Well today's ride was going to take us through the Cypress Swamp and the Indian Reservation that resided in the same location. We also knew on departure that by 1 or 2 pm that some very strong Thunderstorms were forecast. First off, the departure temperature was only 71 degrees this morning and that was a very refreshing start. The skies were clear but within an hour into the ride you could see the boomers were building in bunches and unlike in Virginia, these boys were building in the east and moving to the west. How weird is that? Because the land is so flat here you can see much further in all directions, so seeing more than one thunderstorm in different regions of the sky must be normal around here. We danced around most of these storms all morning with no route changes.
By lunch time we were exiting the Swamp that wasn't and the Indian Reservation. I have seen swamps and this swamp looked more like the farm land that I have been riding through for the last couple of days. Nothing special to say about the Reservation either,so on down the road we go. Here is where I made my first route adjustment. This added 40 miles to my trip, but it steered me temporarily away from a strong looking storm and into the a small town named Immokalee. Here we ate lunch, just a salad at McDonald's, refueled the bike and got back on the rode.
Heading back on track, we ran into a warning sign, that you'll find in the picture link area, of a Panther Crossing area. Now here is something you do not see everyday. Lori and I shot some banter back and forth and what would happen if we broke down here and basically I decided she would be the first to go because her steaks were bigger. I will let your mind work on that for a bit. The further we tracked, the blacker and blacker the clouds got. I asked Lori to take some pictures and as we turned away from this storm something caught my eye. Damn, there is a funnel cloud. Let me repeat that, Damn there is a funnel cloud. Ok, it wasn't that big but it was big enough and we were close enough. Take the picture and let's move on.
About another hour down the road and also what was suppose to the prettiest part of the ride, the rain finally got us. We were now in full gear, getting a bath, and not taking any pictures. The housing in Naples is just as nice as what we saw in Palm Beach without all the traffic. We missed the worst of the rain, so we never stopped moving, but according to what on the news and the debris we saw near the edge of the roads, the rain and winds must have been pretty strong. Overall, a very interesting and cool ride. Never saw a funnel cloud in person before, so I guess I can check that off the list. Lori did get some pictures, so see if you can find it.
Tomorrow is a moving day for us and we will be relocating to Lakeland to setup camp for another couple of days. We still have a little bit more laundry to do and tomorrows ride should be an easy 170 mile ride and that will leave us time to get that done. In Lakeland I have 2 rides setup and this will be it for Florida. One more thing to mention, today put us through 3000 miles on trip so far and we still have 2 weeks to go.
Today’s mileage = 303
Total for the trip = 3162
Day 14 at EveryTrail
Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging
Enjoying the blog. Glad to see you are having a good time. Yeah, the bugs and humidity is what pretty much let Lisa and I know Florida wasn't for us in retirement. Our ride through Tennessee the past two days for me is going to make this last two years at work seem really really long. :)
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