Why I bike. Marking my 58th with a 58 mile ride. I missed the rain.

But I did not miss the headwinds. I thought myself smart, initially heading north for trip out on a 58 mile ride to celebrate my 58th trip around the sun. This was solo ride due to the Pandemic. Just to ponder, and pedal. Wind was heading southwest from what I could tell, so I headed north. Take on the headwinds when fresh and earn a soothing tailwind on the ride back, after making the turn. But, like so much else, things change. As I said, I missed the rain, but not the fierce winds generated by some of the rain. I did enjoy the much anticipated tailwinds for the first few miles (who doesn't enjoy a tailwind?), until I returned to downtown Miami, where I was met with the fierce headwinds. You can either think “unfair” or pedal harder. I did the latter. Downtown was very stout. At one point I felt like I was pedaling merely to stay in place. How I missed having fellow cyclists to take turns pulling in the wind. Perhaps next year.

Old Cutler, past Key Biscayne, Brickell through downtown to Biscayne and north up to 110. I had 25.6 miles, I think, at the turn. Some loops or route diversions would be required to make the 58. I initially followed the same route back until I reached the Grove then into the Gables for a stop, through South Miami to what will soon be known as the south terminus of the Underline. That is where it got slow. Continued down what is in reality the “South Dade Trail” the M Path – a 30 mile path from downtown Miami to Florida City. I rode the path to 184 then headed East back into Palmetto Bay.

58.1 miles. Mission accomplished. A most interesting ride. I waited in downtown Miami for the drawbridge over the Miami River. 

One of the many things great about cycling. You take the time to enjoy the view.

I did stop at The Cat’s Meow Café. It was not open yet. Adopt a cat. The poor guy at the window looked quite friendly but suffers  from (or gets along despite) the loss of an eye. Many small businesses that appear not to be open or operating takeout / delivery only.

That was my ride. I seriously doubt there will be a 75 miler on my 75th – but I will train for it just in case.

The post would not be complete without a few cycling related quotes:

“In politics, one can learn some things from cycling, such as how to have character and courage. Sometimes in politics there isn’t enough of those things.”

Guy Verhofstadt, Prime Minister of Belgium, 2004

“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.”

Ernest Hemingway

“One Less Car” & “We are not blocking traffic; we are traffic.”

Cycle advocacy slogans

And both sides of the aisle agree:

“Nothing compares to getting your heart rate up to 170-something, riding hard for an hour-twenty, getting off and not hurting, as opposed to 24 minutes of running, at the end of which I hurt. When you ride a bike and you get your heart rate up and you’re out, after 30 or 40 minutes your mind tends to expand; it tends to relax.”

President George ‘Dubya’ Bush, May 2004

“Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride.”

President John F. Kennedy