Day 2 - Take the road less traveled

Day 2 - Ormond Beach to Melbourne Beach - 99 miles - Elevation gain: 3 bridges

To allow the temperature to rise a little, like to 37 degrees, we left Ormond Beach at 9am. Our route took us on side streets to get to the first bridge crossing of the day. I really wish I had less layers on and better access to my phone for pictures, but you’ll just have to believe me that it was pretty. Boats lined the shores and palm trees stood perfectly placed around large homes. We were now entering a downtown area of Daytona, and caught a quick glimpse of the speedway.

We are following the East Coast Greenway trail, but at times I deviated from their route to get us onto roads that followed the coast, and were less traveled. I really enjoyed these sections of today’s ride as it led us past beautiful homes. For some stretches we were on route 1, which had more lights and traffic, so I’m glad these weren’t for long periods.

To navigate around Cape Canaveral, we made our way west and picked up a bike trail. This provided a nice break from the traffic and went for over 20 miles. We had a long stretch without any civilization, which meant that I had limited options for our lunch stop. Everyone was very hungry by the time we got to the restaurant. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t allow for advanced orders to be placed, so it took them FOREVER to get our food out. This allowed the muscles to go cold and pushed our time for getting to the destination before dark. Just shows that even a good planning can be thwarted, but we made the best of it.

The second half of the ride was my favorite. We followed the Indian river on a side road and then crossed over to Merritt Island. On the Island we continued our tour of large homes and beautiful views of the water. I struggled a little in this section of the ride, probably from not eating enough earlier in the day (gloves and layers hinder my normal routines). We stopped for a little and I grabbed some fruit chews and that seemed to help push me to the finish.

Melissa has be driving my vehicle and keeping us stocked with food and water throughout our ride. At our finish today, I was craving a smoothie so she ran and picked up smoothies for everyone. Having a support driver helps keep us rolling along!