Day 60 – I guess it’s done

We had a nice day on Key West.  I had some laundry to get done and woke early so that is how I started the day.  We then rode out to the site marking the southern most part of the Continental US.  The rest of the day I did some gift shopping and just rode around on the bike and looked the City over.  We boarded a ferry at 4:30 and are now on the way to Fort Myer, FL where each of us are taking off from there to our individual homes.

Key West is a nice place to visit.  I was most impressed with how kind the locals seemed to be.  It definitely is a tourist town, but I think I would like to visit again when I am not so rushed.  I am saying my goodbyes to very one on the boat.  It is actually a happy/sad deal.  I had a lunch/dinner with Tim and Nancy before boarding the boat and we were talking about staying in touch.  Nancy said that it was a 100% chance that we would see each other again and Tim looked at her and said, “Out of the people we have traveled with in the past, how many have we seen again, zero.”  They have traveled quite extensively as well, so I don’t know if we actually will see each other again.

As John and I have talked, I asked him if he would ever do a ride like this again.  He said no, but that he still wanted to ride across England.  I mentioned in a previous blog that that is where my Mother’s side of the family comes from.  I told him that if he wanted someone to go with, that he might let me know and I can see if it is in the cards.  However, I do think it will be a while before I do anything like this.

I am actually writing some of this the next morning.  We had pretty rough seas coming in to Ft. Myers last night and I had to quit typing.  I was getting a little seasick.  I have met back with Carey and my son Brandon.  Oh, I have missed Carey.  That is another reason that I am thinking that a 2 month trip alone may not happen.  I guess time will tell.  It is good to see Brandon again.

Well, this is going to be my last entry.  I hope you who have followed me have somewhat enjoyed my experience. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf. This trip has met my expectations and I have learned so much about a sport that I love.  I have met and gotten to know some great people. I have had experiences that I will remember a lifetime.  I have been reinforced that God created this beautiful earth and that He is aware of us.  You know, when we tell people what we have done, they sometimes act like we did the impossible.  It only seems impossible because, probably, it is something they really don’t want to do and never will do, which is ok, this was my dream and not theirs, and also I guess it proves that if we want to accomplish something in this life, if we stick with it and don’t give up, we will accomplish it.  It is amazing what we can do a little bit at a time.

I again want to thank those that have made it possible.  I have wonderful people I work with and they have helped so much.  I know many of you have called me or written an email or test and encouraged me on, thank you.  I appreciate my family supporting me.  Carey had to deal with my daily calls.  She told me in the beginning that I had to stay on this trip for at least three weeks.  When the three weeks were up I jokingly said, “Now I can come home”, and she said, “Oh no, three more weeks.”  My dad took care of my yard and there are good friends taking care of my church calling as well.  My clients have been patient with me being gone and supported me as well.  Thank you all.  I have been able to live a dream of mine.

Hope to see you soon, Friends and Family.  Love you!!

A welsome sight!

 Lots of little homes like this on this island.

 Our group on the southern most tip of continental US.

 My good friend John.  I will miss him.

Above are Tim and Nancy.  I will miss them as well.  I was usually the third wheel with them. Below is our ship back to Ft. Myers.

 Goodbye, Key West.

Day 59 - Key West!!!!!!!

We have finished! And I am ready for it to be done. It has been a fantastic experience, but I miss my family and my work and am ready to be back.

Today got off to a bit of a hard start. We woke to a bunch of rain. The house boat was also swaying in the wind a bit. They were saying on the news this morning that Key West has received fifteen inches of rain since Saturday. Can you believe that. We were receiving much of that this morning. The thunder was enough to knock you off the bicycle seat. We didn't get going until noon trying to wait out the rain and then finally just had to go. It didn't rain for long after we left and then it was just a day battling the wind. I guess mother nature knew it was our last day of riding and wanted us to remember it. We ended up riding 55 miles. My odometer for the trip now reads 3,025.

