3h55 would be the duration of this day’s trip if I didn’t stop, but I stopped a few times during the day, as usual.
The road for that trip went through the Everglades, a wild region covered with swamps where several touristic stops offer airboat excursions over the swamps. I hesitated but decided not to do these, mostly because I wanted to camp at night and had to get there before sunset and an airboat excursion would most probably have lasted an hour – and I’d have to leave my stuff on the bike on a parking lot (not the first time, but always a source of worries).
Not counting the gas refill stops, my first real stop was at the Big Cypress Oasis Visitor Center, a small building with a parking lot where one could enjoy some wildlife including various kind of birds and alligators.
Next stop was much less interesting, but still useful, when I refilled my tank in a gas station in the middle of nowhere and had a foot-long sandwich since the station was also a Subway franchise.
I then continued my trip until hitting Naples, FL where I first went to the beach and then down one of the main street of the city to take a few pictures and eat the cookie that was left from my lunch.
After that last stop, I followed along the west coast until Fort Myers, and then went to the KOA campground in Pine Island for the night where I was offered a spot near a small lake to mount my tent. Since I had had a few issue switching gear I then proceeded to adjust the bike’s chain tension – it had gotten very loose – and oiled it (I had been quite lax on cleaning and oiling the chain so far, and I would pay that having to change it before the end of the trip). I heated some soup for my dinner and had a quick talk with the owner of a RV parked beside my tent site. A guy came a bit later with his car and proceeded to mount a huge tent on the tent side a bit further, rejoined later by two friends. For some reason, I didn’t feel motivated to start any conversation with those guys and stayed by myself working on the blog and transferring the pictures and videos of the day.
