No Work and to Much Free Time

A Spur of the Moment Bike Trip

         The day started out just like the past few, except there was no work to go to. My friends and I had just finished our contracts with a yacht in Ft. Lauderdale, and had some time off before the next job started. The morning coffee conversation was the same, until Jeremy came up with the idea of cycling to Key West. Everybody agreed to the idea and we started to plan when to leave. After a few dates where tossed around, I half jokingly said “let’s leave this afternoon”. None of us had jobs, or any responsibilities to tend to, so we said lets do it. Then Jeremy being the wiser out of the three of us, reminds us that we don’t even own bikes. That was a bit of a downer.

          Angie, who is not the type to give up on an adventure, came up with a plan. The crew house where we were staying at had a collection of old bikes, and the owner said we could take some of them. The only problem was the condition of them was not up to par, even if we were just riding across the street.

          All of us were determined to leave that afternoon, so we got to work on the bikes. The beach cruiser Jeremy chose was in the best condition all it needed was a few baskets to hold our stuff. You got to love those little baskets from the grocery store, a few zip ties and some rope and you have instant panniers for free.

         Angie had the most interesting bike for a 200 mile journey( I’m surprised it made the journey). With her only standing 5 foot tall she needed a small bike and we found the perfect one. It was one of those folding bikes you put on your boat. Because of the salt air a few of the hinges were rusted and needed to be wired together, or else the bike would fall apart. Not the thing you want to happen while your riding down a two lane highway.

         Now to my bike, except for the fact the rims were bent and rusted the bike seemed to be in good shape. After a few minutes of looking at some of the other bikes I found some rims for my bike. The only problem was the sizes, one being correct at 26” the other one at 24” made the bike a little low in the front. It took some time getting use to the feeling that you might fall forward at any moment.

        We got all the bikes ready for our personal belongings, which wasn’t much. The site of our packed bikes would make anyone want to laugh. Jeremy’s bike with it’s chopper style handle bars, and the two Wine Dixie baskets, wasn’t to bad looking until we loaded it up. The two guitars and his colorful bags is what made people turn there heads when they passed us.

       Like I said Angie was small and so was her bike. I think her bags were bigger than the bike. It was definitely a funny site, seeing her riding down the street. This little girl and little bike, then the big black duffle bag strapped to the back rack, with a bright green tent.

         Then you have my lowered front end bike which didn’t look to bad, until I got on the bike. Me with a huge camo backpack with sleeping bags tied to the back of it looked interesting. What made people look twice was my shiny bald head, beard and the fact I was dressed like a pirate (we were heading to pirate territory). Now if you can just image all of us next to each other, you get an interesting looking motley crew.

        It was now about 2pm and we were ready to head on down south. We formed a little audience during the setting up stage. I think most just wanted to see if we would actually be able to ride those bikes. Some I am sure were there for a good laugh. Like all great adventurers we were ready for the challenge and jumped on the bikes and headed for the southern most point in the US.