It was quite the feeling arriving here. Everyone was pretty elated and after checking into the hotel, we all jumped into the pool in our biking cloths. I'm not sure management would have appreciated that in the sweaty condition we were in, but it felt good and we were ready to celebrate. We do have a bit of riding to do tomorrow. There is a marker on the south side of the island that designates the southern most part of the United States and we all wanted to ride there together. We were supposed to go there today, but because of the late start, we will do it together tomorrow and take a picture of the group.

We had our celebetory meal tonight. I again had sea food and key lime pie. It was nice to celebrate and we stayed out quite late just reminiscing the trip. I do think everyone in the group is ready to go home.

Sorry for the lame post on such a day, but it is late and I will write a bit more tomorrow.

Day 58 – Just about there

We woke up to a lot of clouds this morning and were fully expecting another day of riding in the rain, but we were pleasantly surprised.  It remained cloudy, but we didn’t get a drop of rain all day as we were riding.  On days like this, the clouds actually keep things cool while riding.  The humidity here is really high.  You actually get quite wet just by riding.

The keys are all connected by bridges.  The initial bridge was built in about 1905 and was a railroad bridge to bring vacationers to this area.  Those bridges were damaged in the “Storm of the century” in 1935 and the railroad was already in bankruptcy and couldn’t fix them so they sold the right of way and bridges to the State of Florida for $600,000.  The State made them into auto bridges and since then have rebuilt new bridges to sustain the traffic that now travels on them.  What is interesting is that parts of those original railroad bridges are still here and they have been made into fishing/biking/pedestrian bridges.  These keys are very pretty.  They seem to be very narrow and of course very tropical.

We are actually staying in these boat hotel rooms this evening.  This place has all this old house boats tied to a pier and we are all out here floationg tonight.  We are supposed to have 25 mile winds tonight and hope we are not rocking around too much.

We rode 45 miles today and have 55 miles left to the end of the road.  I am doing my best to eat all the seafood I can before I leave.  I had a nice Grouper sandwich tonight and I am trying all the key lime pie that I can.  We had our last map meeting tonight.  We also discussed getting the bikes sent back home and transportation to the airport etc.  It really seems kind of weird to be discussing these things.  I guess it is because I waited so long to be able to have this experience and it seems we have been out here so long, in a way, I can’t believe it is just about done.

A view of the road we are traveling

 The new bridge and old road.

 This bridge had been converted for biking/fishing. The car bridge is to the right.

 Our boat houses

Day 57 – Key Largo

As expected we had rain again today.  One nice surprise is that it didn’t rain as much as was expected.  It was pretty much a light rain all day and really wasn’t too bad to ride in.  When you get to this area of Florida, there aren’t many roads that you have to find your way through either.  There is only one main road that goes through the Keys, so I shouldn’t be getting lost anymore.  I say that a little hesitantly because I still may and that could be bad.

We had an opportunity this morning of going to an alligator farm that is located right next to the Everglades National Park and is supposed to be much like the park and take an air boat tour, so Selwyn (New Zealand), Bill and I did it.  It was quite interesting and I think it gave us a little idea what the Everglades were like.  The air boat was very loud when they got the thing going, but we were able to see alligators, turtles, birds and beautiful sights.  They did give us ear covers to minimize the noise.  It was interesting to go through the grass and reeds of the swamps in that boat.  They say that the average depth of the Everglades is six inches of water and that it is actually a river.

The road that we took riding to get to Key Largo went mainly just to the side of Everglades Park.  The ride was just as beautiful as the boat ride.  It is just pretty to see the wildlife and plants that are in the park.  It would have taken a day to get to and tour the park and we just didn’t have that much time.  I think a person could spend a few days here and enjoy it.

As I mentioned above, it is raining.  There is this blob of a storm right down on the tip of Florida and that is where we are.  I think the rain is supposed to continue through tomorrow and then start tapering off.  I hope so.  We have two more days of riding and then we are done.  We only rode 35 miles today and we are at the 99 mile marker.  Going down the Keys, the miles are counted down on the mile posts until you get to Key West, which is 0.  The addresses down the way are also counting down. We will spend Thursday in Key West and not ride, so we will be able to tour a bit that day.

I had a nice seafood dinner tonight.  We went as a group to the restaurant and I had mahi-mahi, shrimp and scallops and a piece of fried key-lime pie for desert.  I had to try the fried pie as it was the first time I had heard of it.  It was a piece of pie wrapped in a pastry crust and fried.  The pie was actually warm when served and I thought was very delicious.

I had my 8^th flat today.  In fact I actually replaced my back tire.  It was worn down to where a different color begins to show, alerting you to the fact that the tire is worn out.  I was carrying an extra tire, so it was no problem.  I have learned that there are probably better tires that are out there to maybe prevent so many flats.  It is hard to say.  I am probably just a little low on the luck.

Everglades

 Alligators

 Selwyn

Day 56 – Florida City

Another beautiful day.  It did rain for about half the day, but I did enjoy the ride.  We got up this morning and since during our day off yesterday, no one did any shopping for breakfast or lunch, we went to a restaurant for breakfast and had to stop on the way for some lunch.  I don’t think anyone minded.  Everyone is getting pretty tired of cold cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch.

It was an interesting ride.  Hollywood is right next to Miami Beach and Miami.  We rode right through the middle of those cities.  It was probably a good thing that it was Sunday morning because I think on Monday, there would have been a lot more busy traffic.  It was fun to ride through the middle of those cities.  I enjoyed the big buildings and all the hotels and such.

We stopped about noon and we had some breakfast again and then it started to rain and when I talk about rain, it started to pour.  I was riding with Tim, Nancy and Bonnie and we got lost.  Somehow, we thought we were a lot further down the road than we were and we were really messed up.  The rain didn’t help.  We were right out in the middle of it and it gets pretty hard to see the map when the rain is coming down and my glasses have water on them. We ended up stopping at this church and these sweet ladies tried to help us know where we were, but we were still messed up even though we didn’t know it at the time.  We were contemplating waiting for the rain to stop (which it never did) and decided to go and as we got back out on the road and turned on a different street, we spotted our leader, Dave, with a few other riders.  We ended up following him the rest of the day and everything turned out ok.  If we would have been 30 seconds earlier or later we would have missed him.  This type of thing has happened over and over on this trip and I just know that God has been watching over me and the group as we have ridden.  It is like He is saying, “I know where you are.” He does know where we are and will always be there for us if we just take a minute and look for Him or ask Him to help.

Today I saw the first LDS church on this trip.  I did see the spires of the temple in Washington DC.  As I was riding through Miami, I spotted a church with a steeple and wondered if it might be LDS, but I have seen so many, I doubted it would be, but as I rode by it was.  There were not many cars there and wondered if the services were over.  I wonder what they would have done if a man in riding shorts and shirt came walking in to attend sacrament meeting.  I sure did want to go in. I did have time for a little personal study this afternoon.

After getting out of the cities we rode through some farming areas that were quite pretty.  They were mostly tree farms growing all different kinds of palm trees.  The trees looked pretty all in rows.  We also rode by some sugar cane.  That is the first time I have seen that.  We are again staying in a hostel this evening.  It is the Everglades Hostel in Florida City.  We are pretty much at the bottom of Florida and will be in Key Largo tomorrow night.  It is still raining like crazy outside and it is supposed to continue through tomorrow.  I really can’t believe all the rain we have had on this trip.  It seems that it has done a pretty good job of just following us down the coast.  It used to make me nervous to think about riding the next day in the rain and now it doesn’t even bother me much.

