Day 26: Wednesday, Nov. 16 – Fort Myers to Perry, FL

So, the goal today was to reach the north of Florida, so that I could hit the west end of the state by the next day. I also planned to check out Tampa, which name sounded familiar for some reason (some of the big IT business may have some HQ there, possibly IBM…) I also planned to go fast through the highway for a start, then go closer to the coast and try to hit some nice minor roads. Nothing decided between camping or motel for the night, it would depend on where and when I would stop…

I think I missed a few things today. First, I missed visiting the winter house of Edison and Ford in Fort Myers. A discussion with my father – on Dec.10, so much later – made me realize that that house was not in Fort Wayne as I misunderstood from a previous conversation, but in Fort Myers. I also crossed Tampa and didn’t see much of the city, passing through some streets downtown and ending at a Starbucks a bit distant from city center.

My GPS also seemed to be playing with me quite a bit today. At some point there was a warning that there were animals on the highway and the GPS suggested an alternative route at some point that I blindly followed, and which led me through residential roads with tons of twisties. Not bad, but not really optimal to get to my destination in a reasonable amount of time. At some point I decided to get back to the highway, supposedly before the point where there were animals on the road, and didn’t see any of such animals… I think my GPS had temporary brain issues…

After Tampa, I decided to follow secondary roads instead of going back to the I-75, yet the trip was quite uneventful… At some point, I just stopped when I noticed I had just passed 10,000 miles on the odometer.

I finally decided to stop in Perry, FL a small (tiny?) city in the middle of nowhere, and I stopped at the second motel I found, skipping the first one who was asking some 65 bucks for the night (the guy even tried to bargain a bit, but I was not interested in paying more than 50 bucks in such a minor city with not much interest at all. Second motel, the Royal Inn, was owned by a super nice and friendly Indian guy that guaranteed me the best wireless connection (he mentioned a few hundreds Mbps, and although I don’t think I really got that speed, I got a pretty good connection anyway).The bedroom was one of the cleanest I had had so far, and the total cost was 45 bucks! I highly recommend them to whomever goes through the area.

After checking in at the motel, I decided to go to a superstore close to buy some threads and needles because my sleeping bag had started leaking some downs and I needed to sew it. Not the best job ever, but it’d do fine.

I then looked for some food for dinner, and first stopped at Pouncey’s where I could probably get some homestyle food; restaurant seemed still open, it was close to 9pm, and there were a few police officers eating inside; unfortunately they told me they had just closed, so I had to look for something else. I ended at the Huddle House, a restaurant coupled with a gas station, which unfortunately didn’t serve alcohol – so no beer today – but food was correct. When time to pay the check, I just realized my wallet was still in my riding pants at the motel – I had switched to my more comfy Jeans – and I left the guys my passport while riding back quickly to the motel to get my wallet. All went fine eventually, and I suspect they did take a peak at my information because they friendly asked me what led me to come to such an insignificant little town as Perry…