Saturday the east coast of Florida thru Daytona

Saturday morning was a perfect bicycling day, slightly overcast and warm but not hot and with light but steady winds from the northeast which grave me a tailwind and a cool ocean breeze. 

There were long deserted beaches as I headed south from St Augustine toward Daytona.

..... with lots of cyclists out on this Saturday morning, including this 85 year old guy going for a 30 mile ride. It gave me inspiration to think I can ride for 20 more years.

I encountered this organized ride where they graciously gave me nourishment and cold water.

The heat of the day was just starting to build when I got to Daytona beach where I stopped around mid day for a swim, some lunch, a rest and to let the heat of the day pass.

....Daytona with a beach so firm that they allow cars on the beach.

......the water was warm but refreshing...and I kept cool and hung out for a while.

At this point I was as far south as I needed to go and after almost 3 weeks of never being more than a few miles from the Atlantic Ocean, in Daytona I turned west toward Orlando and across Florida toward Tampa and the west coast.

First I passed the epitome of auto America; the Daytona Speedway.

..... where I encountered auto mania with traffic and roads that were 5 and 6 lanes wide funneling the legions of Japanese and Detroit monsters from the obese speedway parking lots to the interstate. I was so glad there was no event scheduled for today.

I did meet up with a group of locals on bicycles who helped me to navigate my way through the madness.

 ... Telling of my journey when dudes like this serve as my guides!

After crossing the interstate and getting on some back roads the landscape turned very rural with cattle ranches ...

Motorcycle bars and clubs ...

..... and a very old looking turtle that I managed to rescue from the middle of the road.

I approached Orlando from the northeast and found it to be strangely empty there was new expensive infrastructure, with a big new international airport that looked deserted, wide brand new highways all set up for development but nothing built.

There looked to be a story here of politics and money that had gone awry. I cannot imagine which political group in Florida could have been involved?????

Having had a nice rest and cool swim during the heat of the day I rode comfortably late into the afternoon and evening as the day cooled down. This is my favorite time of the day to ride. But instead of going on it into Orlando and the Disney scene I stayed short of Orlando at a small motel in Sanford a great town on the St John river and lake Monroe north of the city.