Dinner was interesting here at the hostel tonight.  They have this “Communal” dinner at 7:00 and had chicken soup.  When the meal is done, they ring this bell and all the hostel dwellers come running.  They had a salad, garlic bread and corn on the cob to go with it. They had two pots of soup.  One was labeled “Gizzards included” and one just “Chicken Soup”.  I picked the chicken soup and since there was no place to eat outside because of the rain, I took my food back inside our room.  I started to eat the soup and the bones of the chicken were just broke up in the soup as well as the meat.  I thought at first that I found a stray bone, but after continuing, I guess they just break up the chicken, bones and all.  I was so hungry that I just took the bones out as I ate.

I took this yesterday and just wondered which RV would you prefer.

 Hollywood Beach.

 Banyan trees

 Palm Tree farm

Day 55 – Dedicated to my Sweetheart, Carey

Today is my 29^th anniversary.  I am really missing Carey on this trip.  I think many wives would not have thought their husband leaving for two months without them was a very good idea.  Carey might have thought the same thing in the back of her mind, but she also knew that this is one of my dreams, so she encouraged me as soon as I came home and asked what she thought of it.  She has always been my support in all the things I have needed to do and most things that I have wanted to do.  I love you Carey.

This Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale area seems to be a really great place to visit.  I never imagined this area with all the intra-coastal waterways before.  We paid $20 for an all-day water taxi ticket and had a great time touring the homes and yachts that were along the intra-coastal waterways.  I simply cannot begin to tell you all the money that is invested in those miles of waterways.  There were many homes and yachts that belonged to people who started companies and made their millions as well as the movie stars.  There really were some beautiful homes, but most of the cost was just the land.  There was a person who had a 20 million dollar home and bought the home next to his for 7 million and paid 2 million to have the house torn down and yard put in for his two Labrador dogs. Now that seems to be just wrong.

In Fort Lauderdale they have a yacht and boat show the last week of October each year and they are currently setting up for it now.  It would be awesome to come to the show someday so that you can see inside these yachts.  There is a yacht that is here called the Cakewalk and it is like 225 feet long.  It is the longest yacht made in America and carries a price tag of $165,000,000.  I just can’t fathom someone buying something like that.  It is a beautiful ship and there was a companion ship parked next to it to carry along all the support stuff for the Cakewalk.  Crazy.  We saw a sailboat owned by Senator John Kerry and numerous others.

We are staying in a hostel here.  It is a little tight as far as accommodations go. There are two rooms that the twelve of us are in, but there is only one bathroom.  Needless to say, that is why we must get out and find things to do during the day.   I think we must have another Nor’ easter brewing outside again.  Today the wind blew pretty hard from the northeast and it started raining tonight.  We have the winds again predicted for tomorrow, which actually could blow us in the right direction.  We also have a 60% chance of rain.  I guess we wouldn’t want to get too spoiled with good weather.

They had a good old fashioned rock/blues band playing on the beach tonight.  It was fun to just sit and listen to them.

Things are wrapping up pretty quickly on this trip.  We have less than 200 miles to go and I will be flying home in a week.  As I think back to the things we have done on this trip, in some ways it seems we have been here for a year and in other ways, I can’t believe it is about over. I do have to say that I am ready to go home.

A couple of the homes we saw

Seanator Kerry's boat

An anniversary gift for Carey

The Cakewalk

Day 54 – Hollywood

Not the California Hollywood, but Florida.  Hollywood is a little south of Ft. Lauderdale.  It has a great beach that goes on and on and has a boardwalk type atmosphere with restaurants, shops and bars all along it.  We do have a day off from riding tomorrow to check things out.  We went to a taco place for dinner tonight and after eating, we all went to take a little stroll on the beach.  It was dark, but there was a lot going on.  It is amazing how warm the water is.  I get California beaches in my mind and these waters here are so much warmer.

