Day 4, New Smyrna Beach - Titusville

New Smyrna Beach - Titusville

Tuesday February 3, 2015, 32 miles (51 km) - Total so far: 183 miles (295 km)

Not much to report today. The route was pretty boring, much of it along US 1. Old Florida.

Roads. ACA maps, and wind. Let's first start with the wind--it matters. It is the difference between pedaling downhill and being able to coast along flat terrain. The wind, by the way today, was at my back, from the north. Simply put: wind can either sap your energy or give you an extra 20 miles. Love it, hate it, but it's there.

ACA maps=good. Concise, yet detailed. Segments are do-able and give me incentive to keep on going. The only thing I might wish for is a picnic table icon. Invariably I'll stop for a rest or snack and a mile or two later see a better place I should have stopped.

ACA maps can take you onto some busy, boring roads--like, What the heck!?--but usually there is a bike lane or shoulder. Though often this shoulder can narrow, dwindle, disappear--and, then I'm really cursing.
Roads. I've never seen so many nails in bike lanes. I began to imagine a guy in a truck dropping a nail every mile or so and then later gleefully laughing thinking about some poor, lone cyclist's tire popping.

Have good tires. There are bumps, skree, sand, glass, and palm fronds that must be navigated.

Below. views of old Florida