jeraimee hughes

Today was a rough 55 miles to our campsite at the Knights Key Campground. I drank 6 bottles of water as well as a bottle of Coke and a Diet Coke from Burger King.

Once we got here though ... woo ... Our tour leaders' Son - who's a commercial fisherman - came out with his crew and the catch of the day and fried us up some Grouper, Yellow tail, Stone Crab & Lobster. They also whipped up some fresh (local) guacamole and fish dip - as well as a couple FRESH made Key Lime Pies ... yes, really.

We ran into a group of kids yesterday that hopped on bikes (some borrowed) and started riding from Seattle, WA to Key West. Today we found a kid riding from Houston, TX to Key West and back. He's following our same route so he'll probably tag along with us until Ft. Myers or so.

All-in-all a fantastic day with a hard (for me) ride.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Keys Tour - Day 3

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:09:00 -0800

Lovely rest day yesterday & today we rode about 37-ish miles to John Pennekamp. It took us about 2 hours and was almost a nice ride.

I saw a dead river otter in the road :(

Tomorrow we ride 55 miles ... weeeeeeeeeee!

Time to head back to my tent and (hopefully) sleep.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Keys Tour - Day 1

Sun, 06 Nov 2011 05:22:00 -0800

First days ride is done. We left the Hollywood Beach Hostel around 7:30am and reached the Everglades Hostel around 4-ish. We did just over 57 miles.

The hostel in Hollywood was neat but the live music at the Taco Beach Shack (attached to the hostel) was annoying & I didn't get to sleep until 11:30/12. We did take a group shot at the beach prior to leaving and I'll post that - along with more pictures - when I can.

In Coral Gables we stopped - quite accedently - at a park; Ingraham Terrace. We noticed a bunch of coolers and cups stached on the park grounds and were commenting on who's it was when I checked into foursquare and read a tip saying "Water and gatorade on weekends for your sipping pleasure."! A company named FootWorks apparently puts this out every weekend for fellow runners, etc. This random act of kindness warmed our hearts & we are all better for it.

Thank you FootWorks.

Near the end of our days ride we rode around the Homestead-Miami Speedway and it, was, desolate. I'm not sure what was worse, the smell from the dumps or the isolation.

The Evergrades Hostel is an ... um ... interesting place. If you appriciate hippy culture then you should defanitly stop by. We are camping out back but the inside of the main house doesn't look too bad. There's a wonderful guy Migel (sp?) who cooked pizza in their new coal fire oven and it was fantastic.

Today we hang out. Must of us are on a tour of the 'glades & I'm awaiting Michele and the kids to go see Coral Castle.

I've already learned quite a bit and I'm very happy I'm doing this as my first tour.

Not a single seizure yet. Keep your fingers crossed.

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Jack-o-lanterns

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 17:55:39 -0700

See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment »