This trip has involved a lot of cycling in a straight line, but today was about as straight as it gets. As soon as I had crossed my first drawbridge, from Fort Pierce onto Jack Island, a long, thin strip of sand dunes and mangrove swamps running north to south, I barely deviated all day. Seventy straight miles of flat now followed, a lot of which looked very similar. Every hour or so I would stop at a beach access point and see what was otherwise just out of sight. The beaches were always beautiful, with white sand, turquoise water and crashing waves. The currents are strong here and there were red flags flying today warning people of the dangers.
I found a couple of pleasant places for sustenance. One was a small beach cafe with brightly painted wooden tables and benches. The latter, on the shores of the Indian River – the Intracoastal Waterway – was a more fancy German style cafe. It all felt a little incongruous but their apple tart with ice cream and dark German beer was pretty convincing. These places came along quite rarely on a day when roadside development was at a minimum on the islands. I also stopped at a turtle protection education centre. This twenty mile stretch of beach is internationally important for Green Turtles, among others, as a nesting site and there are significant efforts being made to help them. These include a ban on artificial lights within sight of the beaches during nesting season, which starts in May. I also visited an education centre for manatees yesterday. It sits on the shores of the Indian River, closer to much greater human population and widespread boat use. Needless to say, neither of these iconic species are doing as well as they were for the previous 150 million years before humans came along. At least they have some friends.
I made a couple of new friends today, albeit briefly. First I was towed along by a local cyclist who overtook me on a very expensive bike, but not so fast that I couldn’t stay on his back wheel. He apologised for not riding further, but I was grateful for the respite from the constant sea breeze. Then, at the turtle centre, two ladies came up and asked if they could talk to me. They had seen my entry in the visitor book where I wrote “Cycling to Boston” and wanted photos with me!
The final part of my ride today took me along the first part of the “Space Coast”, as I got closer to Cape Canaveral. A large military airfield signalled the start of the much larger and busier Cocoa Beach, where I reached the end of my journey, and the end of three days and about 230 miles of cycling mostly up barrier islands on route A1A. The first half of that was notable for its conspicuous wealth. Things had now come down to a level of privilege I was more used to seeing across the USA. It was unthinkable that it would carry on forever. It still amazes me that there is so much opulence.
On a more mundane level, however, I was back in the land of fast food and I fancied a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Sadly, they were all out of vanilla ice cream, so that treat will have to wait for another time. It is one of my favourite things to eat in America, and feels iconically American. Since all food and drink is guilt free on a long distance cycling trip, I’m sure that day won’t be far away. But I draw the line at chocolate ice cream… not my thing at all!
