Hank – Wow, what a great time we had at home during the holidays. Geoff, Josh and (his now wife) Amanda, joined us and Stephanie for Christmas. We also caught up with friends and more family, including attending a wedding.

We returned to Fort Lauderdale yesterday and picked up our bags at our friend Paul’s house. This morning we went to the bike shop when they opened at 10:00 am. I paid the bill and we loaded up and left. We had a Warm Showers host scheduled west of Miami so instead of taking Hwy 1 south we rode west and then south.

Heading west we got on a greenway that ran next to a canal. Kathy was ahead of me and saw a creature off to the right.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“An iguana,” I said

Then an iguana ran across the path directly in front of her.

(Frantically trying to lift her feet, which are wearing shoes that are attached to the pedals)

“Oh, my gawwwwwwwwwwd!!!”

I was entertained. So every time we came across iguanas she would tell me how disgusting they were.

Outside of that our ride was uneventful. The first half had bike lanes and paths. The second half was in traffic.

But our Warm Showers hosts, Chris and Monica, were awesome. They welcomed us into their home and told us to treat it as if it was ours.  For dinner Chris prepared a Brazilian picanha steak and farofa, which is toasted yucca. Both were a first for me and Kathy. The meal was delicious. We also got to meet their son Michael, who unfortunately had to leave for work, and his wife Maya, who joined us. We shared stories and encouraged Monica to explore cycling. She’s definitely interested but more so in an electric-assist bike. Hey, as long as she gets out there, right? Chris has done some short tours out in the Everglades and he’s interested in doing more and linger tours with Monica.

We stayed up until 11:00 pm. Where did the time go? It went to our kind and generous hosts.

Kathy – Happy New Year!!! Hard to believe it is 2019. I hope everyone had a great holiday. Our two week Christmas/New Year’s break from cycling was totally awesome. It was jammed packed with family and friends time. We loved every minute of it. I was also happy that all my bug bites had time to heal. We headed back to Fort Lauderdale with mixed feelings. We were ready to ride again but were hesitant to leave everyone in Spokane. We are hoping some of our family and friends will meet up with us somewhere on our trip during the next nine months.

So today we rode! It took me about four miles to settle into riding again. I felt like I was on sensory overload with all the traffic, noises and maneuvering the heavy bike again. It was also very warm with temps in the mid 80’s (we left Spokane with temps in the 20’s & 30’s). Overall it was a good 46-mile ride.

I must say I was pretty startled when I saw some dragon-like creature jump out of the high weeds and run right in front of me on the trail. There were so many iguanas 🦎 on the trail today and they were HUGE! Those critters were 2 – 3 feet long! Anything that creepy looking and that is more than half my size (I’m 5 feet tall with my hair poofed up) is not something I want to be near! We would be riding along and sometimes there would be 5-10 iguanas crossing directly in front of us on the trail. Pretty cool but a little scary too. Also, the male ones were strutting their stuff turning bright orange as the were trying to attract the females. So let’s add iguanas to the bears and snakes that I prefer to stay away from.

We made it to Chris and Monica’s house. They were such wonderful people. We enjoyed their company and the delicious meal they prepared. We had great conversations and time flew by. Once we realized it was 11:00 pm we decided to call it a night. Our first day back it the saddle was pretty sweet.

A couple of notes… 

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