South Florida

Run with the Raven – Add it to your Miami bucket list

In May I wanted to do something cheap (in this case, free), yet meaningful for my birthday.  Minus those seven months in LA where I body guarded Webster (inside joke), May also marked ten years in South Florida. What better way than to check off an item from my Miami bucket list.  I decided to go on a run with the Raven. Robert "Raven" Kraft has been running eight miles on south beach for the last 34 years -EVERY DAY. A friend of mine pointed him out to me one sunny South beach weekend. "There’s Raven, he’s about to hit a 100,000 [miles]," my friend informed me.  I had seen him before running on the beach with some people in tow and realized he was some kind of regular on the beach.  Anyone that’s not a tourist has seen him running on the beach. I assumed the guy ran a lot but I had no idea. Well I had heard that ESPN was featuring him on a show celebrating his significant mile marker (no pun) and had hoped to join one of his runs before he reached ultra celebrity status.  I wasn’t able to beat the show but was able to get the standard Raven experience nonetheless.  Turns out Raven and the group  of 12-15 runners that joined him that day were all extremely down to earth. Raven is just a guy that is committed to his thing and seems to welcome the company he gets on any given day. Everyone that runs with him for a full run gets a nickname.  Admittedly half my motivation for making this run was to get my name. Pondering the thought of law school and other grand things at the time, I welcomed a moniker with the hopes of some needed insight like those passed out to some Native Americans.  Shuttle Runner.  Not exactly mind blowing considering one of my jobs at the time was driving a shuttle van.  Plus I didn’t exactly see myself doing that work forever either. In the end, it fit however, as it seems to represent my overall running style. The run itself isn’t hard at all. It is not a competitive thing in the least.  Everyone engages in welcome conversation with anyone that joins and the Raven purposefully takes his time .  As he likes to say, has has do to it all over again tomorrow.  Anyone that can run three miles briskly can do this lengthier run. After a good distance where I felt it would no longer be rude to do so, I took off and sprinted the last mile and a quarter to really get my heart pumping like I crave – maybe solidifying my new nickname.  After the run the Raven goes for a quarter mile swim. Of course, everyone is welcome to join that too.  That day the waves were rolling pretty hard (for SoBe standards). It was the perfect adventurous way to end the day. I was pretty happy with my gift to myself. www.ravenrun.net

I Did It – I actually got up for an early morning run

Without the motivation of a paid race to make, I actually got up out of my own volition to run at an hour I would haven normally preferred to have been sleeping.  I made sure I was hydrated before I went to sleep. That seemed to help negate the fact that I had less than four hours of sleep. Writing a blog AND learning how to edit said blog aren’t things that go hand in hand quickly. But having committed myself an early run here may have helped as well.

Anyways, running in the AM was the best thing I’ve done in a while. I got to the beach just in time to watch the sun pop up over the ocean. The colors were crazy. Sorry, I should have taken a picture. The heat hadn’t kicked in and there were runners everywhere.

I took my time with the pace going for distance and ran north along A1A. After mapping my run it looks like I succeeded. Hoping for at least 6 miles, I actually knocked out 7.49. That’s another $7.49 I’m pledging to the CAF. The day carried on in a positive note because the hardest part was over – no worrying about the day’s unpredictable events hurting or getting in the way of my workout. I even ran into a cute fit friend of mine who I hadn’t seen in a while at Starbucks afterwords.

Ugh. Time for bed. Let’s see if I can do it again tomorrow. Shooting for doing a known 5.88 mile lap for a faster run. But first I have to wake up. Baby steps. Wish me luck.

<a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/fl/fort-lauderdale/502124525557365103″ _mce_href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/fl/fort-lauderdale/502124525557365103″>7.49 A1A Fort Lauderdale Beach Route</a><br/><a href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/fl/fort-lauderdale” _mce_href=”http://www.mapmyrun.com/find-run/united-states/fl/fort-lauderdale”>Find more Runs in Fort Lauderdale, Florida</a>

Which is the Better Cruise Port – Port Everglades or Port of Miami? Welcome to Miami.

 

I travel to both Port of Miami and Port Everglades (serving the Fort Lauderdale area) on an almost daily basis shuttling cruise ship passengers between the ports and the airports or area hotels. Both ports are huge, compete with each other for being the largest ports in the country for both passenger and cargo traffic alike, and are extremely invaluable to the economy of South Florida. Without either one, there would be a very huge void. But I if were to recommend one port over the other (and I do quite often), strictly in regards to providing the best and most accommodating access to the cruise industry customer, the choice is clearly the Port of Miami.

