2009-03-19 What is this strange sensation? It's a sort of tickling on my back that results in my whole body feeling a little freer. Could this be what it is like to have the wind to your back? I didn't push out an update yesterday as I only biked about ten miles through the rain from the rattiest hotel ever to a pretty decent one. I then spent the remainder of the day (and some of this morning) working. I replaced my peddles. The bearings had gone out in them and they were making the most obnoxious noises. It's bad enough that people stare, but when they can hear you coming some distance off that is just embarrassing. And the click clack all day long will drive you insane. I finally made it out of the city. But then I had to do some miles on Highway 997, which is super busy. Nostalgic moment: I crossed the route used on my Florida hiking trip a few years back. I stopped at the same overpriced gas station and left feeling cheated again. Eventually I was able to get off that highway and on to the grid of roads making up a very interesting farming community west of Homestead. These people grow everything. I even passed a parrot farm. But they seem overly concerned with security. Everything is fenced in. And these are good fences, too. Maybe there were a lot of folks sneaking into tree nurseries at night and stealing palms. At one point I though I spied an alligator crossing the road ahead of me. When I got closer I found two peacocks nose to tail. Uncanny. It was my goal to make it into the Everglades before dark, but I failed. So I climbed a fence and am camping in an orchard which I am sure will produce some kind of interesting fruit later in the year. I am surrounded by various pitches of frogs, and there are barking dogs in the distance. Always with the barking.

stop messing with my head edge of the Everglades another oppressed culture fields