We had a pretty big ride today.  We rode 85 miles and went through some pretty amazing places. We went  through a string of beaches today;  Juno, Riviera, Palm, South Palm, Highland, Boca Raton, Hillsboro, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood Beaches.  We rode through places that had more mansions than I have seen in all my life.  The architecture of the buildings and the landscaping is amazing. Some of the lawns were the same grass and mowed the same as a green on a golf course.  I don’t know what that is all about.  Come to think of it, there was a road called PGA Blvd. and I wonder if that is where all the golf course grass was.  I was looking for a place to get a soda and a bag of chips to go with my lunch at lunchtime and there were no stores for miles and miles.  It was so odd.  I guess the real estate must be so expensive, that a store in these areas juts wouldn’t work, or the areas might not allow for that type of building to be there. I finally found the store and just about waited too long to get something in my stomach.  I was really running out of gas.

We also saw some pretty amazing boats.  This area not only has the ocean, but they have put canals in to connect all the lagoons and lakes all down the coast to allow boats and marinas to be inland as well.  I would really like to go aboard some of these yachts and take a look, but I resisted the temptation to jump aboard.  It probably would have ended up a quick end to the trip.

I don't know what is up with the internet connection tonight, but I can't upload any pictures.  I will post some tomorrow.  Goodnight all!

Day 53 – Bugs &()&)#*&#^(

Kind of an uneventful day today.  We rode much on the outer banks of Florida and rode past many vacation and winter condos.  There looks like there are many available for sale if any of you are interested.

The night at Bopee’s was nice.  There were no bugs and it was cool.  With everyone sleeping in the same rooms, I had to sleep with the earplugs.  We have plenty of snorers in the group. 

We are in a state park this evening and the weather right now is surprisingly cool.  We have a pretty good wind blowing and the bugs are horrible.  They have these little no see ums here and they just bite like crazy.  The off I brought doesn’t seem to work against them.  They have plenty of mosquitos too.  Bopee told us that there are no mosquitos, or very little, in Florida, but so far, he is wrong.  I need to get this written and get in my tent where I will be safe.

Everyone’s bike seems to be stressed to the breaking point.  I wrote a few days back about our tour leader’s bike frame cracking and we have had numerous wheels that have come out of true and yesterday Selwyn from New Zealand’s wheel cracked and he had to get a new wheel.  It is a good thing that bike shops are all over the place.  It seems like we are keeping the bike shops busy. I hate to say anthing about my bike.  It might bring the bad luck.  Other than flats, I have been doing ok.

Today’s weather turned out to be a nice day.  It was a little warm, but it was clear skies and beautiful all day.  We rode 68 miles and are just outside of Jupiter, FL.

The beautiful beach.  I really haven't had any desire to get in, but the water still is quite warm.  I just don't like the idea of sand in my britches when I again have to ride.

Focus isn't too good, but one of those fighting crabs. I jumped off the bike to get the picture, but it made it to the other side before I got the camera readsy.

 Bopee is in the center chair with Bonnie at the left.  That cat is fatter than our cat, which I thought was impossible.  The cat's name is Yo Mama.  Bopee is always saying stuff like, "I live in Wabasso with Yo Mamma".

 We see many many homes like these:

 with boats across the street or outback like this.

Day 52 - Bopee's Place

Another beautiful coastal ride today. I even took some pictures to share, but where we are staying where there is no internet and there is not much 3g, so I don't even know if this post will go. I will post the pictures later.

It was a great day of riding, but it was rather warm and humid. The weather people are predicting that tomorrow will break a record with 89 degrees for this time of the year. When I finished riding today, I was as wet as when we ride in the rain. As the bike is moving, you don't feel the heat too much, but when you stop, it is suffocating.

We are staying at one of the riders home this evening. It is in Wabasso Beach, Florida. We are just sleeping on our air mattresses on the floor, but it is so nice to have ac and a roof over our heads. Every day the rain storms come and just dump rain. I think that is just the way it is here. The rider's name is Bill Baron, but we all call him by his nickname, Bopee. He is a great man. He has a litttle ADHD or whatever that is called, but he remembers everything and is really quite a hilarious person. He remembers so many trivial things, I am just amazed.

