May 18, 2021
Day 3; “I don’t want to show you the ice cream sundae I ate until after dinner”
Today was windy. And not just saying windy to be windy. I mean, it’s not like a breeze or anything, it was full on wind. And maybe more. At what point does wind become a gale? Like the Inuits which have 400 words for snow, cycle tourists probably have 400 words for wind. And some of them start with the Oedipus curse (you know, the swear that starts with mother...) [1]. During the afternoon it was head-on 15mph T my 12:00. I kid you not. You can look at the weather screenshots below.
The day started out leaving the 6th floor hotel room in Orlando, and the first hot breakfast of the trip. We made our way through the Orlando area NE towards downtown Orlando. Much of the ride was on “stroads” which are really streets but designed as roads - massive 4-lane (or more) passageways that neither work well as a street (designed for commerce and shops and multi-modal traffic) or roads (high speed connectors from one city-center to the next. These don’t do either well - were on bike lanes and we stop every .2 miles for another traffic light let a parking lot exit or a condo complex or resort or another road to intersect with the road.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
With all the time we spent waiting on stop lights at these intersections it took us about 2:45 to get through the first 20 miles. That’s about 45 min higher than average. It seemed as though each light was 3 min.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
One past downtown, we headed into some bike paths which wound through some bourgeois developments and found paths around lakes, the Little Econ Greenway, and then onto a heavily-traveled colonial parkway. We stopped at Wendy’s to get some lunch and recharge kath’s Bike before the long stretch heading into Titusville.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Just after Wendy’s, we hit the long stretch on Cheney Hwy towards Titusville. At this point the winds had increased to 15mph West winds. Due west. As in we were riding due east into the due west winds. With about 25 miles remaining, Kath called an über and we packed the bike in the trunk and she’s was off to meet me in Titusville. That left me on the side of the road heading into the wind. And here’s where Kath and I had different adventures for the next 90 or so minutes.
First, my adventure.
I hit the road with a 3’ shoulder headed toward the Cracker Barrel in Titusville. 18 miles and no real scenery to see other than Swampy, the worlds largest alligator. The sun was out and every gust slowed me down. I hit the town of Christmas so at least I had that going for me. Which is nice. But maybe it’s better viewing my experience in the pics below
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Now, Kath’s adventure
She had a great chat with the über driver, and then sat on the porch at Cracker Barrel eating an ice cream parfait. She didn’t want to show me the picture of the ice cream until we had eaten dinner because she knew how tough my ride was. So here’s her experiential photo
We rode together to the Indian River, across from the Kennedy Space Center. We had crossed the Florida peninsula. Tomorrow is the Kennedy space center where we take a day off and play tourist, and I’m so excited!
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Interesting side note - after dinner we walked to the space park which had the Apollo Program and Space Shuttle walk of fame. A lot of astronauts had their handprints bronzed and pictures memorialized in the Park.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
And with that, another day is in the bag. More pics tomorrow.
[1] Oedipus was a tragic character who fulfilled his legacy of killing his father and marrying his mother (making him the original mother******)
Today's ride: 59 miles (95 km)
Total: 174 miles (280 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 1 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |