Four Corners - Day 20

Start Location: Ocala, FL
Ending Location: Homestead, FL
Miles Today: 324
Trip Miles: 6016
States Visited: 23
Provinces Visited: 3
Low Temp: 84 degrees
High Temp: 97 degrees
Min Elevation: -13'
Max Elevation: 197'

Route Map:

Well our plan for today was to get off the interstates for awhile and we did. After a few miles on I-75 we got off onto route 27 which runs down the center of the state. The road was fine, except for the requisite construction, but it was still hot and humid. The temperature was already 84 when we started out this morning and the humidity was about 99%. We didn't even start with our leather jackets today.

Along the way we see several things that are expected in Florida. There are lots of pools and they are mostly screened in. Not sure if it is to keep bugs out, birds out, or maybe critters out. It is really hard to get a good picture but you could see rows of them down the backyards. We also see orange groves and sugar cane. There are numerous lakes along the route. Some of them with trailer and mobile home parks along the shores and some of them by themselves. There are tons of golf courses and this one appears to be pretty inexpensive if you can take the heat and humidity of the summer months.

This is not a heavily traveled road - not much traffic. We do however see a guy on a bicycle following a car with its trunk up. He appears to be drafting behind the car at a relatively high rate of speed. It's obviously some type of training but it's a technique I'm not familiar with. For those of you who have not been here, Florida is very flat. You can see from the statistics that the elevation didn't change much over 200' in 320 miles and, in the last 140 miles, it didn't change more than 35'.

We found a beautiful park in the middle of Clewiston for lunch and a little shade. We arrive in Homestead at about 4:00. Plenty of time for a cooling dip in the pool and a nice dinner. We actually see very little evidence of the hurricane that hit here and dumped so much water just a few days ago - a few branches and some puddles but that's about it. Tomorrow we plan to ride down to Key West and take our pictures at the second corner. Key West is only 125 miles from here and we are planning to return here to stay in Homestead since we need to wash clothes again.

Something that we forgot to mention yesterday were several convoys of power company trucks going in the opposite direction. We don't know where they were headed for sure, but I would guess Louisiana and Mississippi. They were probably in Miami or the Keys restoring power there from the hurricane last week.

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