July 13

Mother nature decided to start cooking breakfast at seven in the morning, and I was on the menu.

I started packing ip and was dripping sweat in three minutes. I went to hop in the shower but someone was there. They have three showers but the way they have it set up makes it just like one, so I walked back and finished packing.

This lady and her dog came over and started talking to me. She looked pretty haggard then started talking about a divorce and how she was homeless and had back problems for falling in a broken drain cover after leaving the bar. She was pretty nice though and has done some traveling. I just wasnt in the talking mood, trying not to die in the heat.

I escaped to the shower rinsed off, put on my swim suit on and moved patty to the shade to make breakfast. I was dry and sweating within five minutes so I went back and rinsed off. That's how the morning went, pack shower, cook shower, clean shower. If there were any day to be naked, this is the one.

I'm also pretty sure I just met a guy with crazier stories than me. I went to hide out in the laundry room for a bit in the AC to catch up on the blog and figure out my game plan for the day when this tan guy in his upper twenties walked in.

I was real hesitant to talk to him, I really just needed some grace time. But I am grace and we started small talk. "you getting out of the heat too?" "yeah." "what you doing here?" "riding my bike, you?" " oh I came out for a girl" "bummer man"

I kept trying to blog but was getting nowhere so I just gave up and we got into some serious talk. He was actually from California and after meeting a girl out here he sold all his stuff and moved. Well how stuff like that goes he ended up having money trouble so this fifteen year old girl who goes to their fight club they were friends with gave them some of here old broken gold, now befor you get ahead of yourselves this guy is legit. He didn't want to take it but the girl insisted. He sold it at a pawn shop and was living at the campground when one day he was walking up to the rangers station to pay for another week. An impala pulled up and a guy got out asking if he was this person. He responded yes sir. The guy went out to shake his hand and when Dallas went to grab it the guy spun him around. Dallas reversed it and the guy told him to stand down, that he was under arrest. For receiving stolen property and trafficking it. They arrested the girl he came here for too who is my age. Come to find out, the mom of the fifteen year old who gave them the gold, pressed charges.

They both went to jail, she made bail, he didn't. He got a bunch of orders against him and wasn't allowed to see the girl. So for three weeks he has been living in the campground knowing she is just a mile away. The parents won't let her see him. But just yesterday all his charges were dropped. Really this story is so huge and complex, I told him to write a book, I mean we talked for over an hour before hitting the road.

It's so hott I'm glad yesterday was my big day, eighty miles in that awful heat and headwind. I feel like if I had started here and went north I would be to the north pole.

A guy at Starbucks just asked if I was riding the scooter, I told him no, the bike, then before I left I saw him pull out on the scooter. So either he stole it or needs to work on his pickup lines.

I crossed the causeway over the sound back to a1a and the real beach. Today is only around 45 or fifty miles so I plan I just taking my sweet time till it cools down and I have to haul it to vero beach.

I made it to ocealantic beach, saw shade and a picnic table, locked patty up and made a break for the water. It was so hott jumping in the cool blue waves was all I could think about.

On the walkway to the beach there was a guy sitting on the railing all tatted up looking like a baller. I wanted to just be in the waves but when I scurried buy he commented on all the stuff on my bike. "riding from Maine" I told him "you gotta be shittin me!" ""swear to god" I hollered as I ran down the stairs to the ocean. I then hear him holler at a younger boy who was standing on his surfboard in the sand to keep his freer from burnin off.

I stripped down and dove head first in the waves. They felt great. The water had just turned so the ocean was cold, not like the outer banks. I could have swam all day. However, I as much as I LOVE water, I have this irrational fear of monsters and dead bodies. That dead bodies one is mainly freshwater, trumped by my fear of things that could turn me into a dead body in the salty laqua.

So as I'm scanning the area around me for dark shapes toward me I begin to see little blobs everywhere. It took a second to register, jellyfish, crap, I HATE jellyfish. My chin dropped to my chest in defeat as I waded out of the beautiful blue ocean, man I'm such a pansy.

I gathered my stuff from the beach, made the mistake of carrying my shoes instead of putting them on my feet. I got about three steps when the searing pain from hot sand reached my brain. I took a deep breath and told myself to tough it out. No use, it was worse than walking on fire and I started to run. It was so hott I couldn't breath. The guy sitting was still there, and shouted "hey you might wanna put on your shoes!" "no shit" I thought as I bounded to the stairs.

He continued talking to me as I ran into the shade, he seemed pretty cool, it's my feet that were hott.

A minute later he walked over wanting to check out all the gear, a lady in a nice black shade hat I'm nice clothes and a big hearty smile tailed him.

They ended up being pretty cool and we talked in the shade for well over an hour. Between the two of them there were four kids in the elementary school level who were out surfing. The girls only came in after being stung by a few jellyfish, man those welts were big.

We all headed out around the same time. The south winds had picked up and all the clouds were inland leaving me to cook in the sun. I try my best to keep my sunscreen on and the visor on my helmet pulled low, but the lotion sweats off faster than I can put it on and the smell from my helmet is like a dirty gym bag.

Im weaving between the bike lane and sidewalk. The traffic is bad and the walkway is bumpy, my butt is so soar, but I don't want to die.

I glance up to see another tourist heading toward me. We both wave and stop and he turns around to meet me. Not a bad looking kid. Nicholas from Montreal was my age and had a friend drop him off in Florida to watch the last shuttle launch.

As we were talking this older male cyclist, I don't know if he forgot he was on a road bike and not a full suspension mountain bike, but he came flying from the other side of the road, through the bike lane past us, then tried to cut over the grass to the sidewalk. Well, he made it to the sidewalk, probably not the way be intended, crashing his bike and laying face first on the ground. Guess he didn't see the lip of the cement. He didn't move for a few seconds as Nich and I watched. He didn't want our help, probably embarrassed. He got back up and on his bike. I hear nick mumble something about a chain, watch the man stumble again, before looking away.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone