paused on Pine Island
Since getting to Florida, more and more of my days have been consumed with trying to find somewhere to stay. I have pretty much boycotted Airbnb for years because i think it's an engine of gentrification, but now i am checking it regularly to see if i can find an alternative or affordable spot to stay overnight. I am checking Hipcamp. I am checking Booking.com. I have even arranged a Warm Showers homestay, touch wood that it still works out. I am making actual, real phonecalls, using a telephone, to see if campsites allow tents. (Many, many campsites say "we used to allow tents, but we don't any more" - now that's gentrification.) I have checked US national parks, Florida state parks, all kinds of county and district wildlife and water protection services. I am setting plans up to a week in advance.
And, despite it all, i am not able to find a place to camp every night. The state parks along the Florida keys are completely, fully booked out for the next 6 months, after which point you can find a couple of one-day slots here and there. The sole campsite in Key West charges $80 a night for tent camping, no hookups, three day minimum. There is only one other place that apparently allows tents along the keys, but they're not picking up the phone. The government-run campsite in the Dry Tortugas requires you to buy a bunch of very specific camping equipment like a plastic tub and a cooler, and does not allow any old random bits of equipment. Can't bring a knife either.
My romantic idea of cycling out to the very end of America and then bumming around the marina talking to sailors and trying to find a spot on a boat heading into the Caribbean is not a realistic one. By all accounts that kind of stuff does happen in Key West (and dozens of other places along the Florida coast), but unless you have somewhere free to stay while you network and schmooze, you're going to have spend almost as much on fucking hotels as you would've if you just chartered a boat in the first place. It is insanely, absurdly, spectacularly expensive.
So i need to rethink my plans. If i really want to have a Caribbean adventure, my best choice is to fly somewhere cheap where the border is currently open to vaccinated foreigners and bum around there. A less exciting option would be to get to Key West, take a photo at the southernmost point, then turn around and cycle back up to Miami three days later. Then try to find an elusive spot where the living is cheap, and there are bluewater cruisers docked, and somehow adjust my mindset into schmoozing instead of doing my own thing.
I mean, going on a boat, i would be forced back into having to be sociable and live on someone else's terms. I'd have to get into the whole bullshit of are they open to trans people, do they find me weird or worrying because of my medical history or my tattoos or my politics or whatever. Maybe i'm stuck for a few weeks somewhere where there is no internet and no wind, and even if it's beautiful, it's still being stuck. That's part of the deal, i know it is, but maybe i'd be happier continuing to cycle?
The thing with cycling is i really can be free. I can travel when i want, where i want, i am always seeing new things every day. It's what i love the most, never sleeping two nights in the same place, constantly watching the world go by, i don't need to be pinned down anywhere. Except here in the south - and particularly Florida - where it's increasingly difficult to find places to stay.
I could return to Miami, then Amtrak my way across the US back to the west, where there should be more accessible camping and definitely will be more bucket list destinations for me to visit. I'm sure it would be a fun journey. It still isn't super cheap living due to food costs, but i'm cool with preparing more of the meals myself. One of the reasons i have been eating at restaurants a lot is so i can experience all the new cuisines and cultures in places that i never visited before, but if i'm cycling around California or Nevada, i don't need to eat the umpteenth taco to know they're great.
On the other hand, cycling around America even more, i feel like it's taking the easy way out. It'd be less of adventure and more an exercise of checking stuff off my bucket list, especially in the southwest. Whereas going out to sea, that's something i never did before. Going to the islands, that's something i have no idea what to expect. A totally new lifestyle, a place where people fish and swim and dive and do all kinds of stuff that i have never been interested in before but maybe i would if i did it. New foods i never ate before. New cultures i only know from their immigrant populations in big cities like Toronto. I mean, that'd be cool, wouldn't it?
I guess one thought is if i go to a cheaper country first with the intent of schmoozing my way onto a boat, even if i don't succeed, then i still got to see a new country i never saw before. If i was really ambitious i could fly my bike down to somewhere like Panama, or buy a new one there, and ride up and down some more hills that piss me off. Although i feel like i'd like to know a bit more about how to fix stuff like broken spokes and chains before that. Also, speak Spanish.
Ah, i dunno. This is what happens when you spend two nights and one rainy day on a pretty little island on the gulf coast. It has not escaped my notice that all of the liveaboard cruisers and tourists are old, white guys from Texas and the northeast, and almost all of the farm workers and fishermen are black and/or Spanish-speaking from the Caribbean. I got lunch at a marina and dinner at a Dominican canteen, and the difference could not have been more stark. Would i be the douchey colonizer if i flew out to some island paradise and tried to live on a shoestring?
Yeah, obviously.
But we'll see. Today i cycle to Naples, where i have a night in a motel. Then Everglades, in a state park campground. Then a hotel in Miami Beach for two nights, where i hope to have the energy to enjoy one night of clubbing, because i miss dancing and house music so fucking much you would not even believe. Then the keys. Current ETA in Key West is fucking Thanksgiving, which exacerbates my accommodation woes. I still have nowhere to stay west of Key Largo.
Ideas welcomed.
And, despite it all, i am not able to find a place to camp every night. The state parks along the Florida keys are completely, fully booked out for the next 6 months, after which point you can find a couple of one-day slots here and there. The sole campsite in Key West charges $80 a night for tent camping, no hookups, three day minimum. There is only one other place that apparently allows tents along the keys, but they're not picking up the phone. The government-run campsite in the Dry Tortugas requires you to buy a bunch of very specific camping equipment like a plastic tub and a cooler, and does not allow any old random bits of equipment. Can't bring a knife either.
My romantic idea of cycling out to the very end of America and then bumming around the marina talking to sailors and trying to find a spot on a boat heading into the Caribbean is not a realistic one. By all accounts that kind of stuff does happen in Key West (and dozens of other places along the Florida coast), but unless you have somewhere free to stay while you network and schmooze, you're going to have spend almost as much on fucking hotels as you would've if you just chartered a boat in the first place. It is insanely, absurdly, spectacularly expensive.
So i need to rethink my plans. If i really want to have a Caribbean adventure, my best choice is to fly somewhere cheap where the border is currently open to vaccinated foreigners and bum around there. A less exciting option would be to get to Key West, take a photo at the southernmost point, then turn around and cycle back up to Miami three days later. Then try to find an elusive spot where the living is cheap, and there are bluewater cruisers docked, and somehow adjust my mindset into schmoozing instead of doing my own thing.
I mean, going on a boat, i would be forced back into having to be sociable and live on someone else's terms. I'd have to get into the whole bullshit of are they open to trans people, do they find me weird or worrying because of my medical history or my tattoos or my politics or whatever. Maybe i'm stuck for a few weeks somewhere where there is no internet and no wind, and even if it's beautiful, it's still being stuck. That's part of the deal, i know it is, but maybe i'd be happier continuing to cycle?
The thing with cycling is i really can be free. I can travel when i want, where i want, i am always seeing new things every day. It's what i love the most, never sleeping two nights in the same place, constantly watching the world go by, i don't need to be pinned down anywhere. Except here in the south - and particularly Florida - where it's increasingly difficult to find places to stay.
I could return to Miami, then Amtrak my way across the US back to the west, where there should be more accessible camping and definitely will be more bucket list destinations for me to visit. I'm sure it would be a fun journey. It still isn't super cheap living due to food costs, but i'm cool with preparing more of the meals myself. One of the reasons i have been eating at restaurants a lot is so i can experience all the new cuisines and cultures in places that i never visited before, but if i'm cycling around California or Nevada, i don't need to eat the umpteenth taco to know they're great.
On the other hand, cycling around America even more, i feel like it's taking the easy way out. It'd be less of adventure and more an exercise of checking stuff off my bucket list, especially in the southwest. Whereas going out to sea, that's something i never did before. Going to the islands, that's something i have no idea what to expect. A totally new lifestyle, a place where people fish and swim and dive and do all kinds of stuff that i have never been interested in before but maybe i would if i did it. New foods i never ate before. New cultures i only know from their immigrant populations in big cities like Toronto. I mean, that'd be cool, wouldn't it?
I guess one thought is if i go to a cheaper country first with the intent of schmoozing my way onto a boat, even if i don't succeed, then i still got to see a new country i never saw before. If i was really ambitious i could fly my bike down to somewhere like Panama, or buy a new one there, and ride up and down some more hills that piss me off. Although i feel like i'd like to know a bit more about how to fix stuff like broken spokes and chains before that. Also, speak Spanish.
Ah, i dunno. This is what happens when you spend two nights and one rainy day on a pretty little island on the gulf coast. It has not escaped my notice that all of the liveaboard cruisers and tourists are old, white guys from Texas and the northeast, and almost all of the farm workers and fishermen are black and/or Spanish-speaking from the Caribbean. I got lunch at a marina and dinner at a Dominican canteen, and the difference could not have been more stark. Would i be the douchey colonizer if i flew out to some island paradise and tried to live on a shoestring?
Yeah, obviously.
But we'll see. Today i cycle to Naples, where i have a night in a motel. Then Everglades, in a state park campground. Then a hotel in Miami Beach for two nights, where i hope to have the energy to enjoy one night of clubbing, because i miss dancing and house music so fucking much you would not even believe. Then the keys. Current ETA in Key West is fucking Thanksgiving, which exacerbates my accommodation woes. I still have nowhere to stay west of Key Largo.
Ideas welcomed.