Planning our ride

First off we had to find a date that worked. With our busy work and travel schedules, this was a challenge. No way would my riding partner Jim be able to go before April 15th as he and his wife Lisa own Twin Management a Tax accounting service. Any earlier than April would be a bit to tight on the training schedule. So we opted for April 19th, which was a Friday. I put together a "long mile build up" training program that we could follow on the weekends. It started with 20 miles (no problem) increasing by 5 or 10 every weekend until we reached a 60 miler, then tapering the last couple of weeks before the big ride. The rest of the week, we were on our Pelotons riding 30 to 45 min per day with the Peloton instructors.

Ready to roll

Off the bikes, the big challenge was logistics. I didn't realize the weekend we had chosen was Easter weekend. This really added some challenges to the planning. Hotels, no problem. In Key Largo, we booked Amy's Dive Resort, sight unseen. We were only going to be there for the night and it turned out to be a perfect spot. Right on the water, close to food and pretty much across the street from John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. For us, it was a meal, some beers, a sunset, and a good bed to get some rest in before our departure at 6:00am.

In Key West, we booked the Heron House Court where I've stayed previously. The Heron House Court is small with a limited number of rooms, a pool, and a jacuzzi. It's walking distance from Duval Street, but you are not going to want to make that trip multiple times a day. It's very close to Dante's and the waterfront area with plenty of dining options nearby. Okay so place to stay all set. So far so good.

Roman our host at the Heron House Court

Transportation was a bigger challenge. The wives opted for round trip flights from Tampa...this would turn out to be a big mistake. We could either rent a car from Tampa to Key Largo, then rent another in Key West and return it to Tampa. Those options we soon found out were not going to work because of the Easter holiday. There's no place to drop off a rental car in Key Largo and in Key West, the car rental places were not open on Easter Sunday, the day we were planning on returning. Another option for getting out of Key West...the Key West Express ferry was also closed due to Easter Sunday.

Here's what we came up with. We decided to drive down to Key Largo, spend the night then move the vehicle in the morning over to the Caribbean Club where we could park it over the weekend for $10 per day. We'd start our ride from there. In Key West, we'd rent and pick up a vehicle on Saturday when the Rental facility was open, park it overnight and drive back to Key Largo with the bikes on Sunday where we'd pick up our vehicle. Unfortunately, the only place to return the rental was in Naples, which was on our way back to Tampa. So we did have to drive two vehicles for a portion of the trip. We later found out that there is a bus service through the Keys and they do have limited spaces for bikes on the front of the bus. This could have been an option.

Our goal was to make this trip without hauling all the weekend's necessities with us on our bikes. We were only going to take our water bottles. spare tubes and tire changing equipment and some form of protein. This meant we'd either have to ship a weekends supply of clothing and sundries to the Hotel in Key West ahead of time or have the wives bring these items along with them on their flight in. Having the wives bring our stuff only had one problem, what if they didn't make it due to weather. We went with this option figuring we could take the risk and worse case we'd have to buy these items if they didn't show.

From Tampa to Key Largo took us about 6 hrs. We left on Thursday around noon. 75 south to Naples and then drop down to 41 (bypassing alligator alley) through the Everglades to 991 which turns into US 1 near Homestead FL. We arrived in time to have a couple of beers, do some carbo loading and watch the sunset. The forecast called for rain in the morning, so a good nights sleep was all that we could think of and after a full day of driving that's exactly what we did.

Amy's Amoray Dive Resort in Key Largo

View from the beach looking back at Amy's