As another hot day dawned in Marathon, we decided we could not ride today: although it was only 15 miles to the next stop, it was remote, far from any services, across the 7-mile bridge and through a series of park-like keys with little or no permanent habitation. And we were still dehydrated and not feeling at all well. So, we signed the releases. However, our leader made us a proposition: if we had to rent a car to get back to our vehicle and then come collect our bike and gear, we could certainly continue to use the accommodations reserved for us. We also heartily agreed to provide vehicle support as needed. With no towns near the destination, riders would have to ride the 15 miles, drop their gear, then ride back for groceries, a total of 45 miles of riding for the kitchen crew.

Without the Internet, it would be difficult if not impossible to travel as we do. Calls to several car rental agencies either produced a “please try your call later” or “we’ll call you if we get any cars available.” We made an on-line reservation and took a taxi the five miles to the Marathon airport, where a car became available early. We stopped at the supermarket, filled the list, got more requests as we were shopping, as a pre-arranged plan for meals fell through. We loaded the trunk of the rental with coolers of meat, more tempeh, cheese, pies, and salad mixes. We loaded the back seat with bread, cereal, and other non-refrigerated staples, and headed across the bridges to the next campground.

After unloading the food, we headed back toward our own vehicle, reaching Miami near rush hour. Being unfamiliar with the turnpike system, we somehow ended up dumped onto US1 and creeping from traffic light to traffic light for several miles until we could get on I-95 at its southern terminus. Having a toll transponder in the rental, we zipped through the city and quickly arrived at the economy parking lot, where we retrieved our car at about 5:00pm. We then convoyed down the turnpike, tag-teaming the lane changes to get around slow traffic, until we got mired in the southbound merger of several tollways and crept along. A quick stop at Florida City, with which we were familiar from our Everglades layover day, for a quick snack and then onto US1 and the Overseas Highway to Marathon, where we refueled both vehicles, dropped off the rental car at the airport, and continued on to our tent and bicycle, arriving a bit after 8:30pm.

The rest of the tour, meanwhile, had all safely arrived at the Bahia Honda campground and apparently enjoyed a feast of grilled brats, grilled chicken, grilled corn on the cob, and potatoes, with tempeh and edamame for the vegetarians. Several riders stronger than we are had experienced difficulty in the hot sun crossing the long bridge, so we felt we had made the safe decision.

Just before we arrived at Key Largo, we had passed a construction site, and developed a slow leak in the front tire. We pumped it up and pressed on, as we had an appointment to shop for groceries. A few more stop and pump sessions ensued. We won the lottery for first flat on the tour. The professional mechanic among us, Jerry, replaced the tube from our stock of spares (40-406 tires and matching tubes being rather scarce, we supply our own spares, though a standard 20-inch tube will work), and found the tiny sliver of fine wire piercing the tire.

Our planned quick-cooking Thai noodle and tofu or chicken salad had turned out a bit less than optimal, as wide rice noodles were not to be found and we used wheat instead, which had to be cooked, leaving little time for extra cooking. We were also warned about raccoons in camp. Scavengers are always common in state parks across the country, unattended picnic tables and unlocked coolers being easy prey. We gathered all the food and stored it in our trailer, which is hard-shell and lockable.

After a hot day and a rather spicy meal (the Thai peanut sauce was a bit harsh for some of the group), and some irritability presumably inspired by flatting and pitching the tent on coarse sharp rock, the night was a bit miserable for the Unix Curmudgeon. The next morning, the Nice Person (our erstwhile stoker) decided we needed to lighten our load, so we stopped at the Key Largo UPS Store and shipped most of our heavy, Seattle-style bike clothes and extra camp clothes home. Of course, the weight didn’t change much from the day before: we now had 10 pounds of potatoes in our trailer, as we only fixed one each the night before, due to limited cooking time. We also had stopped for espresso on the way, having to instruct the barista exactly how to make the perfect Seattle-style Americano (equal parts espresso and water).

We arrived at the first rest stop about 15 miles down the road just as some of our group were leaving. At this point we were 20 minutes behind, having stopped twice already, for shipping and coffee. We didn’t tarry long, and pressed on. The day turned hot quickly as we passed through the sprawling Islamorada community. The bridges between the keys didn’t have high rises, for the most part, and some even had a separate, parallel pedestrian/bike bridge for fishing. The 2.2-mile bridge in mid-ride was especially nice, as the rise was gradual and we got a cool breeze from both sides.

We had stopped for lunch at a sort of flea-market area on one of the keys that had porta-potties and some shade in the parking lot. Coming out, we got confused by a “Dead End” sign and rode on the shoulder for a quarter mile before realizing the dead end was at the bike trail. We pushed across the grass to the now-obvious bike trail, which maneuver probably picked up a goat-head thorn. It was now after noon, about half-way to our 55-mile goal for the day. We stopped at Layton, where the bike path resumed, bought ice-cold water at a convenience store, and parked in the shade. When we remounted, the front tire was flat. We chose to patch the new tube rather than break out our reserve spare, which turned out to be ill-advised, as the thin peel-and-stick patch that came with our tire spoons gave way at the thorn puncture several more miles down the road. We made a wobbly low-tire turn across the road to shade and a short bike path, where we discovered that the right axle nut had loosened and would have fallen off after a few more miles of rough-surface riding had we not flatted again.

After this repair and carefully checking the bike fittings, we set off, only to find the bike path abruptly end a short distance down the road, necessitating crossing the road to the shoulder once more, through the grass. Our estimated time of arrival now stretched from an optimistic 3:30pm arrival to a hopeful 5:00pm arrival. With sunset at 5:30, we pressed on in the now stifling heat and head-on into the sun. We finally arrived in Marathon with the sun full in our eyes, behind traffic lights. Road work sent us back and forth from bike path to opposite sidewalk, with many cut-out driveways not suited to bikes. The road is in process of repaving through the entire town, leaving a ledge between the curb and road surface high enough to pinch a tube or bend a rim on heavily loaded or low tires. We didn’t, but suffered through constant jarring. Tandems can’t lift over obstacles like a short bike, and the trailer just bounced along. We stopped at K-Mart in Marathon to stock up on tire patches and rode on into the sunset with front LED blinker running to ward off left turners at intersections.

We arrived at camp just at sunset, a bit too close for comfort, but just in time for supper, supplied by leader Jack’s son. The meal was wonderful. The Unix Curmudgeon even tried a bit of the deep-fried grouper, while the Nice Person (always willing to order fish when eating out) also tried the stone crab and the spiny lobster. Our vegan tour member, Bill, supplied garlic and sesame-marinated tempeh for us more strictly vegetarian folk. Others, curious, tried it and most gave approval.

However, the intrepid tandemists were off their feed for having finished a 55-mile ride, and actually ate very little, heading for the showers, missing the key lime pie altogether, and retiring early. A bit of nausea and headache persisted through the night, along with moderate sunburn, considering we had been out in the sun for over 10 hours, perspiring profusely. Though we had applied sunscreen and reapplied at least once, we have had very little exposure to burning rays, living in the Pacific Northwest as we do. We had gone through our requisite one bottle of water for every 10 miles, but it wasn’t enough. We didn’t have the more severe symptoms, but were unable to drink more than a few sips of water or sports drink without increasing nausea. Our elevated body temperature persisted through the night, and we decided we simply could not ride safely the next 50 miles into Key West, and probably not complete the long days eastbound over the weekend. Our only choice, if our condition did not improve by morning, would be to resign from the tour.