Day 11 - "The Ride"

Thursday we got up and walked a couple of miles with Liz while she had breakfast in the oven baking.

We even stopped at the 18th hole where John tore off his tendon that connects his bicep to his forearm in March of last year when we were playing golf. Liz and I still had 5 holes to go, so we told him to suck it up and drive the cart...true story. We felt a little guilty when we found out he really was seriously injured. After surgery and about 6 months of rehab, he is good as new...no foul right.










The walk was not all work, we rested at the Gazebo that is also on the 18th hole.













After our walk, Liz pulled breakfast from the oven, I can't tell you want it was called, but it was yummy. Liz and John were great hosts as usual, we hope to return the favor this summer.

We were still undecided on what route we were going to take back to Daytona, we were a bit disappointed with the route we took down, it just was not very interesting.

We left Liz and John around 9:30 AM. 

We hit Rt 80 east bound and instead of turning north at Rt31, we went farther east and turned onto Rt29, then Rt27 and onto Rt70 to Okeechobee and Rt 70 east to Fort Pierce. 

This section was actually pretty scenic, lots of orange groves and horse farms.  

 

The highways are straight and flat, you can see for miles and miles.

We rode all the way across the state to Fort Pierce and turned north on US1. When we got to Vero Beach we stopped for lunch at a Subway where we debated running the interstate or staying on the coast. We decided to give the coast a try, it was the right choice. Although it was slow in spots, it was much cooler and riding along the ocean was pretty nice. 

North of Vero Beach we dropped onto A1A for about 35 miles, it was a really nice scenic ride. 

We got back on US1 and headed for Daytona, when we reached Port Orange we dropped back onto 1A1 and found our way to the beach. 

The nice lady at the booth said come back in 15 mins and the gate will be open, I will be gone and you will save yourself $10.  For us the $10 was well worth it.

We have driven on the beach a few times in our life time, but you can't beat riding on the beach, and it was a bonus that we pretty much had it to ourselves. 

We were a bit wind blown but still smiling. 

We left the beach and headed back to camp, only about 5 miles, but it took over a half hour, apparently at 5 PM everyone else is leaving Daytona headed west too. 

Overall it was a great ride, we left Fort Myers about 9:30 AM and pulled into camp about 6 PM, after traveling 295 miles and being on the bike just a bit over 8 hours.  We were tired but it was an epic ride and it made the Martini and Dakin Ribs on the grill taste even better. 

Today we are going to spend the morning at the Speedway browsing, and eventually get packed up to head north tomorrow.