PA ECG Team

We had arrived in Key West on Wednesday. Thursday morning, we rode our completely stripped bikes to the "We Cycle" bike shop in downtown Key West. "We Cycle" Bike shop packs bikes in Key West for $75 each.  I should have known there would be issues when I announced to the older gentleman in the shop that we were there to have our bikes packed for shipment and he gave me the deer in the headlights stare! A younger worker came to his rescue and helped take our bikes. When I contacted them earlier in the year to ensure we did not need reservations, etc. I was not informed that even though they had two shops, one in actual "downtown" Key West, it was their other location a slight distance away (about 3 miles) in New Town that actually packs the bikes. We were given the option to take the bikes there or leave them in downtown and downtown would have the bikes transferred to the other location. Not a problem, but it will potentially require extra time. We left t...

  Toady is the last day of riding for our ECG journey! We spent the night at a quaint little “fishing resort” called Rainbow End Resort. This was the only lodging that I could find in or around Marathon Key that did not require full payment in advance. We made our reservations in March for this trip, so anything could happen between booking and the trip. It was clean and recently renovated. The buildings were only about 50 feet from the ocean and not much space for tide changes. I was amazed to discover that the tide in this area is only about +/- 1 foot!  The resort has a restaurant called the Hideaway Cafe Restaurant. We made the assumption that it would be open and the perfect place to eat dinner when we arrived, only a short walk, couple steps up to the second level! Gary discovered that it was closed on Monday and Tuesday. Unfortunately it was Tuesday! So after we showered, we got back on our unloaded bikes and rode back up the road about a mile to eat.  The resort o...

  Nice and toasty this morning when we left. Got to enjoy my granddaughter and grandson seeing me off this morning. Granddaughter helped me program my GPS and set my navigation. It was great of them to come down from NC to meet us in Florida City and then again tomorrow in Key West. They also leapfrogged us and passed us twice, beeping and waving, and stopped to great us along the way. It felt great to have a cheering squad along the way. Once we arrived in Key Largo, we took a rest stop. Sign at the visitor center. Unfortunately, I fell short of surviving the entire ECG trip without a puncture. I made it over 3,000 miles, 80 miles short of Key West, only to have a wire in my tire break and go internal, thereby puncturing my tube. We found the wire, pulled it out, and put a piece of duct tape over the hole where the former wire exited, just in case additional wires intended to relocate out the same hole. It has survived 2 plus miles so far! Hopefully it will last the final 60 miles...

  Today we left the hotel and diverted to Gary’s nephew’s place of employment. Kevin repairs yacht propeller shafts. He either straightens the shafts and/or machines the shafts to accept the proper coupling to connect to the propeller. When a propeller shaft becomes bent, mostly from lack of proper periodic use, it become bent and causes vibrations on the ship. He inspects, machines, straightens these 4” diameter stainless steel shafts and makes them as good as new! Some of the photos of his shop and the yacht repair years are below. From the repair yard we were very quickly back on course and heading for the beach’s. Our first rest stop was at a beach restroom/shower facility along Haulover’s Naturist Beach. This is the sign we noted as we departed the rest room facility. From there it was on to Miami. We spent a good number of miles on Miami’s Mid-Beach Boardwalk. This is a nice paver path along the beach and hotels along the beach.  After leaving Miami Beach, we turned west...