Last day blog posts always serve as an interesting bookend to the trip. The riding today was challenging; we started out with what’s called the Seven Mile Bridge, coming out of Marathon, which was long and windy with a headwind. After that things evened out a bit, but it still was a long, hot day. From long experience I’ve learned that it’s never about the destination with these trips, and this was no exception; I’ve learned not to expect any big celebration or anything at the end because everyone is tired and just wants to get on with things. The night before last is always the big celebration. We finished at a nice enough park and waited for the rest of the team to come in and watched some police officers play Bocce in the heat. Then we headed over to a Pier to do donuts around the southernmost point, then off to the church, where we all split up. I ended up having a nice dinner though with Carla, Paul, Jacob and Dan, and then off to have a drink with Sully. It was nice getting to meet and get to know Megan, one of our “brand new” riders. Rob jetted off to go home, he was itching to get going. I smell really bad but I once again had a great trip.
Oh, and we got to swim in the ocean down at Taylor State park, finally! The water was great, if a bit rocky. And, randomly, Foreigner was playing - what a fate for them to be playing in Key West to a bunch of middle aged folks.
These “in between” days can be a bit challenging mentally because it’s a bit sad to lose this new community and go back to being (at least temporarily) alone. I get used to being alone, and it’s fine, but it’s great to have new and old friends around for a while!
Key West is exactly what I imagine - like a really hot plantation. Today I’ll swing by and see the Hemmingway museum before flying out to see my sister. Happy to be here but ready to move on to what’s next.
