41.6 mi / 12.0 mph / 207 ft. climbing
Home: Serena Inn
The mild headwinds of the last couple days accelerated into an actual progress-slowing force this morning. For the first 15 miles out of Lakeland we were pushing hard as the chilly blasts sliced through us, especially in sections where the curving route turned straight into them, or the broad road corridor opened up where the tree cover fell away.

But then when we reached the Van Fleet State Trail, the riding suddenly became much easier, even though our northward turn was theoretically putting us more-directly into the wind. Certainly the tree-enclosed corridor of the former rail-line was helping, but it also felt like the wind decided to relax just in time. The trail runs through the relatively-remote Green Swamp, so there were limited crossings and few trail users, so we were able to comfortably cruise for the next 10 miles. There were sections with an unusual number of dips and potholes, but even more unusually, the surface somehow remained smooth over them; maybe Florida heat enables some sort of stretchy form of asphalt?



At our exit point, we took a break for lunch at a trailhead shelter and had two nice chats with retired guys out for their recreational rides, both with a bit of touring experience. The second guy had driven 30 minutes from Lakeland only to realize that he had forgotten his cycling pants, so he was glad to have the opportunity to talk with us just to make the trip worthwhile, and we were more than happy to fill that role!
Before we set off again, I was checking my phone so that I would know what campsite we were heading for when we arrived at Lake Louisa State Park. For some reason I couldn’t find the reservation confirmation email, and digging out the computer and logging into the State Park website revealed no record of a reservation at all! Apparently I had just thought I had made a reservation, but actually hadn’t! That’s the first time I’ve ever screwed up like that, and since most Florida State Parks are fully-booked throughout the winter, there certainly wasn’t any availability on this Saturday at a park adjacent to Disney World. We could have attempted to use the “no turn away” policy that exists at Florida State Parks for touring cyclists (we haven’t actually tried that yet), but I found a $74 motel room that was actually more-directly on our route to Disney, so I just swallowed my embarrassment and booked that.
I then had to figure out a new routing across the relatively-roadless forest lands. One of the trail riders warned about the section we would have to do on busy FL-33, but of course that was trail-rider fear, and with the shoulder it was perfectly fine. However, the shoulderless road that we turned onto to cut east across the forest for 8 miles (CO-474) was much nastier than the essentially-empty Google StreetView photos suggested it would be. It was busy enough that lines of cars would get backed up behind us, and then when a passing space opened up, follow-the-leader mindlessness meant that several times cars were narrowly flying past us trying to squeeze into a too-small gap as oncoming traffic returned.



The Serena Inn didn’t have great ratings, and housed a decent number of long-term residents, but neither is unusual for motels that we stay in. And like most of the others, the terrible 1-star reviews are a bit mystifying. Yes, there were people just hanging out on the stairs having a smoke, and people with a full-on Weber grill set up in the parking lot, but one of the guys on the stairs struck up a completely-respectful and interested conversation with Rett, and I wish we could have joined in on the barbecue since it smelled good and looked like they were having a great time! I suppose the novice travelers who fly in with their families from Des Moines to go to Disney and are shocked by the lack of room service might put us, wheeling our bikes into the room, in the same class as the other people that they see loitering, and include us in their 1-star review, so maybe the “problems” in these places are just invisible to us because we’re part of the problem!

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