Day 18: Florida City to Miccosukee Casino!

February 20, 2015

It took turning out all the lights, taking off my pants, and getting in to "bed" for the kids from Quebec to slowly get the idea that it was time to find another table to hang around. We continue to have mixed feelings about this hostel. Now that we have been here a bit, we are able to recognize that some denizens are not travelers but rather semi permanent residents. That blurs the distinction between this as a place for budget world adventurers vs a flophouse.

Actually we have run into thoughts about this type of distinction in other contexts as well. For example, what is the difference between an adventure cyclist and a transient on a bicycle, who can not afford a car? For this one, I generally say that if they have Ortlieb bags, they are adventurers. However we have seen some pretty adventurous cyclists using innovative plastic pickle pails to carry their stuff!

There is also the continuing issue of personal space, something that helps us know we do not want to go into hostels in our proposed European pilgrimage travels. For example, in the other room, there was someone "crashed" on the sofa, under a blanket ($15). At 6 a.m. one of the "denizens" came into that room, plunked himself down and turned on the TV. Come on!

On the other hand, we shared pancake making with a delightful girl from Koblenz, soon to return to continue her masters in Organic Chemistry. We had a jolly old time reminiscing about Koblenz,Franfurt, Fussen, and Bayreuth. Couldn't have easily done that at the Holiday Inn!

... more later, gotta pack up and go!

The hostel kitchen, with a legitimate looking traveller

Well we went, but straight to the Golden Corral. This time we could not argue that it was mere tourism/sociology research, since we have already done that. So it must be that we went to pig out. It's not that we intentionally took too much food. It's just that with more than 100 main dishes and sides, just trying a little of a few adds up to quite a lot. On the way out, we had another look at the dishes and noticed in very fine print under their labels the calorie content of each. We started to try tallying how many calories we were leaving with, but it made our heads hurt.

In our view of the day, we had the visit to Golden Corral and then the destination of the Miccosukee Casino. Both of these figured to be pretty fun,so it kind of coloured the middle bit, which was the 30 km cruise up Krome Ave, needed to reach the casino. The hop to the casino looked quite short on our maps too, so we set off unconcerned and quite late in the day.

The scene when trying to get to the Golden Corral

Now last year when we made this same hop, a nice man in a fruit stand we stopped at warned us that Krome was too busy and dangerous for cycling. So we took some elaborate detour, that we had now forgotten. This time, since we did have a reasonable shoulder on Krome, we just set our aim straight for the Casino.

Krome runs north/south right beside the Everglades National Park border. For most of its length it is lined by nursery businesses, agricultural fields, and fruit stands. Some of the nurseries featured lots of elaborate statuary, and all of course were stuffed wth orchids, palms, and various tropical plants. Overall, it weas an interesting road to travel.

There was a catch, though. - Ok, maybe two, or three. First off, the traffic on this road was continuous and almost bumper to bumper. The composition included big trucks,medium trucks, and light trucks, many pulling trailers. Then there were campers, and of course the scads of regular cars. They all made quite a racket. Next, the wind. Oh, the wind! We had forgotten about it, but it remembered us - and it came to meet us from about 10 degrees off straight on.

Finally there was the matter of the shoulder. It started off fine. Then slowly, slowly, it narrowed. In the end we had about 3 inches. Instead of looking for that detour then, we just steeled our famous Grampies nerves (or single nerve) and rode a dead straight line. Actually we kept checking our mirrors. If we could see that camper mirror or trailer wheel coming, maybe we could move over two inches and have it miss us. But the real skill really is in the nerves. Despite the noise and tight clearances, if you can "stay on target" you can do it.

We arrived at the corner of 41 (the Tamiami Trail) and Krome, and looked at the next challenge - how to cross the intersection and get to the Casino. The traffic was very heavy and the planners never seemed to think that a pedestrian or God forbid, cyclists would venture into the melee. Dodie solved this by just entering the street and making them all stop.

We led out bikes right in to the casino and up to the desk. The scene in there was familiar to us from other Casinos we had ventured in to on the bikes. It was the cigarette smoke (not too bad here actually), the flashing machines (lighting not too subdued, actually), the security guards, and so forth.

We took our bikes to our 8th floor room and stashed them inside. Then we pulled all our clothes out and washed them in the sink, hanging them to dry on the bikes. So now the luxury room looked more like home!

Dodie felt like she had actually burned up the Golden Corral fighting the wind. So we went to look at the second floor buffet. We found that the price was $30. $30! .. and there was a long line of people waiting to put their cash down for it. It turned out the reason was that tonight is special seafood night. We don't even like seafood. The regular price is $11 and change. So we tried to negotiate that price on the promise that we would not eat any seafood. Of course, there is no negotiating with ordinary workers. So we had a look at their regular restaurant. The prices were reasonable, like $12 for 1/2 roast chicken and $16 for snapper.

The surprise was that this restaurant had a live violin player, and French style service - ultra polite , with many waiters swarming around. Plus, the food was great, terrific actually. Later we talked to the manager. He was Cuban, with European experience. Good move, Miccosukees - recruit the experts to build and run your thing right!

We are heading down now to look at the gambling thing. Usually we are willing to invest up to $1 in this, if (and only if) we see something that looks "fair". Check this space tomorrow to see if we happened to strike it rich!

The Seminole Theatre in downtown Homestead

Well at least that is in miles, per hour

This sprayer soaked us, bit is really wasting water

A crowd of statues at one of the many garden centres

There are dozens of nurseries along Krome

The Casino is by those palm trees, so how to get to it?

I think this photo selfie by the elevator doors captures a bit of the crazy, glitzy, irrational world of the casino. The crazy photographer also happens to be riding a Bike Friday in there!

People lined up to pay their $30 for the buffet

Our meals in the "real" restaurant were really first class.

Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 823 km (511 miles)

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