Multi-day Catch-Up

Phew. It's been a couple days and we're still alive! 4 days of 50+ miles. Quick day-by-day update:

Day 2 was about 50 miles, Marathon Key to Key Largo. We had no rain, but a certain special bridge nearly took us all out with super-hard wind. Thanks so much to Patrick Sauter from Fixed Gears bike shop in Key West who joined us for half the day, after a full first day. You were so much fun and so helpful to have with us! At lunch time, we met up with Mark Terrill from Islamorada who gave us a wonderful historical tour of the area. We then met up with Monica Woll, Florida Keys Heritage Trail Coordinator, and her friend Dotty for the rest of the afternoon. They shared more interesting local information about the Keys and helped us score a wonderful seaside campsite.

RASR with our Godsend, Patrick.

Victoria's Secret Model Shoot Beach on Islamorada.

Manatees! (Trip mascot and name of our van, so we had to stop)

Jeanie decided to bring a passenger along for the afternoon- a coconut.

Day 3: Key Largo to Coconut Grove, and most of us clocked about 70 miles. Tom and Chucho from the Everglades Bicycle Club met us first thing from the John Pennekamp State Park in Key Largo to guide us all the way to Key Biscayne, and then back to Coconut Grove. At lunch in Florida City, we picked up Peter Schuetz from the Green Mobility Network, who helped Tom and Chucho give us a full tour of the area around Miami as we biked back and forth. The real exciting part of the day was our FIRST SCHOOL ASSEMBLY! Mickey Witte from iBikeSafe helped us set up a talk at the Key Biscayne Community School in the afternoon with 6-8th graders. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed working with the kids, something that iBikeSafe gets to do everyday as they educate kids on bike safety. Looking forward to more to come down the road (literally :). A big shout-out to August Neal from Green Mobility who was an extremely gracious host last night- we hope you can come join us as some point!

Goodbye Florida Keys! Thanks for the awesome kick-off!

First School Assembly at Key Biscayne Community School.

Chucho and Tom, our awesome guides for the day.

iBikeSafe, Key Biscayne Community School Coach, and RASR.

Thank you so much August!

Day 4 we conquered about 70 miles, from Coconut Grove (Miami) to West Palm Beach. It was our first day relying completely on Jeanie's bike route, without any local guides. We went straight through downtown Miami in rush hour and no casualties to report! We met MPO bike/pedestrian coordinators of the six counties from Miami-Dade to Indian Creek to report on our trip and our ideas for improved bike safety in this area. In the afternoon, our route took us along the beach in Ft. Lauderdale (brings back memories of Spring Break '09 with the Middlebury Womens Water Polo Club). HUGE thanks to Mack Cycle bike shop, who hooked us up with lots of tubes and tires and miscellaneous other needed gear as well as gave Jane a full bike tune-up in the morning while we were moving northward. In the afternoon, we took a tour-de-mansions as our route led us along the coast until we reached West Palm Beach. Tonight we're staying with another fabulous host, Stephanie's Aunt Debby Richardson. Pool and sauna trip before a delicious dinner and lots of fun family time.

Pillaged Dunkin Donuts for lunch from the MPO meeting (thanks!).

Jeanie tests out the extenda-arm for her camera- so dorky none of us can keep a straight face.

Thanks Mack Cycle for your amazing generosity!

End of day 4. Still smiling :)

The scenery was wonderful.

Preview for tomorrow (2/9): 95ish miles heading west around the southern end of Lake Okeechobee, aiming for Englewood, FL on Friday.

Posted by Chelsea