Bahia Honda State Park (5/8/2023 Monday)

Left Ocala at 0715, heading for the Keys. I added an hour to my trip by staying on the west coast, crossing on the low road that hit route 1 in Homestead. The starting temperature was 68F and climbed all day to an afternoon high of 89F.

I didn't stop too much, just for gas and lunch. The lunch stop was a chance to oil and tighten my chain. One last stop in Homestead to fill up on mainland gas, then onto the road spanning all of the keys. There must have been a pocket of cell reception just before leaving the mainland, because my gps took that moment to tell me there are 63 minutes of traffic delays ahead.

Luckily the traffic wasn't as bad as the gps predicted. Moving along ok from island to island. I kept an eye out for something good to eat or better yet icecream. But on a Monday, lots of food places looked closed, so I kept riding along in the heat. One observation was those amazing tropical water colors that just don't look real. My wife frequently recalls the water in St Martin looking an unrealistically brilliant shade of green. I saw that here too.

Eventually I saw a sign for Paradice Flavors. When I passed it looked like it might be open, and had an attached coffee shop. Two chances to win. At 89F coffee isn't my first choice, and luck was with me. After the much needed bathroom break I read all the frozen ice flavors. I really like fruit ice bars, like strawberry and coconut. This place had close to 30 flavours, and they all sounded good. So I went with my usual, the servers choice. He liked Key Lime, but also recently Peanutbuter. Both great choices so both it was. After eating both in the one shady seat outside, I went in to get the Coconut, after all this could be dinner.

It wasn't more than 40 minutes to my campsite. The night before I had purchased 2 nights of camping on the water at Bahia Honda State Park. Turns out it was just after the reallly long bridge. It's an interesting stop because it was the landing site for the first railroad, and one of the longest spans. The railroad was eventually converted to an auto road and replaced a few times. The old roads still exist but they remove sections so that you can walk on those close to the island, but not so far they have to maintain the old bridge. Some of the old sections are falling into the water, especially the railings. There is an old section that you can walk on from the state park. At the start of my exploration hike to take pictures my wife called and we talked for my couple mile hike accross the island.

One very interesting moment of my hike was near the top of the walking bridge. Just prior to reaching there I heard a horn or instrument of some kind. Turns out that it was a conch shell and was being played by a very attractive blonde in a string bikini. She was doing all the things a man would like to see done in a string bikini, including falling out of it. It was part of that couples game, and I was a brief player in it, but that was enough for me. Having a conversation with the very attractive woman almost coverd up by her bikini was enough excitement for me. Remember I was on the cell phone with my wife the entire time. On my hike back to camp I noticed a few more very nice bikini moments, I think there are more europeans visiting this area. I like it.

I took a lot of pictures of the near sunset, and then the actual sunset back at my camp while cooking dinner. A chicken and rice meal was attempting to simmer on my iso butane stove. I was using a new stove and had it ignite a puff of gas into my chest while trying to simmer with a tinfoil wind block. I stopped using the wind block after that, happy to have been lucky once. A boiling hot spot might not be a simmer, but it's better than a ball of flames.

After cleaning up my cooking area I took a shower myself. The ranger stated that the racoons in my area are very persistant, so I had to clean well and make sure everything that smelled good was out of my tent. So I removed the mints and chapsticks from my jacket and water bladder, before crawling in. Where I now lay and type on my small BT foldup keyboard. I decided it was good enough to do full blog entries with just the phone and leave the Chromebook in Ocala. Much of this is field testing for my longer rides.

Having an entire day tomorrow to go to Key West and check off that furthest point south in Florida. Not sure what else there is to do, but at least Ihave meals to locate. The weather looks like it could bring spoty showers, but then clear for my ride back North on Wednesday. Free bike wash day.