Tag: Melbourne Florida

Day 2: 70 miles from Melbourne to Jensen Beach

Ponce de Leon, Navy SEALS and a search for pelicans.

Nearly 50 miles into today’s ride, we stopped at the Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce. I learned a few things. Obviously these guys are very fit and far braver than me. But they also have a lot of cool gadgets; jet-propelled boots to go even faster under water, for one. And they never leave someone behind.

That was us today, traveling in a pack of six and not leaving anyone (very far) behind as we headed further south on the East Coast Greenway lathered in sun block and aided by a lovely tail wind. One of our first stops was this Ponce de Leon statue to mark where he came ashore in 1513 and called this land La Florida. You may remember him as the guy looking for the Fountain of Youth. Too bad he didn’t know about cycling; that’s the real magic elixir.

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Day 1: 45 miles from Titusville to Melbourne

Pecans! Giant avocados! Of course we stopped.

Today’s directions were to pretty much follow U.S. 1 aside from the beginning and the end. But it’s never that simple.

On the positive side, Florida does put bike lanes on U.S. 1. On the other hand, it is a U.S. highway, so traffic is going right by you at 55 mph or more and there’s nothing pretty to see. Mostly it’s pawn shops, bail bonds and the odd CBD store. As for pedestrians — you want a sidewalk? Sorry, none of that. Use the bike lane next to all that traffic (as we saw a couple do with a stroller) or walk in the grass. This is why need the East Coast Greenway — for people on foot as well as people on bikes.

Immediately there’s talk of what happens if we go a bit further east, onto Merritt Island. Think toward Kennedy Space Center. And after many miles on U.S. 1 with all 40 of us, a big chunk finally do, going over one steep causeway bridge and onto this narrow strip of land sandwiched between Indian River and Banana River, not as far east as Cocoa Beach.

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