Day Two – Like a Hangover, but without all the fun.

Ok, time for Day TWO! I got my hardest day out of the way, stayed fairly dry, and had no major issues except of course for going to bed at 5am.

Got to sleep in (if you can call sweating and swatting mosquitoes “sleeping”) and not feel guilty because it rained pretty much all morning. Around noon it brightened up. I decided I had gotten all the sleep I was going to, plus I was drenched in sweat from sleeping outside in Florida. Never do this. Ever.

Grab a shower and a quick bite of granola and pack up. About the shower. It’s only day two, and already the funk is not washing off completely. Guys, if you ever decide to do a trip like this, you are warned that it will NOT score you points with the ladies. You will stink, your hair will be crazy, and you don’t want the biker chicks anyway.

If everything goes smoothly, at a nice leisurely pace I should be in Key West around 11pm. No problem.

I’m even feeling so confident, I stop for an extended lunch at Hooter’s in Daytona Beach and futilely try to use their wifi to upload yesterday’s update.

Slight delay, the highway access road is closed so CareFlight can take off after a huge accident. Our highway of course has onlooker delays, and that’s fine with me cause it was an impressive crash. The helicopter took off right when I got next to it, and passed about 60ft over my head. I was on the motorcycle, of course, going about 50mph. Not a good combination. I almost rode the prop-wash instead of the bike. It was all I could do (and mostly luck) not to hit the cars on both sides of me. Sorry, no pic, I was too busy trying to live.

Ok, now a little delayed, but shouldn’t be much after midnight to Key West.

Problem. Huge rain clouds outside of West Palm Beach. I could just run into them head on, after all I know rain isn’t a problem cause I was in it most of yesterday… it’s just that… I was in it most of yesterday! Luckily there is a rest stop just two miles ahead, where I shot this:

The wind was crazy, lightning was everywhere, but there wasn’t really any rain. After talking motorcycles with an old trucker for an hour, I give up on waiting for the rain and continue on the road. Don’t worry, I tracked it down.

I’m starting to feel the fatigue set in pretty hard, after my strenuous day yesterday and all the rain today. I can’t wait to get to Key West. I’ve already decided I’m going to treat myself to a hotel since I really stink, still need to upload yesterday’s post, and really need some quality sleep.

2:45am – Key West. Finally. No Vacancy? You’re $hitting me. If you haven’t driven to Key West before, then you may not realize that it is a good 3 hours from Miami. You’re twice as close to Cuba as you are to Miami. There’s no way I can make it back, I shouldn’t have even made it this far. If Laura found out I was riding around this tired she’d kill me. Don’t tell her.

I gotta find somewhere to stop. I roam around, checking with some more hotels, but they all just laugh. I’m not laughing. I end up on some other God-forsaken Key and find an on-duty Sheriff who recommends a spot which is little more than a pull off point for fishermen. Wait, it’s not even that. It’s a parking lot.

5am – My bike takes space A11 and I curl up in A12. Yes, I am a hobo. I’d like to take this moment to recommend the REI Trekker sleeping pad. I was initially going to get a smaller, lighter one, but figured I would want the comfort that this one had. I was right. I don’t know if it was the pad or the exhaustion, but I actually got almost 2 hours of sleep. After I put on bug spray of course, it was way to hot and humid to even think about a tent.

As I drift off, I silently vow never to camp in Florida again.

First real concern:

The trucker at the previously mentioned rest stop pointed out the tire wear on my rear tire. It is wearing extremely fast, I’m surprised and a little worried. Not sure now that it will last the entire trip. Options are:

• Find a mechanical fix (like aligning wheels?)
• Arrange to have the tire changed halfway through the trip
• Lighten the cargo load. I am around 200lbs, and I am carrying probably another 80 pounds of gear.
• Re-arrange the load. I have almost all of it over the rear tire. I hate it, it’s not comfortable, and it handles like a newborn giraffe.

I will try to lighten the load and move some heavy gear onto the tank. We’ll see what happens with that.