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Day 4: Titusville to Vero Beach

Posted by Brian on March 2, 2020
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What a tough day! Tim and I left before 8:30 AM and did not make it to Vero Beach until after 5:30 PM. We rode 78 miles into a 19 mph wind for most of the day. It was definitely one of our most difficult rides. Well, anyway, here are the photos I took on the ride today.

The scenery on U.S. 1 was not much to look at, but the sky was expressive. However, we did not have any rain today.
Tim eats a yogurt every day. Here he is eating his yogurt on our first stop of the day, 15 miles into the ride.
Tim at our 2nd stop of the day before Melbourne, FL.
This is the bridge on Florida 404, which links SR A1A with U.S. 1 near Rockledge, FL. This was our 2nd stop of the ride, after about 30 miles. Shortly after that, Tim got 2 flat tires.
This is typical of the scenery by the side of U.S. 1, on the way to Vero Beach.
Flags at the Landing Site of Ponce de Leon, on A1A. Unfortunately, we were headed into the wind, and not with it.

When I was a kid walking to school in the morning with Mark, whenever it was really windy, I would wish for a glass half dome to come down over Drexel Hill and block out all of the wind. That’s what I was wishing for today. It would have made today’s ride much easier.

Tomorrow’s ride is about 55 miles, and the winds are predicted to be 17 mph, in our faces again. So we’re going to try to leave early, since the winds pick up in velocity as the day progresses.

Day 3: Ormond to Titusville

Posted by Brian on March 1, 2020
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Tim and I got an early start this morning, leaving at around 8:15 a.m., and riding through the southern end of Ormond Beach into Daytona Beach. Shortly into Daytona Beach, we left A1A and went over a bridge and onto U.S. 1 South. We stayed on U.S. 1 for most of the ride today. Believe it or not, there were some grades we had to climb. I wouldn’t call them hills per se, but the entire ride was not flat, the way it was our first two days. Here are some of the photos I took today.

Tim is pulling out a map on our first stop at New Smyrna Beach, FL, 15 miles into the ride.
A fisherman in an orange boat in the waterway we crossed in New Smyrna Beach.
Another fisherman in the New Smyrna Beach waterway. There were about a half dozen fisherman in this waterway early on Sunday morning.
We got a chance to sit down on our 3rd and last stop, which was in Mims, FL. Here Tim is enjoying his 2nd of Nancy’s excellent sandwiches. We were about 15 miles away from Titusville and our hotel.
Nancy took this photo of me relaxing at the pool at the Hampton Inn, Titusville. I took a nice nap after coming back into our hotel room.
Dinner tonight was Dominoes pizza, one plain and one pepperoni.

Tomorrow we bike to Vero Beach, which will be almost an 80 mile ride. Tim thinks we’re going to have a head wind – I really hope not!

Day 3. Ormond Beach to Titusville

Posted by Tim on March 1, 2020
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Riding across country with Brian and Mark, a few years back, we all concluded Florida had the best roads by far. That observation continues. Most roads we’ve been on so far have been wonderful. We encountered some bumpy roads today that were better than most roads up north. We also road on some sidewalks thru one stretch where the shoulder got narrow and bumpy. We also were on the East Coast Greenway (Maine to Florida) for a short distance today. We saw more bikers on that trail, which was parallel to Rt. 1, than we saw all 60 of our miles today.

First of our stops today. This is along Rt 1. Most of our ride today was on Rt. 1

Our final stop today. We had a nice smooth log to sit on and lean our bikes against. US 1 is about 100 yards down this side road.


Tomorrow is the toughest ride of this trip simply because of its length. The winds will be out of the south so no help there. Lots of sleep planned tonight.