The meat belt

On long rides i notice many things. one thing is what I call The Meat Belt in Florida. Meat belt starts n of Orlando around 20 miles and goes north. How far north? I have rode through Jacksonville and the meat belt is there. I have ridden through Jesup Georgia but I did it so fast without time to stop and check so I dont know. Will know when I ride through that area again in may. The meat belt is where you can get steaks and alot of meat everywhere. You can even get a t bone steak for breakfast. South of the meat belt the meat is small nearly invisible and lot of bread. People there are not eating much meat. I think the difference is south of the meat belt people work in tourism and are not working physically difficult jobs. Therefore they dont need as much food. in the meat belt people are working in the timber industry often physically difficult jobs and burning a lot of calories and need meat to recover so they can work the day after many days in a row. For cyclists is this a great area. i love it.

Indians and Cowboys

On my long rides I have rode through indian areas. Lot of them here in florida. When i was young I watched Cowboy movies from Hollywood. There the Cowboys were the good guys and the Indians are bad. This was Hollywood trying to change the history. The reality was that the cowboys were taking the land from the Indians. In the reality the Cowboys were the bad guys. Is Hollywood still trying to change the history? Now when there are no Indians to fight for the cowboys.who is the enemy now? Hollywood has last decades been trying to sell the idea that your neighbor is a crook and dangerous and you need to buy a gun to protect you from him/her. Constantly they are telling this to us and everybody gets scared and this create stress too. Increasing your cortisol in your body making you fat.So Hollywood is not only creating movies for fun. They are making us stressed to consume weapons. On a long ride I meet a lot of people. All kinds of people. And 99.9999% of them are just regular friendly people. none of them like to shoot me. and no reason to buy a gun to shoot them. This media and movies induced stress that people have is totally useless and makes us fat.

Orlando to deland

I let strava create the route for me. I give it start and end point and it uses algotythm to create best route for cyclists.10 miles in to my ride it let me into a bike trail. The Cross Seminole bike trail that I used for more than 10 miles. Then it found a hidden bike trail used for fixing electric poles I think. Went to Deland to see my friend from long ago. Deland is like many towns north of this area mostly in the timber industry. And the food has changed too. I went to a local chees steak restaurant that had huge steaks for me. 

Cocoa beach

Today I rode to cocoa beach.Great weather. Tomorrow I Wil ride inland to orlandi. From there I will ride to Deland and meet few friends then move to st Augustine and a beaach ride again

Fun story on a rest day

Today I am resting so I will tell you a cycling story from other rides I have done.I remember once I was riding a 400k 250 mile randonneuring ride in the everglades. In the dark around 11 pm I stopped at the side of the road fixing some issues with my Garmin setup. I was listening to the sounds around me. Animals like frogs and some other noises from cows. My Garmin fix took more time than expected suddenly I heard the cows shout like in emergency. And they were coming towards me and fast. I moved to my bike and biked as fast as I could with the crazy cows behind me following me. I moved into high traffic highway and the cows had to stop there. Here is the explanation. Usually cows are not dangerous and the only interaction with humans is good.but in this case some animal made them scared and they were fleeing son animal hunting them. I suspect florida panther.the cows were fleeing the panther and I was in the way. I was lucky to survive this crazy herd of cows.

North palm beach to ft pierce

North palm beach to ft pierce today in great weather after riding through jupiter I went to hope sound where I met funny lady with small grocery store. I try yo say hello to her when I am riding by.from there I went through tree tunnels of Jensen beach area. Many have asked me about the tree tunnels . there are few tunnels in miami . old Cutler road has few and the gables have few areas with tunnels. But most famous area with tunnels is the Florida panhandle. Half of the area from Pensacola to Perry is inside a tree tunnels. 

Then I rode through Stuart up indean river road to ft pierce to my favorite place there.

A1A. From ft Lauderdale to n palm beach

Had rain in the middle and I had shelter in a ice cream place. Trump allowed me to pass Mara largo. My phone went out of juce so I had to hit s bar and sit there Until it was charged. Took forever to charge so I did last few miles in the dark. I have good light system so that is ok. Temparature is great.

Day 1 Miami to ft Lauderdale.

First stop was lulu in the grove my favourite restaurant. From there I rode through downtown Miami to South beach up a1a to hollywood. There I stopped at georgios a Greek restaurant making famous crausants. From there I passed fort Lauderdale airport. This area has the only wild ape colony in Florida. I did not see them now.. From there I went to a1a again to my hotel in fort Lauderdale beach . good weather

Blogging

First 3 days of this ride is my usual training ride from miami to Ft Pierce. I know this route well and i have my favorite places. Restaurants hotels and even my favorite gas stations. Nobody but long distance cyclists have a favorite gas station. I love them on long rides. First 300 miles or so I will ride up A1A a beach road with lot of restaurants of all kind. Mexican, s american, american. cuban. Asian. But after 300 miles I will ride into totally different food category. Here the restaurants are for hard working people usually in the timber industry. Breakfast with steak, eggs and ham and beakon early in the morning. And grits.  Lot of calories and great for long rides. I love this area. I rode through this area in my last trip from Alabama to Miami. The timber working food area began around 100 miles west of Perry and ended just north of Orlando. I expect it to begin around Jacksonville. Will it stop more north? I have no idea but will find out hopefully on this trip.

start

I will start  my ride next saturday. have been resting and am prepared for a long ride now. this will be fun.