Lover’s Key St Pk, FL to Sarasota, FL 9036 mi I ride up to the gate as usual at 7 am, and surprise! It’s a full gate, I can’t go under. There are two gates, one on the bike path and one on the road, right next to each other. As I’m removing my panniers…

Collier Seminole St Pk, FL to Lover’s Key St Pk, FL 8945 mi I’m under the gate a little early, about 6:45. Slowly the developments grow until I hit Naples. There I’m instantly in beachfront condo land again. I peer out over the Gulf of Mexico for the first time of my life. The water…

Big Cypress, FL to Collier Seminole St Pk, FL 8902 mi Not hard to get up and leave that nasty campground early. I stop and cook breakfast at a wayside, where a fisherman stops and says hello after walking by a few times. Then he comes back in his truck, reaches in a cooler and…

Metro Park, FL to Big Cypress, FL 8869 mi The gate has been closed when I leave in the morning, but as usual I just ride under it. Thankfully traffic is light on the shoulderless road. The crossroads with 41 are in the middle of nowhere. A huge Indian casino stands caddy-corner from a lone…

Boca Raton, FL to Metro Park, FL 8814 mi I read until 8 waiting for Aunt Lou to get up. In the silence I start to consider what I would do if she died during the night, but then she emerges. Just doing her morning devotionals, she says. We have a quick breakfast, then I…

We eat a light breakfast in the dining room and I meet some of Aunt Lou’s friends, including Lydia Hewitt, who says she was my dad’s 4th grade teacher at Wheaton. How does she remember him? “Sad” and “disturbed” are the only words she comes up with. She remembers something about him being separated from…

Jupiter, FL to Boca Raton, FL 8760 mi I’m escorted out of the park by another wet little rain shower. Under the gate at 7 am. Slowly the terrain becomes more urban, until I’m in the pits of West Palm Beach. A man at the city limits persisently asks me for a cigarette. A big…

Vero Beach, FL to Jupiter, FL 8704 mi A lazy morning. I pack, Lee walks, Vic and I eat cereal. I accept their offer for coffee to avoid offending my hosts. Coffee is one of those words that means different things to different people, and I’m afraid I’ve become too snobby to include the canned-grounds-drip-filter…

Vic and Lee play golf today, so after breakfast I go to the beach and write to the music of the surf. When I get restless, I ride north towards some big clouds. Soon I’m in a rain so wet I feel like I’m bicycling underwater. I take shelter at another beach with some surfers.…