October 29, 30,31

October 29th was an easy 55 mile ride to my host, Rose, in Palm Coast Florida.  I had a nice evening with Rose as we discussed my trip and her plans to do a similar trip sometime soon.

October 30th was my longest mileage day on the bike, traveling 107 miles to the house of my Uncle Joe and Aunt Pam in Melbourne.  Being such a long day I left at 7:15am while it was still dark.  Got to see a beautiful sunrise off the Atlantic Coast.  This is Flagler Beach:

In this area the main road, Route A1A, was closed to traffic as construction crews were busy removing tons of sand that were deposited across the road from hurricane Matthew almost four weeks ago.  Further down the road I wanted to ride my bike on the hard packed sand of Daytona Beach which is normally a very wide stretch of beach that allows motorists in certain areas.  Unfortunately, again, due to the hurricane, the beach was closed.  I looked over the barricades and, sure enough, the ocean was a mere 10 - 20 feet from the steps of the beachfront hotels.
For a while I was riding on Route 1 and there were long stretches (15 to 20 miles) with no convenience stores or services of any kind.  As a result of that and the heat of the day I was running low on water and getting very thirsty.  But eventually I found a place a loaded up on Gatorade and made it Melbourne for 2 days of rest.
I had a super visit with my Uncle Joe and Aunt Pam.  Joe took me to lunch on the 31st with a group of his friends.  It was a great group of guys and we had some good food and lively discussion.

That night Joe made a terrific linguine with clam sauce dinner.  In the morning Pam made a wonderful Spanish omelette to power my morning ride. Fantastic!  Why would I ever want to leave?
Here's my uncle Joe and Aunt Pam: