Get to Work

My bike and I will be entering next year’s Daytona 500–watch out NASCAR this 12-15 mph speedster will put your cars to shame.

I hadn’t realized how close I was to the Daytona Speedway until I turned west and found myself facing it. It has a capacity of 101,500–it’ll hold the entire population of of Daytona Beach (89,290) and then 12,000 more peeps.

The most important thing I did on Monday (day 2 off the bike) was ice my knee multiple times and take a 6-mile test ride… the knee will hold.

It was a lousy weather day on Monday, and I’m glad I took the day off—just a bit to the west in Longwood, FL an EF3 tornado—packing winds of 135 mph cut a destructive 4-mile swath outside of Orlando. 

I felt the residual winds from the frontal system, that dropped the temperature to 50, sometimes gusting up to 37 mph on Monday.

This was how the riding day started yesterday. Even though the sun’s coming up an hour later, I still caught the tail end of the sunrise at Ross Point Park in Holly Hill.

I also caught the intensely odd underground attraction of the Holly Hill gnomes.

“Gnome notes,” anyone? I dared not open the mailbox to look for said notes as it seemed it belonged to the “Herrera’s” … not the gnomes.

A great deal of the morning looked like a pleasant ride through a pleasant beach neighborhood on John Anderson Drive through Ormond-by-the-Sea…

… where I stopped for a quiet break and a good look at the Halifax River from the boardwalk at Seabridge Riverfront Park.

Soon I was on A1A—now called the Jimmy Buffet Memorial Highway—to stay on for the rest of the day.

Yeah, you know it, that’s me. Shadowplaying.

With lots of construction and no shoulder to speak of headed north, I chose the sidewalk for dozens of miles.

Into Flagler Beach were I stayed nearly 2 hours…

… first at Pompano’s 6th Street Deli…

… for a massive onion bagel with cream cheese…

… and a mere 2 miles later I spotted the peeps serving home cooking. I’ll stop for Cuban food every time. But I was full, and opted…

… for desert, which turned out to be a flan—a mega-flan! That would serve a family of four… note: caffeine overdose.

A break in Palm Coast, and a hidden animaloid… can you spot it?

Beyond the bike and picnic table: a Great Egret.

Marineland was just up the road. They’ve stopped the shows and do full-time conservation now that’s it’s owned by the Georgia Aquarium.

Half a dozen staff were readying the truck  transporting sharks… don’t know where or why, they wouldn’t say.

The incredibly wide Crescent Beach at Matanzas Inlet.

Matanzas is Spanish for massacres. So it’s aptly named by the Spanish as they wiped out a contingent of potential French colonists here in the 16th century. 

Finally, I hit the city limits.

Tonight’s end point.

But before I settled-in… I was only one mile away from the 500th mile of this trek. I felt I had to bag it today.

And then some! So it was. Nondescript, yes, but it’ll do… my gps says so. Shadow=happy!

I also had to bag dinner. A great conveyance method… never had a rear rack carried a more precious item.

It’s the size of two mini panniers, or one of my gravel panniers. And it was all good.

Day 12
Start: Daytona Beach, FL
End: St. Augustine Beach, FL
Miles: 54.51

(Which includes the gratuitous miles to bag mile 500, which I’ll redo tomorrow morning).

Now it’s time to get to work!

What I’m Reading:

There is less and less difference
between your shadow

and the shadow inside you…

— James Richardson / “Any Evening”