Wind Blows.

After leaving our rental car behind, we got back on the road. It would have maybe been nice to have the car for the next day or two, considering we hit some pretty gnarly crosswind and headwind the next couple of days. It's amazing how much it affects you when you're biking vs. when you're in a car.  We had a hard couple of days into Daytona Beach, a town full of big hotels and condos.  Every year in Daytona, they have National Bike Week, although these particular bikers are clad in leather, and their bikes have a lot more chrome (and horsepower) than ours.  We wondered how many of these hotels have sprung up over the years solely for the Bike Week. The Bike Week wasn't happening while we were there, though, so things were pretty calm around town.

Ed's uncle had some extra Hilton points and generously put us up in the Hilton in Daytona. (Thanks Uncle Chris!) We felt a little out of place walking into their lobby sweaty and smelly in our spandex, but the friendly front desk folks didn't even flinch.  The guys outside even offered to valet our bikes! We laughed a little, then took our bikes up the elevator and into the room instead. We may or may not have been seen riding through the hallways! The room was great, and gave us a really nice view of the city as well.

View from the balcony. Not bad!!

We had some delicious barbecue for dinner, which didn't even register on the Hilton's in-room scale, which may or may not have been totally accurate.

According to the Hilton, I weigh 100 lbs. I may actually weigh slightly more than 100 lbs. Also, I'm not sure why the picture ended up sideways. Sorry.

 

Clean and well-fed, we got on the road the next day, and had a big day into Melbourne, FL (even with Ed's flat tires). We stayed at a state park that was planning to open up a trail of Christmas lights that evening. We rode our bikes through the beautiful lights (the best way to see them!) and we even ran into Santa Claus himself as we checked in!

Bok!

Ed riding through the tunnel of lights.

It was cold, but not that cold (thankfully)

The next couple days we had a change of fate in terms of wind - we actually had a tailwind! A cold front had blown in (yes, we had a few nights into the low 40s, even though we're in south Florida. Come on, weatherman! Help us out here!), and the wind was a great help in getting us through West Palm Beach (the houses there were ridiculous!) into the Miami area, where Ed's uncle, Tio Fede, lives. We met him for a couple of drinks and some delicious food near Fort Lauderdale. We stayed in Miami for a great couple of days - filled with food, beer, music, and video games. Stay tuned!