The last day of the trip was a quick 25 mile ride to home. the trip was uneventful until I got into Melbourne which is possibly the most bike/trike unfriendly city in the world. Bike paths are unheard of and the automobile drivers think you are invading their domain, but I did get home safely.

For those of you interested in such things here are a few stats for the trip. I covered a total of 232.5 miles or 374 km in 19 hours and 25 minutes riding time giving me an average speed of 11.97 mph or 19 kph. I road an average of 46 miles / 74km a day.

Here are a few extra pictures that I took with a different camera.

Tropical Storm Hanna changed my plans. The storm is forming in the Gulf of Mexico which end caused all of the rain yesterday. The forecast was for rain all day today and tomorrow so I made the decision to head for home. My plan was to ride around 50 miles today but there wasn’t anywhere to stay. So after 71 miles (114km) I spotted a hotel and stopped. It was a long uneventful day.

I did get a picture of an alligator today but will have to post it after I get home.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Today started out as one of the best riding days I have ever had. St. Lucie county is really making an effort to be bike friendly. This really surprised me as Florida is not known for this. In town there were well marked bike lanes, but the big surprise was after crossing I-95 going west to Okeechobee. Here was a beautiful wide bike path that lasted 20 miles to the county line.

The weather was perfect in the 70’s with overcast skies and zero wind. The path ran next to a drainage canal through farm land. I saw four  alligators  and a flock of wild turkeys. I tried to get pictures but the overcast caused problems.

At the Okeechobee county line the trail ended and the rain started. I rode a couple of miles until I spoted a gas station and pulled in under the shelter. Turned out to be ok they had good subs and cold drinks. After an hour the rain stopped and I started off again. After another mile the rain started again. So I had 25 perfect miles and 12 miles in the rain. I learned a valuable lesson, put on the rain gear before you get wet. Better safe than sorry.

This is is a bicycle overpass. It goes from the main path across the the highway to a path that goes to the fairgrounds. I had to ride to the top.

Here is the top

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A picture of the path and highway

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Waiting out the rain.

I’m sure there will be days like this for everyone. A short day as far as distance goes only 32 miles. The bad part was that half of it was road construction.

Here are pictures of the loaded trike.

Road 65 miles today, to get somewhere 35 miles away. Google Maps and my garmin 810 sent me to a lakeside park where there were nothing but dead ends. After 25 miles in the wrong direction I decided to return to the roads I know.

I also learned that trikes don’t like off-camber turns. I actually knew this before but needed a reminder. So turning into a Wendy’s I got my reminder, half the people ran out to see if I was alright. Other than a small scrape the only thing damaged was my ego.

Nice thing about being retired is that you can add a day to the trip without a problem.

I will also remember sunscreen tomorrow.

Me starting off this morning.

Yes you you can get an HP Scorpion in a hotel room.