When I crossed the Inland Waterway bridge on my trusted Schwinn today, I heard an inner voice say, “Try something new. Do something different.” Instead of going straight, I turned right onto US1, the original road up the Atlantic coast from Florida to New York before we had Interstate Highways.
I thought it would be commercial, full of strip malls, as it is going north. I was wrong. After the first shopping center I see every day going toward the beach, there were only a few small establishments like the Yum Yum Tree Furniture store with a “Going Out of Business” sale sign in front of their locked up entrance. A little farther down there was the Driftwood Plaza with stores called Maxwell’s Objects D’Art, Coastal Day Spa, Hammer and Stain DIY Workshop, The Magical Animal Fine Crafts, Blue Barber Company and – I kid you not- Professional Bra Fittings at Ruth Lingerie. Disappointingly all closed of course – deemed non-essential.
After Driftwood Plaza there were mostly palatial looking housing estates with names I recognized from my beach road rides. Then there was a long stretch of jungly overgrowth. I wondered how or why it was there in this prime real estate area, until I finally saw a sign that said “No Trespassing. Future home of the Ocean Park Preserve, which pleased me.
Next door and beyond, the fancy gated communities continued. I almost followed a FedEx truck into one of them as the wide white gate swung open when I pedalled by. I was rewarded a moment later with an open paved access path leading down to the beach road running parallel with US1. I smiled to see where the long path came out, at post #30, not far from where I was yesterday.
It had a bike rack, a drinking fountain and a young family hanging out near the benches. The three kids were climbing in a nearby sea grape tree. The Dad was chatting to a jogger on the sidewalk. I overheard him say, “I make sure when the kids wake up, they go outside to look at the sky, not a TV screen. They need to touch the earth, put their hands in the soil.”
It was such a surprise to see a young middle class family around here, the land of wealthy retirees. It was a delight to hear people conversing in public and even more special to hear how the dad wakes up his kids everyday. “Thanks”, I told him, “You made my day.”
Today’s ride confounded my expectations and altered my assumptions. Remembering my inner voice’s suggestion at the junction of US1, I laughed out loud, saying to no one but Schwinn, “Who knows what you might find when you try something new, or do something different?”
April 10, 2020