My hotel room was super comfy. I didn’t get to my room until after 10 pm so comfy mattered. 

The free hotel breakfast also matters when you are fixin’ to eat everything in sight, which I did. Next up was a trip to the WalMart next door for the never ending search for a duffle bag to consolidate my stuff for Amtrak. I almost gave up when an employee out of central casting walked me over to the baggage display and pulls what looked like a small bag off the top shelf, unlike all the other long bags this one was displayed short side out. It was perfect! I think it will hold my tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, and more. For riding purposes I put my tent and pad in it and bungied it down on my rack. 

The ride out of Fort Myers involved lots of bike trails, which were not much more than  extra wide sidewalks. I was riding into a headwind as it was but the sidewalk thing was really slowing me down. After a stop to guzzle some Gatorade, I decided to just ride in the road. You’d think that with three lanes to use, drivers could figure out how to pass me. Not in Florida. 

One lovely pick up driver laid on his horn for a good ten seconds. He was in a hurry to catch the next red light. 

In a town called Lehigh Acres I turned onto back roads. Soon I was in the country mooing at cows and admiring orange groves.

It wasn’t until I was 25 miles away from the coast that I started seeing damage from hurricane Irma. All the canopies above gas pumps seemed to be missing chunks of their structure.

After 50 miles I made it to the town of LaBelle and decided to call it a day. The next town is 25 miles away. I’m only 120 miles from Ft Lauderdale. 

I booked a room in a motel that is actually a small apartment. I have a back porch over looking the Caloochahatchie River. Maybe I’ll see some gators. 

I’ll probably add a couple miles to my 50.5 mile trip total as I search the environs for chow. That means by the time I lay me down to sleep I’ll have covered 2,048 miles.