Bicycling the "Florida Overseas Heritage Trail" - Day 2

The day dawned sunny and became windy pretty quick!  Of course, it was in our faces the whole 27 miles.

A fair portion of the trail is currently under construction.  This looks like it's pretty close to being ready - luckily, we're going the other way.  It was one of the nicest portions of the trail since it was actually off the road with trees and vegetation between us and the road.

This was an interesting bridge.  A highway bridge had been built on top of a railway bridge.  The whole thing was closed.

This view is typical of most of the riding: bicycling on the shoulder, but at least the shoulder is reasonably wide.  Still, in most cases, the traffic is moving at 55 mph and there was quite a few cars, trucks, and construction traffic on the road.

Scene along the way.

Creative bridge artistry: using train tracks as a railing.  Many of the short railroad bridges have been renovated as bicycle, walking, and fishing bridges.  It's nice when we could use one of those bridges rather than ride beside traffic.

For us, 27 miles on day 2 with a loaded bike is a long day in the saddle.

Our last challenge of the day was "7 Mile Bridge."  The wind was blowing us back, the sun was fierce, and the middle span was a nice little hill, but we made it at a torrid 6 miles an hour - give or take a mile an hour.

Not only that, but you can see in this photo that the shoulder isn't that wide.  In fact, we saw a car on the opposite side with a flat tire.  It was parked right against the concrete barrier and the inside tires were on the white line.  And it was a very small car.  It's a good thing people have cell phones.

Luckily, I can see over the concrete barrier.  I saw a sea turtle come up and grab a breath of air.  Neat.

Knight's Bridge RV Resort - whew! - it was just on the other side of the 7 Mile Bridge.  We got another nice shaded campsite with the "Sunset Bar and Grille" a block away for dinner.   We even got there just in time to see the sun set over the 7 mile bridge.

When I was leaving the showers, a guy started talking to me.  He and his wife had come down from Sarasota to get away from their busy retired life!