Start Time: 8:03 AM EDT
Stop Time: 6:45 PM EDT
Start Location: Cocoa, FL
Stop Location: Key West, FL
Lodging: Leo’s Campground
Breakfast: Mom’s over easy egg on cheese toast
Lunch: Israeli Meal with Harold Morantz
Dinner: Burger King Salad
Miles Traveled Today: 384
Weather: 85-95, Mostly Sunny
States visited so far on this tour.
Today started great getting to watch the sun rise over the Indian river from my mom’s front porch. This is one of my favorite places to watch the sun rise.
I got off right on time to make my appointment with Brian at BikeAir at 10:10 in Jupiter, Florida, but was very, very disappointed when he arrived and said he decided to test the unit this morning, and it was not working.
He did bring the unit to I could see it, and try on the vest (should have taken some photos). He had no more units, and won’t be getting any more from Israel until after I’m mostly through with this tour.
Really could have used that air conditioner today. It was hot, hot, hot riding down US 1 from the point where I-95 ends all the way into Key West.
After that big disappointment, my spirits were lifted as I got to have a genuine Israeli lunch with my good friend Harold Morantz. The part I recognized from my trip to Israel a few years ago was the Falafel, but the rest, I’ll just have to settle on delicious as the name for all the other parts (Harold told me, but not only can I not recall the names, I couldn’t pronounce them if I could recall them).
I also got a tour of Harold’s cabinet shop, and got to meet his cabinetmakers. I’m not exactly sure what it is about cabinet shops that draws me to them like a moth to a light, but I’ve always loved to tour other cabinetmakers shops.
Got to the campground with just enough time to setup the camper, shower and put on some clean DRY clothes (did I mention that it was hot today).
I’m digging the new iPole Paul Akers sent me, but it looks like I’m going to need a little more practice (should have been closer to the bike and camper).
As soon as I got everything setup, and got cleaned up I jumped back on the bike and rode to the west side of Key West to watch the sunset.
Nearly missed it, and the clouds kind of hid the sun setting into the ocean (you could hear the sizzle).
Then jumped over to the East side of Key West to mile 0 and took a few photos with a few other folks with the same idea.
All in all, aside from the disappointment of not getting the BikeAir unit to keep me cool, and of course I had to deal with a thousand roadtards in Miami, it was a great day and a great ride. Really, I’m not kidding, it really was.
Oh yeah, there was this one time, I got gas, ran inside to pee, then paid the nice lady for a bag of ice for the cooler, then walked out, got on the bike, and remembered that I didn’t get the $3.00 bag of ice about 20 miles down the road (whose the bone head now?).
Thank you Lord for keeping the chrome side up and the rubber side down today.