To Port Orange: Beetlemania

April 5, 2024

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.

Sunrise on the bay in our campground just south of Titusville. Cape Canaveral is out there somewhere.

It's coolish this morning. Feels like we're leaving the hot weather behind as we move north.

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.

The East Central Regional Rail Trail, 12 feet wide, whisks us away from noisy traffic.

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.

Interesting rails on the top of the pedestrian bridge in Edgewater. Is that art?

So cool to see all the investment in Florida's bike trails

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.

Our Beetle-loving neighbors are well-sauced by 6 pm.

Plenty of full-on rust buckets in this crowd

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Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 494 miles (795 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	7
Comment on this entry	Comment	5

Rachael AndersonThat’s a lot of miles!
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7 months ago

Christine McDuffieLove this! I don’t know how you find time to ride enjoy everything and write !
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7 months ago

Janice BranhamTo Rachael AndersonWe've had some long days. I feel stronger but am still not so fast
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7 months ago

Janice BranhamTo Christine McDuffieIt's a struggle Christine. I am chronically two days behind. Thanks for reading!
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7 months ago

Keith AdamsToo bad the neighbors were noisy and inconsiderate but there were some nicely-customized pieces of history there. (You may be two days behind in writing but I'm a MONTH behind in reading... I'll try not to overload you with comments as I catch up.)
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6 months ago