23 miles
We had a rough night with lots of noseeum bites so we had a leisurely breakfast before we got on the road. Then we had two flat tires before we even got out of the park!!
The ride into Key West was pretty crazy until the last few miles. Traffic was heavy and the at times the shoulders became sparse. At the end though we rode along a beautiful path next to the water. After waiting in line for a picture at the famous buoy we went straight to Margaritaville Cafe and ordered drinks and lunch to celebrate!
For those of you who want statistics (Tammy Box!) here you go...
5 flats: Ann 4, Scott 1
1.5 crashes: both Scott. One mirror destroyed.
Total mileage: 1,685
44 day trip with 11 days off
33 days of riding = average daily mileage of 51. We are happy with that because, as I mentioned before, this trip was very windy.
Average speed - around 9.5 mph. For those of you who bicycle regularly your probably laughing at how slow we are... :) Admittedly the recumbents slow us down in the hilly areas - but we were also carrying all of our camping gear in our BOB trailers. The trailers weigh about 20 pds - Scott's bag was 42 pds and mine was 35. In the panniers we carry food for the day, extra water and clothes for layering. So Scott probably had 75 pds of gear and I had around 60. You quickly decide what's important (we mailed home 8 pds worth of stuff about a week into the trip). The one item we both carried that we will carry again was a thermarest pillow. Gone are the days of using a jacket as a pillow!!
We met a lot of bicyclists on the trip but the couple we hope to see in the future are Chris and Jen from Philadelphia. They are taking a year off of work to bicycle basically around the US! We also met a lot of people in all the little towns we went through - some called us crazy - some called us inspiring. We had fun meeting all of them and I don't care what the media says - this Country of ours is still pretty cool...
We hope you enjoy the pictures - thanks to all of you who gave us encouragement and prayers for our safety!
FYI: for those of you who haven't been to Key West - the buoy is at the southernmost point in the US and is just 90 miles from Cuba. The tour guides will all tell you that another important fact is that it's 110 miles to the closest Walmart.
Look closely at the picture of my hands and legs - that bikers tan takes a lot of work! :)
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