Our group of riders from coast to coast are now riding on the Tamiami trail. The name means Tampa to Miami and the trail riding today is 275 miles long.
Our group and ride was organized by GPSKEVIN. McKinney provided the ride shirts- for us to use in the Florida humidity and heat. Tie dyed t shirts.
Another bit of Americana history is that “tie–dye” first appeared in the United States during the 1960’s.
Hippies, in the USA protesting the Vietnam War and promoting peace and love, began wearing clothing with these never before seen vibrant colors and psychedelic designs. Back then If you wore tie dye you stood for something entirely different than you would today.
Imagine Florida if you can, approximately 100 years a go; mosquitoes and alligators ruled and no air conditioning!
A small breakdown on any Florida road would certainly do far more than ruin your ride. You could die.
Not many cars around back around the turn of the century in the entire state or country. And the speeds. They were more like 30 mph vs today drivers growing impatient at the posted 65 mph speed limit.
In 1928, the Tamiami Trail opened. To celebrate, backers led a motorcade from Tampa to Miami that took them three days.
We are far from Tampa now but, in 1 day we have made it to Naples from Key West. They say it’s about the equivalent of going to the moon and back for a person born before the Key West to Tamiami road was built.
The Tamiami road is U.S. 41, though street signs south of Sarasota still call the highway the Tamiami Trail.
It’s now the second choice behind Interstate 75 to take to get to the western border of Florida plus the high-speed Alligator Alley, which cuts through the Everglades parallel to the Tamiami Trail, a few miles to the north.
The road and now the animals. We left chickens and roosters as a surviving novelty in key west. And now alligators whom we have brought back from over hunting are are the native tourist scenery attraction.
What next manatees? If you guessed so, then you are correct. Something ? springs is on our planned route.
Enjoy your day. Riding my 2017 Honda Africa Twin.
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