East Coast Greenway Ride

A dearth of internet access and much fun riding, and eating lead to blogless days.  We experienced a thunderstorm at the Big Pine Key that lasted through the night. The next morning sunrise was windy, wet, and not sparkling.  Since it was still raining, we elected to visit the Dolphin Research Center.     We did ride 25 miles in the afternoon and ended in Homestead, Fl for the eve.  There were sights.  :>)   We were so excited about finding an ice cream shop.  This is the before shot.  Within a minute we discovered the ice cream shop was closed.   It closes on a Monday twice a year and we were there during one of those two Mondays!  The after shot will not be part of the blog!  A farmer's market further up the road allowed us to restock the larder. The next day Randy and I moved vehicles ahead while the gals rode the South Dade Trail.   On the starting line, Sandy, the racer took on the sloths, Beth and Sarah....

Another sparkly sunrise at the Big Pine Key.   Shortly after coffee, we debated whether to ride the 7-mile bridge and decided to drive up the road about 40 miles and meander back to camp with the idea that we would explore and perhaps shuttle back to camp.  As it turned out, we explored, had a great lunch and all ended up riding the 7-mile bridge back to camp.  A 42-mile ride was had by all. A good part of the ride was on the heritage trail with some road sections.  The town of Marathon's wide sidewalk was kept us off the street, but driveways and street entrances about every 50 feet kept us on our toes. The bridges that were open sported many fishermen successfully bringing their catch to their ice chests. Flora and Fauna abounded. The seven-mile bridge had a 5 ft shoulder and traffic was well behaved.  Our biggest hill of the day allows ships to glide underneath. The Heritage Trail bridge looked passable from our highway vantage point. Oops, that gap look...

We awoke to a breezy humid, but slightly cool morning and enjoyed watching the sun come up.  The key's highway is mostly easterly in the Big Pine key. A trip to a nearby bike shop for some bike supplies allowed us to enjoy some of the art in and around the shop. This chandelier just above the bike counter was especially striking! We drove down to within 5 miles of the southernmost point in the US and rode to last 5 miles to the buoy marking the southernmost point.  We didn't anticipate a line of people taking their own pictures, but after a 15-minutes, we were able to line up for a picture at the start of our trip north. Just outside of Key West, an Iguana was wondering who was invading his space.   He did not need to worry...we were not about to enter his habitat.  We rode a total of 39 miles back to our campsite at the Big Pine Key.  The heritage trail was more than 60% of our ride, and the old bridges that were still intact made for a pleasant ride. This...