March 21, 2015
FLL to Ft Lauderdale
I arrived at Fort Lauderdale International Airport (FLL) after catching a "direct" flight from National Airport with a one-hour layover in Atlanta. Fortunately, my bike and I did not have to change planes, so I guess that makes it "direct." The flight was made more interesting by my seatmate (Kelly) who works for the Federal Protection Service. After landing at FLL, we lost track of each other, so, Kelly, if you are reading this, please reach out. You were a blast and I hope you enjoyed your stay in Florida.
My boxed bike came out of baggage handling in good shape. At first I thought it had escaped intrusion by TSA, but that later proved false as I discovered a torn hole, presumably made for inspection purposes, that was not repaired. I haven't flown the bike once in the past several years where they didn't open it up.
But it went together smoothly and worked like a charm as I pushed out of the airport.
Airports are rough places for bicyclists. It's all about moving the car. I shortchanged the circular road and went down a one-way ramp intended for taxi cab service to the arrivals building. This put me on a semi-service road that took me away from the airport without much traffic.
Navigating through the city was a breeze, a good thing as I wanted to test the fully loaded bike without too much distraction. I also knew traffic would pick up once I hit 17th Street and crossed the causeway headed for the beach. This also allowed me to use the Garmin Edge 1000 under live conditions! I had upgraded from an Edge 200 just for this trip, and this would be its first tour! My only mistake was agreeing to the prompt to "Route to Beginning of Course." I'll never use that feature again, as it kept wanting to redirect me BACK to the airport after I was well on my way. Lessons learned. As it turned out, I varied from the planned course a bit anyway, but once I recovered it, it seemed to act "normally."
17th Street turned out to be busy but doable due to the bike lanes added east of US-1. Those lanes continued all the way to my hotel (the Elysium), and while there was the occasional "spring breaker" sitting in my lane, I was able to get around them with ease as they were mostly sitting in stopped traffic (this was a Saturday after all).
Yes, we arrived at the tail end of Spring Break. But that was OK. I was on my own break and the short ride helped me regain some feel for a fully loaded touring bike. And I arrived early enough to chill poolside well into the late afternoon. No Shirt. No Shoes. No Problem.
Today's ride: 8 miles (13 km)
Total: 8 miles (13 km)
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