March 19, 2012
Port Orange to Titusville: And through the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge
Kim writes:
Oh, how I despise headwinds. We battled them ALL day, which resulted in our first route deviation. We're making additional adjustments as well, and they'll be reflected in the titles for those days.
At the 12-mile point I had a crash without injury or damage. Hit a drop off on the right side of the asphalt, couldn't get unclipped, and down I went with no way to break the fall. Just a little elbow scrape and small bruise on right knee. Am SO glad for my helmet, as my head hit the sidewalk pretty hard too.
With that unplanned event out of the way, we continued south for lunch in Oak Hill. Later we stopped at the manatee viewing area in the Refuge and took a few photos.
We had a delicious dinner at Kloibers Cobbler in Titusville. Our waitress, Chelle, was super. She also told us that her daughter and daughter's boyfriend will be cycling from San Francisco to Maine this year. I showed her about the crazyguy site, so maybe her daughter will write a journal here.
We canceled our Wednesday and Thursday reservation at Patrick Air Force Base and will try to camp closer to the baseball stadium tomorrow night, as the wind forecast for tomorrow is a repeat of today...double digit wind speeds SSE.
John writes:
Kim and I got our usual late start this morning on a beautiful day to ride.
Our first stop was ten miles later to eat fresh strawberries at our favorite produce stand.
After that, we hopped onto a nice, wide shoulder on US 1 South, into some nasty headwinds. Our next stop was for lunch at mom-n-pop place in Oak Hill called - of all things - Camelot. We both ate the $4.99 spaghetti lunch special. Man, that Kim can really chow down when she's pedaling a bicycle!
South of Oak Hill, we did a 45 degree left turn to divert to the southeast and pedal through the Merritt National Wildlife Refuge - but that put us more directly into the headwinds. There was also less of a shoulder but less traffic. Our next stop was to see the manatees at Haulover Canal.
A 45 degree right turn back to the southwest put us on a straight shot to Titusville. While pedaling we looked at our watches and did some math, which resulted in the decision to stop in Titusville at a mom-n-pop motel and spend the night. We ate two very healthy dinners, where mine included about a quart of chocolate milk, at Kloibers Cobbler, and walked back to the room. We were asleep by 9:15!
Today's ride: 47 miles (76 km)
Total: 47 miles (76 km)
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