The Way to Fort Lauderdale

An early start this morning. I saw the sun rise for the the first time in years without having to stay up all night. It's around 8:30 now, and I finally feel centered. Snapped a few times on my fellow riders, and had to make some apologies. Probably a combined effect of my body getting used to the riding, and the mental adaptations-I'm honestly just not used to being around other people in such close proximity. I travel well alone, and I've just realized that this'll be a challenge for me. Part of my hope for this trip is to grow, so maybe this'll help my patience with others. Not that anybody did anything, it's just hard to adapt to the needs of others in any situation, and in this case, with people I've just met.

Heavy dreams came to me last night, none of which I want to publish on a public forum. Suffice to say that my thoughts this morning weigh heavy as a result, and I'm happy we're putting in a long day. I need to get some thinking done, and now that we're out of the urban trap of Miami, the back and forth, stop and start of city riding, we can roll smoothly along the ocean, following A1A up the coast to the town of Tequesta, where we'll regroup and figure out a plan for the night, whether to move along or not. The rain that's been following us on and off looks to be backing off a bit, which is good news and bad, with the humidity and heat creeping in.

Miami, despite it's beauty, was a bit of a trap. The extra mileage we'd picked up the day before was lost to detours and dead ends, as well as a late (though needed) start to get bike parts and replace defective camera equipment. Still working out the kinks, as well as riding preferences/styles. To add the cherry on top, the church we'd planned on staying at cancelled on us (actually, ignored us), and we made plans to camp on the beach, until informed by the cops that it wasn't going down. We ended up in a hotel room, no place to squat outside, which helped the day out, a little comfort and a shower can do wonders.

The sun came back, and it's time to go. 70 miles to go.