From Minute Maid to Tropicana

I left a bit early Tue, and experienced a fantastic 200 miles of open road along the coast and through the woods.  Low 80 temps, hardly any cars, lights or...towns for that matter.  Riding early I can put on tons of miles with little concern.  Then after 11am the sun starts to boil your skin as the temps reached 95+ again.  I thought I left that in Houston, but I know the further south I go the worse it gets.

However, the last 70 miles were pure torture.  Not only is it a billion degrees, but there must have been one traffic light every mile!  It was like Nashua on repeat for the second half of the day (did I mention it was 70 miles?  Seriously, who needs that much commerce).  I thought of Chevy Chase saying, "look kids, Big Ben, Home Depot, McDonald's."  I swear I was doing loops because the same stretch of stores kept popping up.

I rolled into St. Petersburg with no destination, found the ball park and took the closest chain hotel I could find.  It's smart to ride in boots and jeans, but it sure is tough when it's this hot.  I later took a walk to the bay and found the Dali museum but didn't have time to go in.  It's kinda fun how the lizards are all over the sidewalks. They kept darting away my whole walk to Tropicana Field.