Bopee had some neighbours come and cook us dinner tonight. They grilled ribs and we had baked beans, salad and pie and ice cream. It was a great treat. The people were so kind and really enjoyed cooking for the group.

When we were riding in tonight, there were these blue crabs that were skirting across the road. It was actually quite funny to see because they run across the road with their claws up like they are going to fight off the oncoming cars. They look so fierce, but they lose the battle with the car everytime.  Bopee says it is mating season and then you don't see them again until next year.

We traveled 65 miles today and we have about the same to do tomorrow. We have been riding in groups quite a bit in the afternoon because of the winds.

Day 51 – Kennedy Space Center

Lately I have been having a hard time writing these blogs.  It seems like I write the same things day after day and I am sure that anyone reading this has to be bored to death.  My days are not that much different from the preceding day unless some bad weather or something is taking place and I am glad to have none of that to report.

We did get up and get ready a little early today.  We had about 55 miles to ride, but there was a few of us that wanted to travel an extra 14 miles round trip to get to the Kennedy Space Center and take a tour.  The last tour started at 2:45, so we needed the early start to get there on time.  It was another beautiful day to ride.  We again rode by some great housing areas and some inland rivers.  We didn’t ride next to the ocean today, but these rivers are connected to the ocean where the tide has some effect on the rivers height.  I did get another flat today.  It was my seventh I think.  I still am leading the group. 

The flat made me a little later than I wanted to be, but we did get to the Center at 2:00.  It was a great tour.  It was a little sad due to the fact that it was centered on the space shuttle program and the space shuttle program is no more.  We did get to actually go into the space shuttle Explorer and see the cockpit and cargo bay and their living quarters.  The best part of the tour for me was a building that they have dedicated to the Apollo missions and they have a Saturn V rocket in there hanging on its side and it was absolutely huge.  It was as long as a football field.  It is just unbelievable that it takes a rocket that big to get a little capsule into space.  They had some movies about the Apollo 8 mission, which was the first mission to circle around the moon and the Apollo 11 (I think) mission, which was the first landing.  They have the actual terminals in the Center that were used and it just made you proud of our Country and the ingenuity of man to get something like that done.

There was one thing that I wanted to mention yesterday.  They are having this big motorcycle rally here (in Daytona Beach) in the next few days called Biketoberfest.  It is much like the rally in Sturgis and this area is becoming inundated with cycles.  The campgrounds that we stay at are full of them and there are bike shops and chop shops all over the place.  I guess it is one of the big gatherings in the US.

The building in which they built the Saturn V and the put the shuttle together with the rockets.  In the Apollo days, this was the largest building by volumn in the world.  Now it is the 4th largest.

 Saturn V Rocket used to propel the Apollo missions.

 The two well dressed people are Kennedy Center employees.  They were bikers and interested in what we were doing.  They gave us stickers that read, "I need my space".

Day 50 – Daytona Beach

We just about had another mutiny on our hands this morning.  When we woke, it looked like the wind was going to be blowing quite hard today and there was also a tornado warning issued for the area.  The storm causing the tornado warning had actually passed to the north, but many in the group were thinking we should wait another day to go.  I really wasn’t part of that group.  We have one more day of rest and I hated to give that up as we would have no wiggle room for the rest of the trip and I knew a day off in a few days will be needed.  Dave, our leader,  made the decision to ride and  just see how we do and it turned out to be a great day.  We rode many beaches today such as Beverly Beach, Crescent Beach, Flagler Beach and we are spending the night close to Daytona Beach.  It was absolutely beautiful riding.  Much of the way, the ocean was on one side of the road and houses on the other and the sun was shining on the ocean just right and it was just enjoyable.

