Day 6

Day #6:  Cutler Ridge-Bal Harbor (36.2 miles)

We met some nice, animated motorcyclists outside the La Quinta Inn, as we were about to leave for the day.  When we said we were from Connecticut, the guys face lit up.  “Connecticut, Ohio?!!” he asked.  We didn’t even know there was a Connecticut in Ohio! You learn something new every day.

            We made our way into the Miami area.  There was a bike path called the M path which seemed to be following the same route as the subway. 

The path was great but there was a lot of stop and go with crossing intersections.  

Everything went smoothly until right after we went over the Venetian Causeway, a bridge taking us into Miami Beach.

            The same tire on my dad’s bike which was flat the day before was flat again.  The patch had held up for like 60 miles, but that was it.  We pulled into a Shell station, and tried looking up the nearest bike stores.   We still had not gotten more inner tubes that were the right size for my dad’s bike.  There was a bike store about a mile away, but first we tried to patch the tube again.  In hindsight, we probably should’ve just walked our bikes a mile to the store, but instead we spent 45 minutes repairing and putting the tire back on.  Luckily, my dad only had to go for a mile on it until we got to the bike store, because by the time we got there it was flat again.

            When we got the store, we learned that my dads tire was bigger than he thought, and the inner tubes which we had with us that he thought were too big, would’ve actually been the perfect size.  So basically, all the patching was unnecessary, and the second flat tire probably wouldn’t have happened. It’s pretty ironic, and only a little bit funny.

We left his bike in the shop for a while, so the people who actually know what they’re doing could change the flat tire.  (ES- The truth bites like a whip - Ouch!!!)  We then went and got falafel at Maoz.  Once we got the bike back we got on our way.  The sky was not looking great.  Once we started hearing thunder we pulled over and started looking for the closest hotels.  Luckily we found one about a half a mile away.  About two minutes after we walked into the door of the Daddy O Hotel, it started pouring.  Pretty good timing!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!