Titusville Florida – Exploring by bicycle

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.

We’re ready to bike the southern-most 400 miles of the East Coast Greenway

We’re back in Titusville, Florida, and about to tackle the final 400 miles of the 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway

We’re back in Titusville, Florida, where last year’s week-long bike ride from Savannah ended, and about to tackle the final 400 miles of the 3,000-mile East Coast Greenway. Come next Friday night, we’ll be in Key West looking for that Key Lime pie the ECG’s executive director keeps talking about. (Leave your recommendation for the best Key Lime spot in the comments.)

It will be bittersweet. On the one hand, I’ll have ridden just about all of the East Coast Greenway (Providence to New York City will be the last stretch). But this is the final Week-a-Year ride, and it may be the last time I see in one spot all of the 40 or so cyclists I’ve been riding with a week at a time since 2014 and who have become friends.

So what are we expecting this year? More road than trail, but we have gotten used to that as we have pushed deeper south. I’ll be looking out for fish shacks and Cuban sandwiches, fruit stands and exotic ice cream flavors. I’m hoping for lots of ocean views and a strong tail wind like the one we had last year into St. Augustine. And I’ve been told to put on my urban cycling game face between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. But as someone who cycles through the craziness of Midtown Manhattan, how bad can that be?

A bonus day of bicycling around Titusville, Florida

More alligators!

6082B308-4B96-4C4B-85F9-3DB419D57E15 The East Coast Greenway’s 2018 edition of its Week-A-Year Tour is over after 369 or so miles across 6 days. But some of us weren’t quite ready to get off the bike, and so we joined Titusville residents for a 10-mile fun ride on its trail and its Chain of Lakes Park.

Props to the 7-year-old in the group. Not only did she ride the whole way, but when her handlebar grip went flying off, causing her to lose her balance and tumble onto the grass, she bounced up with “don’t worry, I’m fine” to her mother. That’s the attitude!

We northeners remained fascinated with alligators, stopping twice for photo ops. What a big one! It hung around for a while before tiring of our gawking, lifting itself up and waddling into the water.

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Continue reading “A bonus day of bicycling around Titusville, Florida”

Day 6: 63 miles from Daytona Beach to Titusville, Florida

Roundabouts on a rail-trail? Found ‘em in Florida. And

What a day!

This is the last full day of the 2018 edition of the East Coast Greenway’s annual Week-A-Year fundraising ride, and we spent much of it pedaling on quiet roads or trails— including 34 straight miles on the East Central Rail Trail, part of the Coast-to-Coast Connector that will stretch from Titusville on the Atlantic side of Florida to Tampa-St. Pete on the Gulf of Mexico side. (It’s 80% complete.)

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