Great Alaska Adventure: Wet and Wonderful

Recently my younger daughter Hilary went to Greece on vacation. She had an ear-to-ear smile for a week before she left and during the entire ten days she was there. I suspect it’s still stretching her face into an abnormally happy shape. I know how she feels.

When I got the the bikes loaded early this morning I knew this great adventure had really begun. Finally.

And MY idiot grin distorted my fuzzy face for the entire 380-mile ride from Orange Park to Homestead, even though we went in and out of rain more than a dozen times from Cocoa Beach to today’s destination south of Miami.
We were out of the rain more than we were in it, but we stayed in rain suits for about 5 of the 8 hours we were on the road. Only occasionally did the precipitation precipitate butt-cheek clenching concerns when I couldn’t see the car in front of me, but those heavy rains only lasted five minutes or so at a time. I’ve ridden in a lot worse and will no doubt ride in worse again during the next two months. Marilyn, with a death grip on her grips, soldiered on without complaint. What a trouper.

We had some equipment to dehydrate after we checked in to our hotel, as the picture of Marilyn drying the hair in her boots with the hotel’s Conair suggests. But we stayed dry for the most part in our new Harley Davidson rain suits (money well spent) and I was especially happy with my dry feet ensconced in my new AlpineStarts Gor-Tex boots.

Marilyn had to choose between slightly damp feet and awkward gaiters and opted for the former. I think tomorrow (which is predicted to be a lot like today) she may choose gaiters and dry feet.

We walked across the highway from hotel to a decent Cuban restaurant where I ate more vaca frita than I had a natural right to. But along with the fried plantains, hot, fresh bread and black beans and rice, it hit the spot. Good Cuban food in south Florida. Who’d have thought…?

Tomorrow we reach the southern most point on our journey to the Great White North. I’m looking forward to playing tourist for a few hours in what the Spanish originally called Cayo Hueso and what we now know as the home of Sloppy Joes and Papa Hemingway: Key West.

“I can’t wait to get on the road again.”

Location:Homestead, FL