When I woke up this morning I was well aware that it had rained most of the night. A quick glance out the window told me it would rain most of the day. So when I packed my "suitcase" bag I left my rain coat out so it could ride in the much more accessible saddle bag. I had put my rain pants on and thought I was prepared but before I even put the bike into first gear it started to rain.
A little rain is no problem because sitting in a reverse hair dryer (moving through hot air instead of moving hot air past you) tends to dry out everything in short order at highway speeds. I decided to give The Girls the day off as my route was simply "follow highway 41 until it hits highway 1, then head toward Key West.
The morning was pretty uneventful until I stopped for fuel. When preparing to get rolling again I looked out from under the canopy and saw small patches of much lighter cloud cover and figured it would be appropriate to take off the rain coat (it is quite warm) and stow it, along with my gloves, in the saddle bag. WRONG!
Once again before I rolled a tire it was raining and getting even darker. It's amazing how quickly things can change.
By the time I got out on the open highway the rain was falling in thick sheets, hammering my bare hands hard enough that I promised to put the gloves on the next time I stopped. In the heavy rain I have been going no faster than 50, and quite often less. This rain was a 35 mph rain and when it let up and the road drained enough to go up to 50, I up-shifted. I could feel that, despite the rain gear, I was getting wet but did not realize the extent of my soppitity until I rocked my left foot back to shift and I could feel the water dripping out of the heel of my shoe. Now that's wet! I employed the same logic I have used many times on many hikes - might as well keep going, you're not going to get any wetter!
As I exited the south side of Naples I found myself on the Tamiami Trail, famous for being the main artery through the Everglades. For 75 miles I was on a narrow strip of pavement that sliced through one of the largest freshwater "tropical wetlands" in North America. There were no places that I deemed safe to stop for a picture, and not a lot to photograph if I had. It's a sea of grass, most of which is hidden behind either grass covered banks or trees. There were numerous places to take an airboat ride, but that's so "a couple of days ago".
I made it across the Everglades in good time and found myself coming into the outer most neighborhoods of Miami. The first intersection was under construction so there were cement barriers to keep everyone on the road. The way they were set up it created a chicane for all four lanes of traffic on 41, two in each direction. As I approached the intersection I slowed slightly to make the slight offset safely. My light was green but that didn't stop the tank truck coming from my right. He came into the intersection without stopping, but not satisfied with this gaffe, he made a wide right turn to avoid the cement barriers and turned into the left-most of my two lanes. So he was not only running a red light but he was now nicely blocking both of my lanes! I let him have his way, throwing my hand up as if to ask him, "really?"
I continued for several miles before it dawned on me that I was indeed coming into Miami, which I was not supposed to do. I should have called The Girls out of the break room to go to work, but instead decided to stop and ask directions. I was lucky enough to turn into a parking lot where a full half dozen men sat under a tarp to stay dry.
"Can you gentlemen tell me if I am still on highway 41?"
Unfortunately, only one of them spoke any English and the extent of his grasp on the language was "store, there" while pointing at a nearby business. The man in the store spoke English just like The Girls. Within three blocks he had me getting on to a toll road, a toll road without a number! My next exit put me in the middle of lunch hour traffic. By the time I got to a gas station where they spoke English I had figured out that, in the excitement trying to miss the semi, I had not observed that at that intersection I should have turned right. Maybe the truck driver thought I looked like I was going south and I didn't need those two lanes he took up.
I not only had to back track several miles but the south bound road I was now on had a stop sign every half mile - for 14 miles!
This took me into Homestead, where, while in the right lane, I happened to see a sign at the next light saying highway 1 was to turning left. I did some quick maneuvering through traffic to get across six lanes of traffic and, as I turned left I caught a glimpse of the sign I was following and there, behind a palm branch, on top of the sign, away from every thing else on the sign, in capital letters, quotated, were these few letters "NORTH". I was now headed back to Miami on a toll road! That does it, no more time off for The Girls!
I got turned around and started the 126 miles toward Key West. I still had time to make it before sun down so I could see a local ritual that Bev had told me about. Every evening a large group of locals go out on the beach with chairs and party stuff and watch the sun set into the Gulf of Mexico, then commence to consume all sorts of party stuff.
Unfortunately, slow traffic and the grind of a long day riding in the heat wouldn't allow me to make it there. I had to give up just a few miles short of Key West, on Big Pine Key. I found an affordable motel (that looks a lot like the one I experienced in Alpine, Texas) and it has really good Wi-Fi, unlike last night at the Sleep Inn where I could not get a signal for more than 30 seconds before I got kicked off. I had to get up at nearly mid-night when everyone else was sleeping to get a signal long enough to publish my blog. Ah, remember the good old days when the most important thing in rating a motel was whether or not they had enough hot water?
I did see a couple of unusual things today. First was my first sighting of a "Panther crossing" sign! Right there in the middle of the Everglades! I just learned at Big Cat Recovery that the Florida Panther is in danger of extinction.
The other oddity that made me chuckle was a business in one town that obviously wanted to stress to the public that they were highly specialized. It was an automotive repair business, the name of which was "Just Brakes". The large sign proclaiming their name was centered over their three service bays which were further marked with their own signs, "Mufflers", "Tires" and "Shocks". Made me laugh.
Jim, I found that bar you used to frequent when you were stationed down here:
Tomorrow will be a different experience. After a cursory look around Key West, I'll be heading North. This will give me a chance to tan my right arm in the late morning hours!
When I was stationed in Key West we used to drive up to Big Pine Key to swim in a freshwater lake there, the only freshwater lake in the Keys.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if you found a gas station in Miami where they speak English you should have The Girls take note of it so you can add it to the GPS "map" as a traveler's recommendation.