April 5, 2024
To Port Orange: Beetlemania
Across the bay in Cape Canaveral, SpaceX launched a rocket at 5 am to send up more Starlink satellites. We heard the roar as it shook the ground here. Mike watched the launch. He says it took a full minute for the sound to reach us.
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We'll get one last ride in today without the bags. Good thing - it's a long way to Port Orange and the wind is coming at us. Barry loads up the luggage and drives back to Bob's Bicycles in Indian Harbour to pick up his bike. It shifts now - success! He'll drop the bags off at our next campground in Port Orange, turn in the car at Daytona Beach airport, and double back 6 miles to the campground on the bike.
My ride will be considerably longer. I get in line behind Mike on the shoulder of U.S. 1 and try to keep up. In the town of Titusville we pick up the East Central Regional Rail Trail. It's part of the Florida Coast to Coast Trail that will eventually reach St. Petersburg. We'll be on it for the next 32 miles. I feel like being pokey today so after a little while I encourage Mike to take off.
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I was up too late writing last night and now it's so quiet and soothing here that I'm falling asleep. There's enough time for a power nap so I pull off on a soft level spot and stretch out, after looking around for coral snakes. Thirty minutes does the job and I'm back on the trail.
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The Nova Family Campground in Port Orange sounds like a wholesome place to stay. I ride in to the roar of souped up engines. Old VW Beetles all tricked out for a party crawl around the campground. Turns out this is one of the venues for the No Dough Weekend, a rally for vintage Volkswagons. Organizers exhort the faithful to"Bring yer grass skirts and coconut top bikinis, and don't forget your VW." Mercifully, there's a 6 pm rally at Lola's Cantina that draws most of them out of the campground and we get a few hours of relative peace and quiet.
Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 494 miles (795 km)
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