Day 2 - Poinciana to Zolfo Springs

After sleeping like a baby, I was treated to a breakfast by my awesome hosts.  The bags were repacked, and I was ready to go around 9:30am.  The weather seemed to be pretty good for riding.  Overcast skies, temperatures around 70, and a mild breeze.  Little did I know, I'd be fighting that 'breeze' for most of the day.

The riding was smooth, and the roads were good.  I'm fairly impressed with Florida roads.  Lots of "Share the Road" signs, and most roads have wide shoulders too.

I rode south for about 6 miles, and then turned to the west.  Ouch!  Oomph! (and a number of other choice words followed)  The wind was directly in my face.  Maintaining 10mph was a challenge.  Luckily, the scenery was top notch and took my mind off of the ongoing struggle.  I rode through miles and miles of orange groves.  Amazing!

From 2010-03-18 Day 2

After approximately 1.43million orange trees, I started climbing a very slight hill.  Since I was still riding into the wind, my speed was ~9mph.  Sure enough, a sprayer came around the end of a row and turned to drive down the next row.  The wind blew all of this wonderful pesticide directly into my face.  For future reference, it tastes awful.  But I haven't been bothered by any bugs since!

There were also a number of bee colonies tucked within the orange trees.  I don't know if they are just to help pollinate or if they actually produce honey too.  I saw these guys and decided to take their picture. However,  I didn't want to get close enough to chat.

I also got chased by my first and second dog on this trip.  My previous host warned me of the crazy dogs, and I mostly brushed it off without concern.  Wowza, I was wrong.  There were two dogs in a fenced yard, and I saw them running along.  I laughed because I knew they were behind the fence.  All of the sudden, a different dog came out of the trees and bee-lined for my rear wheel.  All of the hair on my arms prickled up, and my heart went into overdrive.  I stood on the pedals and cranked as hard as I could.  Luckily, the dog only chased me for a few hundred yards before he stopped in the road.  Once I was safely out of his range, I stopped to take his picture.  Jerk.

After a seemingly endless number of windy miles, I hit a town big enough to have a Walmart Supercenter, and noticed a Little Caesars.  Oh wow, I've never been so excited for a $5 pizza in my whole life.  I ate an entire pizza and felt miles better.  However, I wasn't feeling so much better that I wanted to ride another 5 miles to the campground.  I had my mind set on staying in a motel.  I called and asked if they had any available rooms.  He said sure thing, and that they were $40/night.  After a 5 minute ride from the Little Caesars, the not-so-great motel came into view.  I figured I was there and should take a look.  The guy behind the counter handed me two keys, told me to take a look and pick the one I liked better.  Never a good sign.  Smelly, moldy rooms, and the doors to the mini-fridges were more than 2/3 rusted.  I handed both keys back to the man, and suddenly had the energy to ride on to the campground.

Good thing I did.  It was a beautiful campground and only $16.


After a long and exhausting 73 miles, I fell fast asleep.

Day 2 - 73 miles.
Trip to date - 113 miles.