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.