Day #7: Bal Harbor-Pompano
Beach (40.5 miles)
The weather
forecasts predicted rain all day today, so when we left our hotel this morning,
we weren’t sure how far we’d actually go.
After going a few miles, we kind of got lost, for the first time on this
trip.
We ended up
going about 5 miles out of our way, but we did get a nice tour of Florida
International University.
I feel like I
know the campus better than the students who go there. We stopped to take a picture with a cool
sculpture which happened to be called “No turning back”.
It seemed fitting as we continued moving
forward, even though we had absolutely no clue where we were. Once we got back on the main road, everything
was good.
At one
point we hit a great bike path on the boardwalk in Hollywood. We were able to take an ice cream break there
which was delicious.
As we were leaving
that area, someone biking near us said hello and because of the bags that we
have on our bikes, asked about our trip and where we were headed. Usually several people everyday walk up to us
and ask us where we are headed. He was
very nice, and after talking for like two minutes while biking side by side, we
said goodbye and he went ahead of us (like 5 times faster).
A few
minutes later in Dania, we weren’t sure about which direction we should go in
so we pulled over. Luckily, while we
were looking at the map trying to figure out where to go, the same man from
earlier was biking back in the other direction.
My dad asked him questions about where to go, and he offered to go in
that direction and show us. This was so
nice of him, and we probably would’ve gotten so lost without him, but he bikes
so fast! And even though he went slower
than usual as a courtesy to me and my dad, we still were pedaling so hard, and
probably went our fastest speed of the whole trip.
After he
left us we found our way pretty well. At
one point we took a break and decided to find a hotel “only” about ten miles
away. My dad said there was a place called
Budget Lodge with great Tripadvisor reviews, so we put that into google maps
and kept going.
When we
pulled up to the Budget Lodge, there was the creepiest woman I’ve ever seen
sitting outside. She was literally
straight out of a horror movie. At one
point, she smiled at me and I still have the heeby jeebies.
At that point, we decided to go back to
google maps and see what else was in the neighborhood. Luckily, there was a Residence Inn by Marriot
about a half a mile away. Let me tell
you, even though I was exhausted, I could’ve biked ten more miles just to get
away from that place.
The
Residence Inn ended up being perfect.
There’s a laundry machine in our room which means I don’t have to wear
dirty clothes tomorrow, and my dad can stop wearing his clothes inside-out to convince himself that he is wearing clean
clothes, even though he has worn them before.
There are two pools, a hot tub, and the ocean – and we have made use of
all of them - literally. Its what my dad describes as “a machaya”.
Thanks for coming along for the ride!
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