We’ve wanted to pedal the Florida Coast to Coast route for a few years now. It runs from Titusville on the Atlantic coast to the west coast of Florida, anywhere from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg depending upon your preference. It’s a new trail, not complete yet, but finally complete enough for us to give it a go. There is a gap still to be completed of about 25 miles, but Steve has found an alternative route so we’re on our way!
Just to make things interesting, a hurricane started forming in the Caribbean immediately after we’d booked all the hotels - might have to rejig the route a bit if it heads for Florida.
Moving a tandem around is always a challenge. This time we rented a mini-van to drive us, our kit and the tandem across the state to the start point. I quite liked it, Steve was less keen. Left at 9:00 and made it to Titusville by 12:30. Found the car hire place, found the hotel. Got rid of the van, changed into our stylish cycling gear and headed over to Cape Canaveral. Got our starting photos, realised there isn’t much by Cape Canaveral (except for that whole rocket launch site) and headed back to the hotel. We did see our first gator of the trip.
I think I should explain “the gap” it’s not a shop or the space between the carriage and the platform on a tube train in London 😂😂. It’s part of the route that has to be completed on a road, specifically SR 50. This road is pretty dangerous for cycling on, some of it is two lane highway with trucks !!! We found a way round most of it on much smaller roads, combine this with doing it on Sunday so there is likely fewer trucks and hopefully it will be bearable. Will let you know …..
ReplyDeleteSo this is the first real long distance ride we have done in the USA so I thought it might be worth contrasting that with doing them in Europe. Let’s start with what is common ….. you ride a bike. If it’s a tandem people shout “she’s not pedalling” and think its the funniest thing in the world. Frankly thats about it. So what about the differences …… well there are lots, not all are unique to cycling.
ReplyDeleteCAFE’s: if your idea of a perfect ride is a “cafe crawl” then the USA is not for you. I guess you could do McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts but see below in terms of roads.
HOTELS & RESTAURANTS: for us the perfect place to stay is a rural pub (or its european equivalent). The room, bar and restaurant are in the same building. In any reasonable sized town there are usual more than one to chose from for less than £100 per night. Not so USA, they tend to be close to the junctions of major highways, the restaurants are in separate buildings which require walking and crossing said major roads so going for dinner is the highest risk part of the day!! Prices are typically + 50%. Rooms are usually big enough to put the bike in though!
CYCLING ON ROADS: some similarities in that cycling on major roads is a “no no”, we will do some minor roads (county roads) on Sunday so will let you know. The rail trails are tremendous, typically 8 to 12 feet wide and tarmac. Rest rooms (toilets) whilst not frequent do exist and are clean and well maintained and free (no scrambling for change to “spend a penny”.
ROAD HAZARDS FROM ANIMALS: so in the UK this is mainly a problem with sheep and dogs, in Florida it’s Alligators and Snakes 😳. Probably in more northern climes its grizzly bears??
Will continue to observe the differences and report back…. Could change but cycling in Europe is our favourite but for us it’s a summer only thing so “winter training” in Florida is a perfect way of getting all year round cycling😁