Two main reasons:
-the Port of Miami has effectively separated the passenger side from the cargo side
-the infrastructure at Port of Everglades seems to be setup willy nilly with no clear goal of uniformity – or aesthetics for that matter. 

When you enter the Port of Miami, which is conveniently connected to downtown Miami, you go over a bridge which has magnificent views of water and skyline on either side. You’re sure to recognize the locale from many a movie and for some, scenes from the cheesy CSI: Miami TV show. You’re almost certain to travel into the port effortlessly without a wait in line of traffic and are welcomed with an up to date overhead electronic sign displaying the location of your ship and palm trees a plenty.

To get into Port Everglades on a busy weekend, you’re welcomed by the four smoking stacks of the Florida Power and Light facility and a wait in line to get through the traffic check point run by the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Since the cargo and fuel refinery areas are commingled with the cruise terminals the whole port is a secure area. To me, this leads to a very poorly protected port in regards to the security of the cargo and fuel refining operations and an unnecessary hassle for cruise ship passengers. I’ve seen the sheriff’s office ask many a cabbie to open their trunk only to see some large suit cases and just wave them on through after confirming there’s luggage in the trunk.

Once inside Port Everglades you have to find your ship by navigating through stacks of cargo

 

containers, a dozen fuel tanks and a rusty freight ship here and there. It is a scene straight out of the Jersey mafia drama, the Sopranos. There seems to always be chaos at the terminals (none of which look alike) and the sheriff’s office hollering and screaming at everyone. I saw a lady in tears after her husband was yelled at for pulling up to the wrong spot to pick up the family and luggage after a cruise – there is no right spot. 

You can see from the satellite images below that Port Everglades consumes more overall acreage. This is obvious from the refinery function. But you should also be able to see that everything is mixed together without any seperation of function. It seems Port Everglades is set up and is able to accommodate additional ships on the fly. But this very flexibility doesn’t seem to be thought out, or at the very least, implemented well. Every exodus from this port comes with a sigh of relief.

 

Port of Miami

Port Everglades
can you find the cruise ships?

 

South Florida’s Best Bike Shop – Bicycle Generation

I might go to the local shop with the attractive manager (I’ve already said too much) for something simple like a tube. But when Bianca, my mountain bike, needs some true love, I take her to the guys at Bicycle Generation in Deerfield Beach.  If I were going to bring home another bike, chances are more than likely it would come from them. I’ve bought four trusted steeds over the years since I got hooked on cycling. Of those four two were bought in a store. Those two, my first mountain bike and my first road bike, were both bought at Bicycle Generation.

Like every major purchase, I did my homework when I decided to invest in my first bike. I knew exactly which model I wanted before even setting foot in a store. With that model in mind I called every Trek dealer in a 80 mile radius. Admittedly, I’ve bought cars with less homework. I got a quote below MSRP at one place and then dialed the next shop down on the list. I ended up getting Leo, the owner of BG on the phone.

Leo gave me a competitive price and threw in all kinds of attractive extras such as a free first tune up on the bike and a discount on merchandise for being a bike customer. The deals are always changing but a purchase at BG is always sits well. The staff at the store want to keep you happy – not only out of sheer business principle but I truly believed it is because they are excited to share in your passion for cycling.  I’ve come in the bike with a broken bike dismayed at the prospect of not riding for a few days to find myself being able to ride that day. On the spot repairs can’t be reasonably be offered or delivered by bike stores. They’re pretty busy. Yet the guys behind the counter are the type of people to help you out if they can.

The atmoshpere in the store is laidback and friendly regardless of how busy the foot traffic in may be on a particular day. The guys running the shop (now Leo’s son and gang) all seem to be friends. They all ride – both on and off road. You’ll see them on the trails and at the charity rides where Leo himself will make a star appearance and hit the pavement.  In or out of the shop, there’s no difference between customer and employee – everyone’s a fellow rider. They know the bikes, your needs and probably have felt your same pains at some point. One of the guys races at a semi pro level (last I heard) but is humble as can be. The store doesn’t sponsor a racing team. So preferential treatment isn’t reserved for store sponsored racers like in many of the stores around here.

The store carries several brands and can order anything from the rare nut and bolt to your dream racing gig. The staff  are well versed at helping customers at all levels from the first time rider and children’s bikes to placing an order for  multiple dreamy high end rigs for an international customer involved in competive cycling.  Warranty returns and replacements are processed with relative ease.

Bicycle Generation has shown no interest in expansion into a chain of multiple shops. The store seems content in providing top notch service to their loyal customers. We’re loyal for a reason.

Bicycle Generation                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         1346 E.Hillsboro Blvd, Deerfield Beach, FL 33441                                                                                                                                                                                                                            954-427-1484                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    www.bicyclegeneration.com