Ride 2: Florida
The Sunshine State
State: Florida (#2)
Area: South Florida/Key Largo
Route: Highway 1 (~25 miles out and back from Key Largo)
Final Mileage: 50.98
Date: December 9, 2019
Sometime in late 2019, Alex proposed our second 50-miler. Given how close DC and Baltimore are to so many states in the mid-Atlantic region (including his temporary home of Maryland!), you’d be forgiven for assuming this ride was somewhere within a day’s drive. But he had a more ambitious—and more tropical—idea in mind: Florida. Specifically, south Florida. In December.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is easily the most exotic destination we’ve traveled to so far to complete a 50. I mean, what could be better than Miami and the Florida Keys at the start of winter?
As a bonus, one of Alex’s college buddies, Levi, was living in the northern part of the state at the time on a work assignment, giving us an excuse to add a friend for both the ride and part of the longer trip. (A friend, I might add, who had accrued gobs of unused hotel points...)
There were numerous possibilities for long rides in this part of the state, but we landed on the Key Largo. Levi helped set us up at the gorgeous Playa Largo resort.
The next morning, we hit the road. (Because we flew to Florida instead of driving, which would have been insane, we decided to rent bikes locally rather than try to transport ours down for this ride.) For the most part, our route was pretty straightforward: 25 miles out and 25 miles on Florida’s Highway 1, which fortunately included a side path for nearly the entire duration of our ride.
Outside of a small headwind on the way back, the ride was about as perfect as could be: sunny, mostly flat, and replete with cool sights and stops along the route.
After 50.98 sun-dried miles later, ride number 2 was in the books.
Our crew spent a couple more days meandering around South Beach before Levi headed back home. Michael and Alex, however, apparently not content with doing just 51 miles, decided to bike some more, adding in rides around Everglades National Park (14.72 miles) and Little Havana/Key Biscayne (19.03 miles). In case you’re wondering, dear reader—yes, their legs (and butts) did in fact pay the price later.
And that’s all she wrote! Ride number 2—our last before the onset of COVID-19—was one of the prettiest rides to date. Good call, Alex.
