February 5, 2016
Punta Gorda to Naples
Another bright and sunny morning with a chill in the air. Can't have it all, I guess. But the wind was out of the north. If that prevails, we'll have a nice tailwind most of the day. We deserve it!
And it did! We had breakfast a little north of where we were staying and then headed south on US 41 with a nice tailwind behind us. We were doing 14 or 15 mph easy. And this section of US 41 was much nicer than I remember when I was headed north. It was certainly better than any section we had ridden since we left Tampa two days ago.
But I did remember it was under construction. But this time, we were on the construction side, so when we hit the barriers and the "Road Closed" signs, we pushed through. That gave us a 30-foot bike trail with no traffic!
So we had a very nice, car-free ride for maybe five miles or more. And the wind remained constant and behind us, so we were really sailing south.
And we never saw a single individual associated with the road closure. Not one. Kind of amazing. And after the road closure, we rode a section that was newly paved with nice wide shoulders. That carried us into North Fort Myers. Then, about a mile before the big bridge over the Caloosahatchee, I spied this wonderful piece of novelty architecture, so I diverted a bit to grab a picture.
And then came the grand crossing:
I have fond memories of Fort Myers, mostly because of my visits with Jim and Kathy, who have hosted me twice now (thanks, Jim and Kathy, you are great hosts!), but I have never biked through downtown, which is very pleasant. We followed the waterfront for a short distance, where they were setting up for a festival for the weekend. That meant a little weaving and wandering, but nothing serious. We ended up on McGregor Boulevard right in front of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. That was a very nice part of the ride, as the boulevard is closely lined with palm trees along both sides. Very cozy feeling.
From there, we got on Summerlin Road, which had a combination of bike lanes, sidewalks, and trails that we followed for quite a long distance with lots of varying surroundings. That pretty much took us to Fort Myers Beach.
That part I had biked before, at least from the Key West Express Ferry Terminal, but I had never gone over the bay to the beach itself. That was one steep bridge, and the approach was not overly bike-friendly. We weren't even sure if we were "allowed" to use the bus lane but resolved that once we got close enough to read the signs. Then over we went!
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Fort Myers Beach was a pretty exciting place. First off, it was like they never improved the road since it was "discovered." No sidewalk and no shoulder. The edge of the pavement just sort of disappears into the sand. But that worked for us just fine, as traffic was bumper to bumper and we were easily moving faster than it was!
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That was a pleasant ride all the way to the island's southern tip. And we still had our tailwind! When we crossed over Big Carlos Pass, it almost felt like we were biking the Florida Keys again. Lots of water, small islands/keys, and lots of vegetation. The only oddity was the tall apartment buildings, towers really, just rising out of it all but not clumped in any one spot. It looked very haphazard, in fact. But beautiful as well. Welcome to Bonita Springs!
So that was a pleasant ride, all the way to US 41, which we needed to return to in order to continue south. This area, however, is well-developed, so the "bicycle" facilities, sidewalks really, can be quite nice. Traffic volumes are high, six-lane roadways with lots of dual left turns at intersections, so I stayed on the sidewalk even though there were bike lanes. It was more pleasant, and I was in no rush!
Happy was behind me a bit and did the same but did have an altercation with a left-turning vehicle. He survived, but I'm not clear if the driver did after the tongue-lashing she got from him. Don't learn lessons the hard way! Fortunately, no damage to him or his bike!
Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 1,413 miles (2,274 km)
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