{"id":20700,"date":"2017-05-06T20:38:33","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T00:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=20700"},"modified":"2017-05-06T20:44:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T00:44:13","slug":"day-16-saturday-may-6-cocoa-beach-to-merritt-island-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tourdebocrie.com\/?p=20700","title":{"rendered":"Day 16. Saturday, May 6 – Cocoa Beach to Merritt Island, Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don’t google the distance between the two, until you read on.<\/em><\/p>\n

The northwest wind was howling,\"\"<\/a> 61\u00b0 with a windchill in the 50’s was cold; it was going to be a long day.<\/p>\n

In our short stretch on A1A, we saw the biggest Ron Jon Surf Shop \"\"<\/a>and more commercialization than we had seen in the previous four days, collectively.<\/p>\n

Our turn west to cross to Highway 1 was met with an strong blast of wind. \u00a0The seven mile causeway with two high bridges \"\"<\/a>in just under an hour was brutal into the wind, but cooler than our Seven Mile Bridge crossing near Marathon Key. \u00a0On the way over, we saw this amazing location \"\"<\/a>of the Cape Canaveral Hospital.<\/p>\n

Short of Highway One, our course had us turn right on a beautiful neighborhood street\"\"<\/a> that wound us up and down along the Indian River.\"\"<\/a>\u00a0Here is yet another example \"\"<\/a>of a “winter home” closed up for the season.<\/p>\n

Slightly protected from a direct onslaught of the wind, we were enjoying the homes \"\"<\/a>and views and feeling a little relief. \u00a0That is until one of the bike’s gears froze and we came to a screeching halt. \u00a0There was no fixing it, \"\"<\/a>but Jerry did manage to engage one gear, so it could be ridden to a bike store. \u00a0We could go forward for 10 miles or backtrack to the town we just left for the repair. \u00a0The dilemma was solved by Christy \"\"<\/a>who stop to assist anyway she could; she recommended the turnaround. \u00a0Five miles later, we were at the Village Cycle Shoppe<\/a>\u00a0where Dr. Jason diagnosed our good news\/bad news situation. \u00a0The bike is definitely fixable, but the part has to come from California from a distributor that does not open until Monday. \u00a0Our option was to wait or …..wait! \u00a0So we found a hotel, but now we had lots of bike bags and no bicycles to travel with; Michael to the rescue. \"\"<\/a>\u00a0He had stopped by the shop and volunteered to load all our gear (and us) and take us back over the bridge to our hotel for the next few days.<\/p>\n

Once again Dan tracked us down, though now we are beginning to think he is stalking us. \u00a0He was on his way over to Cocoa Beach for lunch\u00a0and thought to swing by and take us with him. \"\"<\/a>\u00a0It was a fun outdoor bar\/restaurant \"\"<\/a>with gorgeous views of the beach; \"\"<\/a>a good break from the\u00a0sulking that had already begun.<\/p>\n

We will make the best of this bump in the road, as concluded over Margaritas,\"\"<\/a> and just hope we really can get the bikes fixed at the beginning of the week. \u00a0With nothing to post\u00a0until we ride, we hope to catch you when we begin again.<\/p>\n

As always, thanks for all the great comments that we have enjoyed so far.<\/p>\n\n\t\t