Florida!

Well guys, a lot has happened since we last spoke so I’ll try to catch you back up. I had a great experience at my Vipassana Meditation in which I gained a lot of awareness of my body and self. There were about 70 people who sat for the 10 days and getting to know them afterwards was a joy as they were all genuinely good and nice people. All food was prepared for us so basically all we did was eat, sleep and meditate. We were expected to meditate for a total of about 12 hours a day, but to sit cross-legged and concentrate for that long turned out to be a huge struggle for me. After about 45 minutes the pain in my hips would become so unbearable that I’d have to take a break. On average I sat for about 7 hours a day. It was a struggle at times, but the pain is all part of the experience. Overall I’m definitely glad I did it.

Leaving the meditation I had two days to get to Savannah to meet my mom at the airport. The first night I stayed at a really cool place called Hostel in The Woods. It was made up of geodesic domes and tree houses and filled with very open minded people. Two other people from the meditation actually stayed the night here too. I got to sleep in my own tree house, but it got extremely cold which made for very uncomfortably cold night. Left early and cruised towards Savannah most of the day to get to the South Savannah KOA campground. I camped next to a guy in a Volkswagen van who just quit his job, bought the van, and is now driving around the country in it. He made us some spaghetti in his little kitchen. Cool guy to talk with.

I left the KOA in the early morning, headed for the airport, with storms lurking in the distance. I got rained on a bit, but got to the airport and got to see my mom again after being away for about two months. We spent the next three days exploring Savannah and having our own little vegetarian thanksgiving. We took a bus tour of the town which gave us a good overview of the city and all of its history. We also took a boat tour up the river to find that Savannah is the second largest port on the East Coast. It was a great city to spend a few days with my mom; I really enjoyed it. On the morning of my mom’s flight we got up early and drove South to Cumberland Island since that’s the way I was heading and it sounded really cool. The island has wild horses on it, but once we got there we realized we figured out the ferry times incorrectly as well as the time when my mom needed to be back at the airport so we didn't have time. My mom was now in a rush to airport so we said our goodbyes and headed in opposite directions.

Florida! I got on my bike after a few days off with my mom and was surprised that within a couple hours I was already crossing the border into Florida. I did an easy day of only about 45 miles to reach a campground on Little Talbot Island. It was close to the beach, but the beach, however, was very windy and cold. I got a good nights sleep and headed out for the city of St. Augustine about 65 miles away. There’s just something in the air by the ocean and the road I chose to ride all the way down to the Southern tip of Florida(A1A) runs right along the ocean the entire way. Pedaling felt easy today from all the rest; the fresh ocean air probably didn’t hurt either. I made it to the St. Augustine KOA to chill out and call it a night.

Leaving St. Augustine I cruised down to coast most of the day, passing through Daytona Beach to reach a campground in New Smyrna Beach. My campsite actually had three orange trees on it so I ate some oranges and called it a night. From New Smyrna Beach I had a warmshower lined up in Melbourne about 88 miles away. I cruised down the coast passing through some nice nature reserves, seeing some manatees, and also seeing NASA and The Kennedy Space Center. The warmshower was a cool guy who is set to retire soon and take off on a bike ride around the perimeter of the US on his recumbent bike. We talked over pizza and he gave me a nice map of Florida from Adventure Cycling.

I got a good nights sleep and then was off for the Fort Pierce KOA about 55 miles away. Cruising alongside the ocean I took my first water break at a restaurant on the beach that turned out to be the local surf spot. I was talking to a few surfers and one invited me to his house to talk more about my trip over thanksgiving leftovers. I accepted and got a good meal with nice company. I made it to the campground before dusk and camped out next to a guy who used to go bicycle touring for weeks up in Canada. He was a cool guy to talk with and I ended up grabbing dinner with him at a fish place at the marina. He gave an interesting book he had recently finished full of aphorisms that make you think.

My legs were feeling a big sluggish so I did a pretty low mileage day to reach Jonathan Dickinson State Park, which turned out to have many miles of mountain bike trails making me wish I had my mountain bike. Some raccoons found my bananas I left on the picnic table around midnight which woke me up, but got some good sleep other than that. I then headed out for a warmshower in Boca Raton. The closer I got the bigger the houses got. The water was finally starting to get nice and blue and the beaches were beautiful! My rear tire finally wore out past the point of usability and luckily I was in West Palm Beach only about a block away from two bike shops. The first one didn’t have my tire size, but the second one did. I got all set up and on my way. My warmshower for the night was the Professor of Dance at the college there who had a rehearsal that night so he left a key out for me and I didn’t end up meeting him until morning. He turned out to be a really cool guy and gave me a ticket to his show that evening so I decided to stay an extra night. I hung out at the beach for a while during day and went to his show later on. Very cool show to see!

