The Brothers’ Bike Ride

On Friday morning 2/28/2020, Tim and I started riding from Jacksonville to St. Augustine, FL It was on the cool side when we left, about 37 degrees F, but I was prepared and dresses appropriately. I had assembled my bike the afternoon before in the room at the Hampton Inn. I got everything right, but somehow I criss-crossed the cables for the gears and was not actually able to shift any gears at all. But fortunately it was flat and we at least didn’t have any wind in our faces, so it was OK. We made it to our hotel around 2:15 p.m. It was the Casa Monica Hotel in St. Augustine, FL, and it was built in 1887. But it was really really nice. Here is a photo of what it looked like from the parking lot.

From inside the hotel, especially from the pool, the hotel reminded me of the French Foreign Legion fort in the 1939 movie Beau Geste. All that was missing was the French flag. Here is a photo in the stairwell of the hotel. I really like this picture because the moon is not full – in movies and TV shows and most pictures, the moon is always full, so I really liked this picture.

After getting to the hotel, Tim and I drove to Island Bike Shop at St. Augustine Beach, where in about 2 minutes, the bike mechanic diagnosed and fixed my gear problem.

The ride today was, as a result, much easier. The entire ride was on A1A South, so there was no chance of getting lost. We only stopped twice, and the first time was at Fort Matanzas, an old Spanish fort that was constructed in 1740. We didn’t take the short ferry ride to the fort – so we just took some photos from the National Park we entered right off of A1A. Here is a view of the fort.

The next time we stopped was at Flagler Beach, where the colors of the beach and the Atlantic Ocean were very striking. Here are two photos I took at Flagler Beach, where Tim and I sat at a picnic bench and ate the excellent sandwiches that Nancy made for us. Today they were turkey and cheese, much better than the peanut butter and jelly we ate on the ride yesterday, since it was the first day of Lent.

We made it to our hotel in Ormond Beach at 1:15 p.m. and had to wait until 2 p.m to check in. So Tim and I sat at the hotel pool reading while Nancy and Beth made a run to a local Wallmart. Once they were back, we showered, went to the 4 p.m. Mass at St. Brendan the Navigator Church in Ormond Beach, and then went to dinner at the Black Sheep Pub, also in Ormond Beach. Then it was back to our hotel for a refresher course in blogging from Beth.

We had 75 miles of riding today and we wanted to make the 4:30 PM mass near our hotel in Windsor Locks, so we were on the road by about 7:30 a.m. I think today’s ride was not the hardest, but very close to it. We had about 3700 feet of ascending and close to that in descending, and after a while, that can get old. We passed one Civil War statue today, as we have almost every day, but today we stopped for a photo. We passed close to a dozen small towns, and about half of them had small cemeteries. The other memorable part of today’s ride was all of the motorcycles. I would guess Tim and I were passed by close to 3 dozen motorcycles during our ride.

We made it to our hotel by 3 pm exactly, after which we showered and then headed to Beth’s room for our daily end of the ride beers and snacks.

Having Nancy along was really nice, and the daily lunches she packed for Tim and me were fantastic!

Here are some photos from today’s ride.

Tim and I got a fairly early start and passed through Lowell first. The really nice aspect of the ride today was that we were on three different bike trails, all of which were beautiful and well maintained. I used my phone and Google bike maps for directions, which worked great. I’m not sure we will ever just rely on the Adventure Cycling Association maps again, since Google maps have been working so well. We only rode about 47 miles today, and made it to our hotel by 1 pm, another nice aspect of today’s ride. I managed to take a few photos today and here they are. I think these photos were taken on the first bike trail.

As usual, Tim, Beth and I head to the pool and the hot tub after checking into the hotel. Tonight we again are dinner at our hotel, which is where I took this photo.

Tomorrow we head to Windsor Locks for our last ride of this leg. It’s a 77 mile ride and will probably take us a good 8 hours.

Tim and I biked much of the day in the rain, but at least it wasn’t overly hilly. At one point, though, it was raining so hard that it was difficult to see. Fortunately we were on a bike path at that point. Because of all the rain today, neither Tim nor I took any pictures during the ride.

We left our hotel by 8:30 a.m., stopped in Freeport for Tim to get his bike fixed, and then continued on to Kennebunkport, passing through Portland along the way. We used Google maps today, instead of the ACA maps, which really paid off! We made it to Kennebunkport shortly after 3 pm, at which point I took a quick shower, and then walked to the First Families Museum in Kennebunkport. After a few drinks at the bar, we took naps, and then went to dinner at a restaurant called the Boathouse.

Then after dinner, we returned to the bar at our hotel (The Kennebunkport Inn) for some nightcaps. Here is a photo from the bar.

Tomorrow we have a 7.5 hour ride to Tyngsborough, MA. Wish us luck!