Edwin Starr would inspire me before I would undertake a walk from Westbury, NY, to my cousin’s place in Mineola.
206 Miles
Starting on Friday, January 15th, I began to explore the Miami area by bike. 10 days later, on Sunday, January 24th, I decided to put away my bike shorts and bring out my walking shoes.
For 10 days, 206 miles logged, I’ve had nothing but good times on my bike, I just treasure my life a bit more these days. The 2.5 miles from my apartment to Key Biscayne is an adventure, that to get through unscathed, you have to play the game.
Insert quarter, sweaty palms on joystick, dodge those cars with distracted texting drivers, watch out for that pedestrian with headphones on not caring about his/her surroundings, be super careful of all the debris on the road, where are the street sweepers?
Closing call
Miami bars close at 5:00am, between the hours of 5am and 6am, you don’t want to be near any area that caters to partiers. Frenchy, the president of the VKBC, told me that he’s lost friends to drunk drivers in the morning hours.
I lost a good pair of Costa sunglasses in a close call of my own the other day. I’m heading home after a long ride, hugging the curb dodging glass shards, when a driver comes out of a side road to my right, not looking at me at all. He’s also hugging the curb making a left turn right into me, he’s looking right at incoming traffic, my bike is not registering in his mind.
In a split second, I leap off my bike onto the sidewalk, the driver misses my bike by a few inches, he stops to bitch at me, like it’s my fault. In that leap of faith, my Costa sunglasses apparently fell off my hat, and in my nervousness, I just got back on the bike and was glad I was in one piece and that my bike hadn’t been crushed under the weight of the idiot’s car.
25 miles to go
Getting 25 miles on the odometer in this city is a chore, if it wasn’t for Key Biscayne, I would not be riding my bike at all. Miami needs an attitude adjustment, turn off their fucking cell phones, make them look up for a change.
Hi, my name is Bert, have you tried turning it off and on again?
I got ten more miles to go
I got nine, eight, seven, six
I got a five more miles to go
Now over the hill just around the bend