Day 6 Fernandina Beach, FL

April 30, 2019

We had another nice day riding along the beach. Again we were in sight of the ocean much of the way.

Those clouds darkened a bit and we had a very light sprinkle for just a minute, then it was beautiful the rest of the day.

We passed this structure leaving Vilano Beach. It looked abandoned, not like a work in progress.

North of Vilano Beach, we rode through the GTM Research Reserve. GTM is for the three coastal rivers in the reserve - Guana, Tolomato and Matanzas. The road through the reserve had dense vegetation on both sides. It was a very scenic stretch of road. We saw numerous local cyclists in this area.

North of the GTM Reserve was another stretch with no view of the ocean. Ponte Vedre has a few miles of very large homes, gated and lushly landscaped. The gate is the only thing visible at most of them.

The usual Ponte Verde landscaping along A1A

I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of any of the really lavish gates.

Open gate here, but we decided not to ride in.

One house that was visible from the road.

Past Ponte Vedre, we came to Jacksonville Beach. There were a lot of high rise condos here.

To continue north past Jacksonville Beach, we took the ferry across the St. John's River. The fare was $1 for pedestrians and $1 for bicycles. They just charged us $1.

The trip across the river took 4 1/2 minutes.

It was a very short ride to the ferry landing on the other side.

Kerry here...

Today's ride was very scenic and for the most part relaxing. Except for about a 1.5 mile section on A1A between Atlantic Beach and North Beach, we had good pavement with wide shoulders and light traffic. That allowed me to look around and see the sights, as opposed to staring at the road and mirror for traffic.

The only downside to today was that there was no museums or other attractions to visit - just a 58 mile ride to our destination. (There was one museum that we were going to visit, the American Beach Museum, but it was closed today).

However, the highlight of the day also occurred in American Beach. We stopped at the Circle-K after a long stretch of riding, and the clerk, Tina, gave us a free Diet Coke. We were both very hot and getting tired at the time, so her generosity was really appreciated.

After the break, we only had 5 miles to go. We got into our hotel around 3 PM and fell into our daily routine - unpack, plug all the gadgets in, shower, go out to eat and then return to our room to chill out with the TV and our computers.

Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 235 miles (378 km)

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Janet Anspach-RickeyFun to revisit Florida! I'm sure you two know about the construction on the way to Yulee. We actually took a ride from Linda and Wayne who are warmshowers hosts in Yulee. They drove over to the Publix on Amelia Island and picked us up. For some reason they even have the sidewalks barricaded so there is nothing but to take the lane with heavy traffic. I'm sure you two have something worked out! We are in Ruther Glen, Virginia tonight, north of Richmond. Gorgoues countryside on the East Coast Greenway today!
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