Closing the Gulf

The first part of the current bicycle tour ended up being a ride from New Orleans, Louisiana to Miami, Florida in order to meet up with a Princess Cruises ship, the Sky Princess to be exact, leaving from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Southampton, England. I ended up arriving in New Orleans just hours after the Eagles beat the Chiefs at the Super Bowl. Ultimately the trip would be a magnificent series of rides along the coast of the Gulf of…well…I don’t know what to call it anymore…and then through the north of Florida to the town of St. Augustine on the Atlantic coast and then down to a motel in…wait for it…Hollywood, Florida in the Miami metroplex.

Before talking about the rides and various adventures along the way, however, I’ll talk a little bit about equipment. In a previous post about a tour I did in Texas I spoke at length about the bicycle I ride, the 2024 fourth generation Trek Domane SL5. I won’t repeat any of that here other than to say that it is the same bike I rode through Texas. I have yet to make any modifications to the groupset. I’ll say that for this trip I started with  Schwalbe Pro One Evo S Race 700×30 tubeless tires from Flat Tire Bike Shop in Cave Creek, Arizona and ended with tubeless Continental tires from City Bikes Aventura in Miami. Otherwise, my Domane is straight out of the box.

With the bike covered, let’s talk about packing. Remember, the Domane is an endurance road bike meant for hours in the saddle, but this category of bicycle is still fundamentally aimed at speed and ride control. It is meant for short touring. That is, you start in the garage and ride around your area all day, and return it to your garage. Or you put it on a bike rack on the back of your SUV and drive somewhere and ride all over the place all day, then put it back on your truck and head somewhere else. There are no mounting brackets (“tour tabs”) or places to put frame bags, or bike racks. Sane people who long tour invariably go for long-frame gravel bikes with tons of tour tabs to load all kinds of gear into. However, I am not sane.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=mjN4dMvC0Gs&si=T1WUMhkbTa8TjznO

Gear

Since this post is looking like it’s going to be rather long, I’m just going to tell you that the pack weighed in at 29.2 lbs with the tent and the sleeping bag on the outside, water bladder enpty.

Clothing is going to be an issue on this trip. I’ll be talking more about it along the way, but I’ll point out here that I am not going to be wearing much normal clothing, and so I won’t be wearing tzitzit, so I decided to put some on the pack just to have them visible some of the time.

I’ll talk more about changes to this configuration down the road, and I may also get into some of the details of what I brought with me, but again, for space considerations I’ll just post the initial packing list that I left Arizona with.

I could talk about this for a while as well. For instance, why are my lights in the pack and not on my bike? Thieves! And, that headlight is only needed on the bike when I have to ride at night, something I avoid at all costs. Otherwise, it’s my flashlight at the campsites. Stuff like that. But let’s get to the rides, shall we?

Louisiana

So after driving from Arizona to San Antonio and taking the train from San Antonio to New Orleans, I hopped off the train at night and started heading to the campsite.

Here is the Strava link. Of the first ride.

I arrived in New Orleans a few hours after the Eagles won the Super Bowl and rode all night to the campsite.

That there were cops everywhere managing the traffic through the city to get everybody home from the Super Bowl actually made riding through this unknown metropolis in the dark completely safe. I ended up pitching camp in a park next to a fence. ALWAYS lock the bike.

The next day I headed along the Louisiana coast.

Coastal Louisiana

The Rest

I can tell I am going to have to publish a raw post and add to it bit by bit. I have some other writing I need to get done, and I want this post on file to add to it, but I just don’t have the time to make a full Florida post such as the Texas Tour right now. I so I am going to put the brakes on this one and just list out the Strava Rides and hopefully things out here and there. I do want to make some nice, normative, cycling oriented tr4avel blog posts out of this thing, but really I should wait until I have the time and focus. However, I want all of my writing, from the crazy personal arty stuff to the more professional blogging to all be available to the Jewish Agency in one place, with this blog as a kind of clearing house for all things me. So here are the Strava rides for this tour.

Into Alabama

Down through Alabama to the Coast

Gulf Shores Alabama

So my first night on the Alabama coast I slept under a restaurant.

The next morning I went for a ride around the city of Gulf Shores. It’s a popular resort area for the Alabama college kids to go to for partying on their school breaks and in conjunction with their college football games that they are VERY enthusiastic about.

Here is the Strava link for this ride around town.

The highlight of the day was meeting a pair of Canadian short tourers, Debbie and her husband, whose name I promptly forgot. Not only were they super sweet, but her name being Debbie reminded me not only of my counselor at the Jewish Agency, Dvorah, but Zack Snyder’s wife Deborah Snyder. This Canadian Debbie wasn’t quite wearing a Watchman blood-speckled smiley face on her hat, but a regular smiley face with a red jacket struck me as close enough.

The second night in Gulf Shores I moved from under the restaurant to a gorgeous creekside view not far from the highway into town.

The opening to the water made a path for ferocious winds all the night long, and I nearly froze to death. Keep wind in mind for coastal winter camping.

Riding into Florida on Valentine’s Day

Sabbath in Pensacola

Riding to my Dad’s House in Destin, Florida

Finishing up the Gulf Coast Riding from Dad’s to Panama City

Shooting Up into the State from the Coast

Riding into Tallahassee

Heading toward the Atlantic Coast

Riding to the Atlantic, Part I

Riding to the Atlantic, Part II

Century Ride to St. Augustine, Florida

Recovery Ride around St. Augustine

Ride to Daytona

I just missed President Trump’s rally in Daytona. Now one thing I didn’t state in the Strava ride was that on the way into Daytona at Ormond Beach I looked right at one point to see a kosher headshop or tobacco store or whatever that advertised kosher weed gummies. Overcome by curiosity, I bought a pack and popped a couple to see if they actually got me high, and sure enough, they did!

I didn’t know what to make of it at the time. Florida is a medical marijuana state. In order to get THE products you should need a valid medical marijuana card given to you by a doctor because you have a qualifying condition that allows MMJ as a part of an approved treatment program. However, apparently, if you don’t find yourself in that category, all you need to do is head to a gas station and get yourself some of these gummies! I thought I would include this little vignette because THC alternatives would end up playing a bit of a part in this story going forward as you will see if you keep reading. For now, I’ll just say that it was under the influence of these gummies that I ran into this song on Spotify.

There is a bit of an apocalyptic feel here, isn’t there? At any rate, the song pretty much perfectly describes what was going on in my head when I heard it.

Riding to and Camping on a Space Force Base at Cape Canaveral

A Little Morning Ride to Breakfast on a Space Force Base

I just missed Elon Musk’s rocket launch.

A Long Ride toward Miami

The Ride to West Palm Beach

Arriving at Fort Lauderdale (Specifically Hollywood, Florida)

Alrighty, so I gotta get moving. I’ll chip away at this thing when I can.