Today was yet another great day to be riding south in Florida. The wind was blowing hard but was in my favor and once again there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I knocked out the 60 miles to Melbourne at a leisurely 12.5mph pace.

I fell asleep just after UF crushed Memphis 77-75 and woke up feeling pretty refreshed despite the fact I forgot to turn the heat on in my hotel room. I ate all the things at the Best Western Plus’ continental breakfast and headed south. The first 30 miles was pretty boring as I was just following US1 on the shoulder. There were some cows and palmettos which was probably the highlight of this segment.

I tried to go to the KFC in Titusville but it wasn’t open yet which was a bummer. About half a mile later I heard a glass bottle shatter and then a woman emerged from behind some trees to the road and casually said “Excuse me sir? Can you call the police on him??”. Uh what? Why don’t you call them? Or walk to the police station? I watched The Wire so I know the correct answer is to not give a fuck when it’s not your turn to give a fuck… So I kept going without getting in the middle of their domestic dispute. Nice place this Titusville though.

Anyway, I eventually made it south of there and ate a Pub Sub and then made my way onto Indian River Road which was very scenic. I stopped a couple of times and just hung out on the benches that lined the river. This was the good part of today’s ride.

Even saw a bunch of birds hanging out on the water like sitting ducks! (Dada Ching!)

I’m currently sitting at my hotel since there are no decent coffee shops that are walkable and I don’t feel like biking or cabbing anywhere. I’m going to walk to an Asian restaurant for dinner and grab some food for breakfast around 5:00pm or so. They don’t have a continental breakfast here so I have to cook something myself or find a walkable breakfast spot. I am going to bike for an hour before eating tomorrow and then go to The Beachside Cafe in Indiatlantic. Looks like a good spot.

Only two days left and then I will be home. Tomorrow is going to be a potentially difficult 70 miler if the wind does not cooperate. It will be along the beach on a path for almost the whole ride though so I am not too worried.

What a gorgeous day to be on a bike heading south in the state of Florida. I had a 10-15mph tailwind the entire way down and ended up averaging 14.5 mph for the 75 mile trip. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the temperatures were in the low 60s for my ride along the beach.

I left St Augustine around 7:45 after destroying yet another hotel’s continental breakfast. It was pretty chilly when I left but I ended up shedding all of my layers by the end and was just wearing a shirt and my base layer pants by the end of the trip. There was a bike lane or path almost the entire way today. Here was what I looked at for a while this morning.

As I stopped to take this picture of my bike on Flagler Beach, my new friend Suzy came running out of her beach side apartment and asked if I wanted her to take a picture of me with my bike. I promptly said “yes” and ended up with his masterpiece.

She was very nice and told me to stop at BeachHouse Beanery if I wanted coffee (which I did) and gave me some tips on navigating my trip. This is my second double espresso that I ordered there (I’m pretty sure it was a quad but I was okay with that!).

Carol from the coffee shop even put me on their Facebook page.

Heeding Suzy’s navigation advice, I stuck to the ocean route on this ridiculously nice day instead of going slightly west to ride along the river which had less traffic but no bike lane. If you’re reading this Suzy, thanks for the tip!

I had made plans on stopping at the KFC in Ormond Beach but ended up not going there because I was flying at about 18-20 mph down the beach. I even kicked it into my high gear for the first time in forever. I stopped for a few pictures but was enjoying the ride so much I barely stopped.

As I passed through Daytona Beach an old man on a bike challenged me to a race but I declined. I probably should have said yes but what can ya do. Anyway I eventually made it to New Smyrna and checked into my hotel.

Since I got to town early I took a taxi to the beach to hang out a bit and get some fresh seafood. Here’s the beach in New Smyrna and the food I got (old bay peel and eat shrimp and grilled mahi carbonara)

All in all one of the more enjoyable days of the trip. Tomorrow is a 60 miler to Melbourne with once again favorable weather conditions. Thursday the winds stop coming from the north so things might get difficult again but I’m going to enjoy this weather while it lasts.

Today was by far the easiest day of the trip. I rode 33 miles with a 10-15 mph tailwind at about 13.5 mph without breaking a sweat. I ended up being able to spend almost the whole day being a tourist in St Augustine which made today almost a second consecutive rest day.

I woke up around 7:00 and Shelby made me a healthy breakfast and coffee. She really went above and beyond for me which I really appreciated. I was pretty exhausted when I showed up two days ago but am back in the game now thanks to my relaxing time in Atlantic Beach.

I didn’t stop for lunch or snacks at all on the ride and basically went straight down A1A to St Augustine. There was a bike lane the whole way and not a lot of traffic for much of it. This was a beautiful sight.

I rolled through Sawgrass where a few of my college friends lived in high school. No, I didn’t pee on this sign but I thought about it!

The ride was over after two hours and was pretty uneventful. I couldn’t check in to my hotel yet so I decided to grab lunch at Mojo which is a BBQ place recommended by Shelby and ordered what is now my lunch staple, the three meat combo. Good lord this was delicious.

I still had time to kill so I went to the Castillo de San Marcos fort which was cool looking but cost money to go inside so I lingered outside of the walls. I ended up running into a couple of dudes on bikes who were on a road trip from Miami to wherever they wanted. I hung out with them for a bit and asked if they could take a picture of me since I never am able to get pictures of me, they are always of my bike (my bike can’t take pictures of me after all). Of course the guy took a really shitty picture where you can barely see my bike. Oh well — I find the humor in it.

After the fort I checked into my hotel and walked down St George’s street and went into some shops. I liked this wire sculpture as it reminded me of myself.

Finally I decided to go on a scenic boat tour of St Augustine which left at 4:30 so I had about an hour to kill. I hung out by the fort and drank a coffee while a bunch of seagulls flew by which was pretty neat.

Eventually I made it onto the boat which only had 4 other people on it and I was the only one brave enough to be on the top deck with the wind and temperatures the way they were. I ended up talking to Captain Bob for most of the trip while taking in the sunset, scenes, and dolphins that were all around the boat for most of the trip. There was a full moon on one side and a sunset on the other.

After the boat I headed to dinner where I ate lobster and shrimp tacos with a side of beans and rice which was also delicious. Since today had become a full day I ended up being pretty beat after dinner and decided to head back to my hotel. On the way back I made an obligatory stop at the fudge shop though for some turtle fudge which I will be eating in the very near future.

Tomorrow is 76 miles to New Smyrna with what should once again be favorable weather conditions. It looks like the winds will turn on me on Thursday but I have another 2 days of tail wind which is much appreciated.