In the morning I headed out for Miami! Lots to see along the way and after about 40 miles I was there. I got to South Beach and jumped in the water for a swim. The water felt great and it also happened to be a topless beach which was a plus. I stayed at the South Beach Hostel which was an interesting experience. The lobby was also a bar, so while I was to checking in there was music being played far too loud in the background. I finally got into a four-person room with one roommate being from Sweden, one Bolivia, and one California. Mr. Bolivia turned out to hold the record as the loudest snorer in his country; I didn’t get much sleep. Everyone I met was from a different country giving me a brief exposure to other cultures. Pretty cool. The area of South Beach pretty much revolves around the bar scene and getting drunk; I wasn’t really into the nightlife here. The days were beautiful cruising around on my bike seeing all the people and the beaches. I’ve always wanted to learn how to slackline, so when I saw a guy near the beach messing around on one I jumped on the opportunity. He taught me how to balance pretty well and I was walking in no time. I got a workout in on the beach then found some fresh juice and some grub to refuel. Dave, a friend from Mustard Seed, went to school down here and happened to be down here visiting friends so I hit him up for a place to stay. We got together later that day and chatted about the good ol’ Mustard Seed over dinner. It’s always nice to see a familiar face.

I left the next morning for a Hostel in Florida City; the last city before the keys. It was a nice 25 mile ride with a bike path all the way. The Hostel has such a good vibe with a cool community of people who run it. I was only going to stay for one night, but I ended up volunteering with some stuff around the place for a free extra night. The bulk of my help was spent trimming back some thorn covered bushes leaving me with cut up hands and arms. That night I met two people in their 20s, Liza and Winston, from the DC area who took a train to Miami and were also biking to Key West. We talked for a while and decided to ride together.

We got up relatively early, stocked up at the hostels free all you can eat pancake breakfast, and headed out for Key Largo. Riding with two other people was a nice change of pace from the months of riding alone with just my audiobooks. We cruised out to Key Largo and stopped at Shipwrecks for lunch. Got some good seafood and then biked a few more miles to the beach. We swam for a bit, then Winston got his bike lock stuck in a palm tree while trying to knock down a coconut. After throwing rocks and sticks at it for about twenty minutes I decided to climb the tree successfully getting the lock and a coconut for us to eat. My new biking friends had a place to stay lined up from couchsurfing which I piggybacked on for the night. The woman took us to the local hangout for some grub where we met a lot of cool characters. One guy, Mike, decided he’d join us on our bike ride through the Keys.

Then there were four. We stopped at a local diner, then headed South. Cruising through the Keys we stopped at four beaches along the way to take a dip and cool off a bit. The sun was setting when we came to a campground we were considering for the night. It was a bit pricey at $65 a night so decided to look into other options. We got dinner at a nearby bar in which one of the waiters invited us to camp in his yard. We accepted and got a free place to sleep.

We again got up early, got breakfast at a cute little diner, and headed South. Not long into the ride today we crossed over seven mile bridge. It was a pretty cool to be out over the water for that long! Surprisingly we saw more cyclists on the bridge than the rest of the keys. We ended up finding a hidden place in the woods to camp out for the night.

It felt good to get up in the morning with Key West

only 30 miles away. We encountered a little bit of rain, but made it to Key West around 1 and jumped right in the ocean. I finally made it from Ohio to the Southernmost Point in the Continental US! Winston and Liza decided to go to a B&B for the night before heading back up the Keys and Mike was taking the bus back up that afternoon so we had lunch together and all went our separate ways. That evening I made the decision to take the ferry from Key West to Ft. Myers. It was a pretty nice ride and was in Ft. Myers in 3 hours. The campground there was $80 so I camped out in the woods by a baseball field.

I got a good nights sleep, packed up my bike, and found a nice little breakfast place called Heavenly Biscuit. There was limited seating and only a four person table available so shortly after sitting down two girls who drove an hour and a half from Miami sat down with me. They both went to culinary school and want to open up their own bakery. I enjoyed the company. It was raining so I figured I’d hang out for a while to wait it own. Once those two left another family sat down with me; two parents and their daughter who was my age. They were here on vacation for a week and looking for something to do on a rainy day. I really enjoyed their conversation and their daughter was actually going to Ghana soon on a project with school. Not long after they left it stopped raining so I went to pay my bill only to find that they had picked mine up my tab! Really nice family. I hopped on my bike and was at my grandpas house within a couple hours. It was great to see family again and talk about my travels. He took me to see one of his friends who has biked all over the country. Interesting guy to chat with who knows what it’s like to travel in this fashion. We had dinner, watched football and hit the hay.

In my Grandpas community there’s a bike club that rides every morning so I got up early and rode 75 miles with them. A healthy, in shape group who really pushed me at times. It was fun riding in an actual group for the first time! We got back at 11:30 so I got grabbed lunch and ran a few errands.

My mom and brother are coming down for Christmas so I’ll be hanging here until January 2nd. I’m looking forward to having a stable location for the next couple weeks and seeing family.