… interesting…

… to say the least. There were so many buses parked across the street yesterday, and I was so bone tired, that I failed to notice the GULF OF MEXICO right across the street from the hotel (which you may see a smidgen of at the extreme left of the panoramic shot).

Coolish and very windy all day—strong headwinds and crosswinds—gusting up to 20 miles per hour and steady at 14-16 mph all day. Oy! But it was thrilling to be off of US 1 for the first couple of miles in these mangrove thickets…

… but then it was straight into the wind tunnels, completely exposed to the full force of the headwind with tractor trailers, huge SUV’s pulling boats and most people speeding like demented demons…

… which is why I appreciate these cool little parallel bridges (old highway US 1) as brief, safer, havens for bikers…

… walkers and fisher folk…

… so wide open and traffic free…

… that action pics are de rigueur (if you’re not blown off the bridge by the 20-mile gusts)…

… one may even stop for a right arm with bike still life selfie (I did, for what it’s worth)…

… that’s me, your host with a sore ass!

Now this traffic and debris free (wide) shoulder is more to my liking…

… and so are these benches that the state of Florida sprinkles about the trail near state parks (this is near Long Key State Park)…

… see, I was here.

I was blown sideways, perilously close to the guardrail and the choppy, salty, Atlantic on this bridge into Islamorada…

… so I rewarded myself with some home cooking: a croqueta de jamón and a cortadito (look it up) at Ohio Key… see them half consumed on my bike seat?

On Tea Table Key there are memorial plaques to Ponce de Leon, the Cuban Rafters of the 1980’s and 1990’s, and to the lost Spanish fleet of 1733 that disappeared in a hurricane bearing plundered Incan gold and silver.

This, apropos of the midway point between Key West and Miami, is an excellent place to stop for lunch or breakfast…

… baked goods and a chocolate almond milk, peanut butter and banana smoothie for me (now my thing) to power into the afternoon…

… colorful anyway, and very good eats!

Just down the road, in Islandmorada, stands a monument to the civilian and veteran victims of the (still) record strongest hurricane on Labor Day, 1935.

Over 300 people lost their lives and the “Hurricane Monument” memorializes the tragedy.

North of Islamorada one has the choice of the four foot wide bike lane “shoulder” or the 8-foot wide sidewalk… I choose the one not so roar of traffic-addled and debris-strewn…

… but even here some iguanas aren’t so lucky…

… it wasn’t me, I just documented it…

… and finally, temperature controlled ass-recovery in effect again …

… this place has its own beachlet on the GULF OF MEXICO side… and I’m eating every bit of this dinner after burning 2,074 calories during today’s ride…

… which looked like this on the map…

… inconsequential elevation changes, but tough riding due to the high headwinds and crosswinds out of the northwest.

Day 2
Start: Marathon, FL
End: Key Largo, FL
Miles: 49.2 miles

My old hometown and good Cuban cooking await tomorrow (today) in Miami.

What I’m Reading:

Don’t forget that although you aren’t telling a story, you must still do what stories do, which is lead the reader through an experience. Don’t forget that the book will exist in the future. Don’t forget to write, even if it’s going nowhere. Don’t forget to write, even though it will never be published. 

— Sheila Heti / Alphabetical Diaries