Does anybody else use state nicknames except for me? I think for most of us we had some point in elementary school where we had to memorize these names and thereafter the only other time we’ve seen them is when we see a state sign on the road when traversing through states.
Anyways I get why Florida is the sunshine state, there is a lot of sunshine there but surprisingly the city of Miami gets just as much rain as Portland, Oregon. The main difference is that when it rains it pours in Miami and in Portland it just drizzles barely enough to make you miserable for 8 months out of the year.
Luckily in Florida I spent most of my time there during the winter months when generally there are fewer storms since it’s less likely to be ridiculously hot and humid to the point where the sky can’t handle it anymore and dumps it all out.
Therefore I enjoyed much of my riding in Florida. This is a special state for me since I spent months at a time here over multiple years, escaping from the Northeast winters since fortunately my day job allows me to work remotely.
They way I split up my touring in Florida was over the course of two winters. The first winter I went from Miami to Key West, and second winter up from Palm beach to Jacksonville to do the whole coast. Don’t worry I was able to tackle Miami to Palm beach via a series of day trips during my first winter to make it complete.
Actually my idea of going to Florida in the first place revolved around the fantasy of biking all the way to Key West, surrounding myself with Dolphins and turquoise waters to get to the southernmost point of the country.
And the above is what I did, in December of 2020 I flew down to Miami, assembled my bike, and the next day got on the bike and headed down South.
Right off the bat, I was heading down some beautiful roads. Shortly after getting through downtown and Brickell I was brought to the beautiful suburb of Coconut grove where some of the roads absolutely stunned me with their beauty
I would later on this winter learn to love riding through these beautiful Miami suburbs including the spectacular old cutler road which is basically the jungle of North America.
But onwards I went down through homestead, FL and making my way to Key Largo for the night. Along the way I did spot a gator from across the canal and was slightly startled as it jumped in the water towards my direction. It was amazing seeing the large reptile and to my relief the scaled beast was probably just seeking some privacy rather than out to get me.
I was proud to have encountered a gator in the wild, as opposed to seeing one in a zoo or farm. Sometimes the thrill of seeing animals in the wild is closely linked to the adventure of being away from civilization, and I was happy to have gotten far enough off the beaten path to see the notorious Florida emblem.
Anyways after getting a night’s rest I headed further down highway 1 on my nearly century ride from Key Largo to Key West. There were some fantastic sights along the way but most of the journey I was on what I like to call “mission mode”, when I don’t really take too many pictures and just focus on getting to my destination. I think one of the main motivators here was that I was a bit nervous about riding on some of the bridges across the keys. Overall I didn’t have much of an issue at all, and hopefully future cyclists can avoid some of the narrow bridges with the construction of new bike paths that are currently in progress.
My highlight of the trip down to Key West was the destination itself.
Getting to the southernmost point in the US was definitely a special moment, but what was possibly even more special was the vibe in this little beach town. Key West has a charm to it that makes you feel like there is nothing to worry about in the world. Most people around there seem very happy and there was some tropical birds that very much caught my eye.
In addition to the tropical birds, there are also some cool looking chickens and roosters that just roam around this sleepy town.
After exploring around a bit and getting a bite to eat I rented a car from the airport, put my bike in it and headed back up to Miami.
Along the course of this winter and the following one I did day trip from Miami up north and from Palm beach down south. Although I never actually did a continuous trip from Miami to palm beach, I had completed the journey from Palm beach to Miami. Since this meant I had ridden the roads from Palm beach all the way to Key West, I was struck with the fantastic idea of doing the rest of the Florida coast: Palm beach to Jacksonville.
Similar to the ride to Key West, I will say that I did a bit of a “mission mode” to ride a bit over 300 miles north over the course of 4 days. I got super lucky on my first day as I got a bunch of tailwind.
There were some beautiful stretches of beaches, but what stood out the most to me was a beach just north of West palm called Juno beach. The color of the water was this amazing shade of turquoise that made me thing I was in the Bahamas or one of those Caribbean islands. Again, being on “mission mode” I didn’t really bother to take a photo to share with y’all but I can assure you the photo wouldn’t have done it justice anyways.
Another nice point along the way up to Jacksonville was a little biker stand just North of Titusville where an old lady had set up a snack station for cyclists passing through, completely free of charge with suggested donation. It was a nice little spot and cool to meet some other cyclists to hear their stories.
Sometimes despite all the beautiful sights, it’s the people you meet along the way and those you share experiences with that make the trips worthwhile.