The travels of the Rambling Roses: Jupiter Fla to Ft Lauderdale

A beautiful warm day made my 76 mile ride a pleasure. It took 5 hrs and 45 minutes, on a scenic, windless day. Rt. A1A ran in and out on barrier islands, and back to the mainland to go around inlets and ports several times. This made a less than direct route, and I was stopped by four consecutive drawbridges, buts it was worth every minute to soak in the scenery.

One of the many draw bridges

The landscape really changed more to the tropical variety at Palm Beach.

I began seeing varieties of palm trees and other crazy things that don't grow in Pennsylvania. The palm trees now have coconuts that I didn't notice before. The ocean water began taking on that clearer, aqua color that I see on tv in shows like Miami Vice, and Coast Guard Florida. I expected to see Don Johnson or Pamela Anderson cruising by in a convertible, (but that didn't happen). The road was quite rideable and bike friendly, except for a stretch with 90 degree turns in Deerfield Beach that almost witnessed my first serious wreck (but that didn't happen). I was cruising in my bike lane around a curve, looking at a motel with a price advertised, trying to decide if I wanted to stop yet, and I was startled by a twenty something girl on a beach bike, riding the wrong way in my lane. By the time I saw her I had time instinctively, to know that I wasn't going to swerve and get hit by a car, so there was gonna be a head-on with me and her. Fortunately she swerved out in the traffic lane ( she could see what was coming because she was heading the other way). The adrenaline filled, not so carefully thought out words, that flowed out of my mouth, hopefully educated her to the dangers of riding the wrong way in traffic.
Delray Beach was the nicest area, in my opinion. As Lauderdale-By-The-Sea turned into the more commercial Ft Lauderdale, I decided to start looking for a reasonable room, as opposed to the resort type places that were prevalent. I found a place that was right on the beach, tucked into a hole between two resorts with a cardboard sign out front that said $53.00. I stopped in and the Russian girl set me up with a room on the first floor that had lamps that didn't work, and other such amenities, but she said that the bedbugs would be no extra charge, so I took it.

View from my room

My hotel

I immediately went over to the ocean and went into the perfectly clear, warm water. I saw two brownish speckled skates, and a 12 inch shark with a wide mouth bone, that might have been a hammerhead. The beach was relatively narrow, and looked like it may have just been refurbished after the hurricane season. There was a wide sidewalk with lots of runners and other exercisers and tourists. After a shower I walked about five blocks south, and found the main beach restaurant and bar area of Ft Lauderdale. I grabbed a bite and a beer, people watched, and went back to the room to turn on the lights and scare the roaches away. (It really wasn't that bad). I also found out that the jeep repairs were more extensive than first thought, and Pam was going to have to stay in Wachula another day. My choices were to stay where I was another day (which looked pretty good! ),ride a full day tomorrow and get to the Keys a day before Pam and stay with Charlie and Susan Watson (they are the good folks from the outer banks that sowed the seed about spending Christmas in the Keys), or ride a shorter distance and stretch things out another day.