Well, I've landed in Miami, and boy it's hot. I guess that means I'm skipping that awkward in-between phase of low 20's, and moving straight from the mid teens to 30 degrees celcius.
I woke up at the cursed hour of 4:30am, showered, stuffed some final things into bags, and got picked up by my dad at 5 to go to the airport.
I arrived at 5:20 for my 7:35 flight with a box that barely fit in the elevators, and a run-down duffel bag pregnant with the smaller bike bags. My carry-on was a pannier, containing passports, my laptop, chargers, and a water bottle. All in all, it was a relatively simple set-up. No backpack, no weird stuff in pockets all over the place, and no suitcase.
We were ushered to a special customer help desk, where I was squeezed a $52 handling fee for the bike box in addition to the regular checked baggage fee. The service agent also chuckled when she told us that the box is nicely packed, but that we're going to need to open it up at security for them to inspect the inside. And therein lies the first lesson of flying with a bike - don't close the box.
And so, undoing the duct-tape, unwinding the ropes, and cutting the cardboard with a box-cutter, my dad and I laboured while a security agent watched, amused at times at the misery, and at other times exhausted by our lack of foresight.
The box was opened, the contents inspected, and to everyone's surprise, there was a bike inside. We all taped it back together, and crossed our fingers that it would survive the flight.
Then I waited in line for security and border control for one and a half hours. I bought a muffin and croissant, rushed to the gate, where the last boarding calls were made, and boarded the flight.
Three hours later, I landed. I had an aisle seat, so I couldn't take any pictures, or see any of the views, but you can be sure that they were amazing. I got out of the terminal with my giant box, and duffel bag, and waited for Aysha, the person who wanted to use my bike box.
I found her about a month ago on the Two-Wheeled Memes for Bicycle Oriented Teens Facebook page, for anyone curious about the workings of the underground bike box market. She drove me to a parking lot, where we started reassembling the bike.
Suddely, a nearby gunshot startled us, and I was just about to make some joke about Florida, when we noticed that it wasn't a gunshot, it was ........... an inner-tube blowout!
And so, we put my bags back in her car, and she drove them over to a nearby bike shop, as I carried the bike about 500m through downtown Miami. They replaced the inner-tube, and I bought a new one. It was here, that my trip officially started.
I made my way towards Miami Beach. Partially for the bike lanes, but mostly because I couldn't get Back in the USSR out of my head. About 10 minutes after I left the bike shop, I got a second blowout. At first, my tire started slipping off the rim, and when I stopped to take a look, it just exploded.
I used my only inner tube to replace the broken one, and filled it only to 60PSI instead of my usual 80. This worked, and I had no other tire troubles today. Still, I stopped by a bike shop in Miami Beach to replace the spare inner tubes.
Leaving Miami was cool. There's a land-bridge between Miami and Miami Beach with a beautiful view of the ocean, and lots of very expensive villas.
The land-bridge passes through some small islands, until...
Miami Beach is insane. It's a city of hotels, boardwalks, and maybe a bit of shopping. I can see why it's got such a reputation as a vacation spot. And with this weather... Wow. I even got a bit of a sunburn to show for the visit.
I also present: the wonders of capitalism. Fortunately, there was a public fountain nearby.
After biking along the entire boardwalk, I decided to get off the beach, and continue biking along the shore in the mainland. I had racked up about 27km by then, and I was hungry and tired from the mishaps of the day. I ate a big lunch, and continued biking.
At this point, I had biked around 25km, and was feeling it. At first, the ride went through small, residential streets, where there were some pretty interesting buildings.
And some interesting animals
But then, I hit the land of strip malls. Now let me tell you something about this land. I love biking through it. 30km passed by like nothing. The road was straight, there's always places to stop and get food, and in this particular strip of strip malls, I had a bike lane. You see the craziest things in the land of strip malls.
I had very low expectations for today, and this week in general, as I plan to spend the warm weather and easy terrain to get readjusted to the routine. I'm still optimizing, and my muscles are still weak from winter hibernation.
Due to technical difficulties, this content will only be available tomorrow. No, seriously, I can't get my GPS to connect to my laptop. My current theory is that my USB chords can't transmit data, but can only charge the GPS? Look, I'm not sure what's going on, but I started reading something about OTG versus USB, and some other uninteresting nonsense. Can anyone help me with my tech support? Why would a seemingly fine micro USB chord be able to charge a device, but not harvest its data?
It's bad practice to edit a blog post from the future. It's a slippery slope to historical revisionism, disconnection from reality, distrust of mass media, and only writing things in pen.
Having said, that, on Day 2, I found a USB cable that can connect my GPS to my computer, and so, I present to you, 67km of biking in Miami: