Some days on the road are sexier than others. A 14 hour drive is not ideal, but traveling from one end of the sunshine state to the other proved an adventure on both ends. As all days should begin, we took an early morning swim in the Keys, grabbed coffee for the road, and 14 hours later stayed with new friends at West Florida’s SAE Chapter, whose mascot kept a look out for us all night after a long day’s drive. Florida we love you, we’ll be back soon.
We expected a beautiful sunset, a lot of tourists, and a good time, and we got more than we bargained for after a scenic drive to the mainland’s southern tip (only 90 miles to Cuba). After sharing some beauty with friends on our new favorite pier, we headed to Sloppy Joe’s, Hemingways’ old hangout, where we had a great time, always under close watch (and hopefully approval) by the island’s favorite writer.
Calle Ocho in Little Havana holds a unique, very bilingual charm expressed with smiles and laughter all around. We took local advice (always) and went to Versailles for the special, a Cuban Sandwich with Chorizo Sausage, and a side of plantain chips – Java got his to go en route to Domino Park, where we made friends with Larry, a veterano, who invited us to a game as his guest. Let’s just say it went very well for Larry, who was all smiles and invited us back “anytime”.
After spending some time at home in Florida, Java returns to the GORUCK Summer and the open roads of the United States to meet people, get into adventures, and charm the country one person, one city at a time.
GR CACHE #4. We hide GORUCK gear. You find GORUCK gear, and keep it. Fourth dead drop: Lat/Long Coordinates (plug them into your GPS): 29°17'34.61"N 81° 2'22.79"W. GR TAC is hanging on a palm tree where we spent much of our holiday weekend, right on the beach. Send us the story to cache@goruck.com. Happy Hunting.
From Ormond we headed south towards Daytona for a holiday run on the beach (always the right answer). We shared the sand with surfers, police Hummers, monster trucks, swimmers, castle builders…you name it, they were out. Half the fun was people watching under the hot Florida sun. As we got back to our place, we realized that if we would have headed north we could have spared ourselves the chaos, but were happy we didn’t.
