Day 10: Love-bug genocide, oh and also Miami

9 May 2011
The first objective for the day was to ride over to Kennedy Space Center and find out if there was anything that we could get into that was free. Sadly, there was not and there was no way we were paying their exorbitant entrance fees. As a bit of foreshadowing, we noticed that quite a few cars parked at the space center were covered with black bug carcasses.



We were due for a good diner breakfast so on our way south we stopped at this really run down looking place. The waitress/owner was very friendly though and assured us that our bikes would be fine because the police usually hang around the area after they eat at the diner. She also pegged me as a northerner because I put sugar in my grits. Her deduction was due in part to us northerners putting sugar in our cream of wheat. She also said that there was one customer that asked how many “grit” was in the side of grits. Laughing, she said “oh, about a thousand”

Everything was fine until we hopped on some more major roads. They started coming in small amounts. Before long however they we were riding through swarms that were as thick as a locust plague. They were the infamous love bugs. Why nobody warned us about them, I don’t know. But I do know that I blame all you Florida people for not warning us about these monstrosities. There I was in the morning, thinking that I should dress fairly nicely because we were rolling into Miami that afternoon. My khaki pants did not stand a chance against the infestation. There were so many that it was almost pointless to try and dodge them, but I still tried. After a while I even laid down on my tank so that I could partially save my jacket. At that point my visor was so hard to see through from guts and carcasses that I was kind of squinting to look ahead. One thing I could see was the bodies piling up on my headlight, mirrors, and miscellaneous bike parts. Not knowing how long this would go on for, we couldn’t just ride behind a tractor-trailer to take advantage of the wake. And then when we’d pull out to pass the truck, there’d be an even more massive wall of insects to go through as the truck’s airstream pushed them to the side. Pulling into a gas station to clean the guts off, I can’t describe how difficult it is to get them off. It is almost like they’re made of glue. Oh, and their guts smell bad too.





We rolled into Miami covered in bug guts and smelling putrid. Surprisingly, for a moment, I wondered why a couple young women gave me gross looks when I smiled at them as I rode by. Because of our current state, we barely rode around a tiny part of the city before finding a hotel to clean up. What we did see of metro Miami did look great.




It was nice to shower and change clothes, but the bike’s needed a cleaning too so that was to be our next objective. In my brief research there were very few do it yourself car wash places in the hugely massive and expansive city of Miami. Most of the car wash places that came up from a search were mobile private detailing services. We did end up finding a place and gave our bikes a nice power washing. Riding to the car wash, we went through what appeared to be a ghetto of Miami. I have to say that it was pretty nice for a ghetto. Sure, some things were run down but it looked like they tried to keep it clean.





With freshly cleaned bikes we hit the town again, but this time we aimed for Miami Beach. The view while we crossed the bridge was extremely impressive. Once over there, we ended up riding the entire length of the island. I loved the art deco styling of many of the buildings, but the entire island was far more disheveled than I was expecting. Many of the condos and hotels were in disarray and the roads were absolutely horrible. One bump in particular caused Mike’s rear tail light to break. I had hopes that South Beach, being so famous, would have been nicer. This just wasn’t the case. The entire area was very touristy and commercialized. The beach itself was beautiful, but it did have a bunch of trash on it despite there being readily available trashcans everywhere.







For dinner we couldn’t wait to eat, as we had skipped lunch. This caused us to just pick one of the restaurants on the main strip in South Beach. They almost all had really pushy hostesses and just had bad vibes. We ended up eating at one location that claimed to be a Cuban restaurant. It wasn’t Cuban, and I didn’t end up getting a real Cuban meal. We both ended up getting a sino-cuban fusion dish with chicken, plantains, fried rice and some sweet and sour sauce on the side. What can I say, I felt like having plantains. The dish was very tasty, but wasn’t the authentic Cuban dish that I was kind of wanting. It was also off-putting that our outdoor dining was right on the sidewalk with random people walking by inches from our table. Oh, and while we were eating, some guy with a pet ring-tailed lemur walked by.



Miami Beach left a sour taste in my mouth for Miami. That is until we rode back to the hotel at night and crossed on the southern end. The view anywhere you looked was absolutely magnificent. I wish I could have captured the beauty of it.