parking lot waiting for our spot to be vacated. Check out is 1pm, and we were two hours early. Luckily the people left after a short while, and we were allowed to come on in and get set up. DL had picked an oceanfront site. We wished the front of the trailer had a window. The sites are situated so that we couldn't put our entry door towards the ocean. But that's okay. The side was mostly shaded for the afternoon.
We made our way to the No Name Pub for some delicious pizza for lunch. On the way we saw five Key Deer. That was cool. Back at camp, we opened the windows and door to their screens, and the wind is blowing through nicely. No complaints. (I wish I had brought my fishing pole and gear though.) Maybe next time.
This is the view directly in front of our site for the afternoon and night. That is the Spanish Harbor Bridge on the left.
26.29 miles / 1030.04
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