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.