Year 4 - Day 8 - Ft Lauderdale to Florida City, FL

 

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 and headed into the city. We rode and walked around the harbor area, taking lots of photos as we went along. There were three huge cruise ships in the Port of Miami, two Carnival and one Norwegian. Photos taken in and around the Port of Miami are below.

After spending way too much time negotiating the streets and walking trails of enter city, we were ready to make up our time and head south. Miami has taken advantage of the land below the elevated trains going south and made an E-Path. This is a very nice paved path/trail under the train tracks.

 Our route was to follow this path in a southwesterly direction to the bus path trail. After following this beautiful trail for several miles, it was fenced off due to construction. We found that it was completely closed all the way to the bus path trail. we followed detour signs for a while, but eventually the signs were no more, so we kept traveling west and then south in our attempt to find the start of the bus path. 

Along our quest to find the bus path, we were stopped at a light, I noticed the large “Church of Scientology” building on the opposite corner. I could not resist taking a photo! I would have gone in and taken their OCA test (Oxford Capacity Analysis) to see where I stood and listened to their drivel about how L. Ron Hubbard’s manufactured “religion” could help me achieve the person that I always wanted to be!

Eventually we found the bus path. This path took us almost right to our hotel, 20 miles later. This seemed to be an innovative concept, make a road, for only busses, pave it, instead of installing rail lines, and run busses directly as if it was a train. To me, it seems to make sense, less initial cost, less equipment cost, just as rapid, and certainly more flexible!

Today’s ride, 69.9 likes with 651 feet of climbing This year so far, 508.7 miles with 7,717 feet of climbing.

For the total ECG, 2,990.7 miles and 83,348 feet of climbing.