There is a lot of wealth along this coast.  We end up riding in some areas that the houses are just amazing.  I imagine that many people come here for the winters.  Much of the riding is on islands that border the Atlantic on one side and have a river channel running along the other.  These homes have boat houses on the river side and they have these huge boats out back and all.  I am enjoying Florida.  The scenery is more tropical than we have seen in the past and I have enjoyed the palm trees and all.

We rode 62 miles today. We are camping tonight and it is very hot and humid.  I hope it cools down.

Getting ready today in the hostel

Riding along the beach

This picture really doesn't do it justice.  I took it while riding and should have stopped.

Day 49 – St. Augustine

Another Sunday.  Wow the weeks seem to be going by quickly.  This actually turned out to be a good day to have a rest day.  The wind has been incessant today.  Tonight, the news is reporting them at sustained 33 mph winds.  It is supposed to calm down tomorrow, but the direction is also supposed to shift more to the south east direction which could end up being brutal.  There is supposed to be two inches of rain tonight and that also is supposed to change to a 30% chance tomorrow morning.  I am hoping for the best.

We are staying in the Pirate’s Haus hostel.  It is by far the best hostel we have stayed in thus far.  It is clean and the beds are regular mattresses and the owner is just a really fun guy.  He cooked us pancakes for breakfast today and he would make these pirate faces with a squirt bottle of pancake batter and then after that cooked for a bit, he would pour a pancake over the pirate face.  When the pancake was done, you would have this little pirate face in the pancake.  He would write names and messages in the pancakes, which is not as easy as it sounds, because he has to write backwards on the griddle for it to come out right. After that he dressed in his pirate outfit and was wandering around in that.

I spent the morning getting a little religion in my day.  Technology is pretty wonderful.  The sessions of last week’s conference were on the internet and I was able to watch some that I missed.  I also helped Dave, our tour leader, outfit his new bike.  Yesterday as he was riding, his bike frame cracked and he had to buy a new bike to continue on.  He bought a Surly Long Haul Trucker, but was pretty sad about losing his Canondale.  He was pretty bonded to his bike.  We had to move his fenders, pedals, racks and computer to the new bike and it took us a few hours to get that done.  I then jumped on my bike and did a little touring of the town.  There is a lot of history here, but it really is a pretty small place.  The city has a ton of restaurants and there are a lot of tourists, but I think they come just to hang out and eat.

I had a nice dinner with Tim and Nancy tonight.  We ate at this quaint little place and I had Chicken and Sweet Potato Dumplings with pecan pie for desert.  It was so good.  We just had a great evening talking about each other’s families and lives and such.  They really have become good friends.  It will be interesting to see what happens when this is all over.  I imagine that we will all just go back to our prior lives and that will be that, but I would hope that we could still correspond once in a while.

An old Spanish Fort that actually has a mote around it.  It was built in the early 1700's.  Can you belive it still exists?  That's amazing.

An old hotel that is now a university.

Day 48 – Nor’ Easter

I think we have had our share of extreme weather on this trip.  Maybe it is always this way on the Atlantic coast, but it seems anytime we approach the ocean, the weather gets a bit lousy.  Hitting the coast of Florida has been no exception.  In fact, now I see the benefit of training in Burley when the wind gusts are hitting 30 mph. The wind today was fantastic at times.  If we were going southwest, the wind would just push us along.  In fact, we went across a flat bridge that was 1.5 miles long and was situated perfectly to have the wind at your back.  Without much effort, I was going 30 mph across that bridge fully loaded on a touring bike.  The weather channel app on my phone was reporting sustained winds in this area of 29 mph.  So, when we were headed directly south, which was much of the day, the wind was directly on our left side.  On much of the coast, there is a dune of sand that blocks much of the direct wind, but when that dune was gone, that wind would do its best to blow you off the road.  You really did have to be careful.  We had one of our group actually blown off the road.  He wasn’t paying much attention to the wind and actually stood up on the bike to stretch and off the road he went.  He kept a straight path in the ditch and didn’t wreck or anything, which was good.  We had rain that came this afternoon as well.  I did stop at a convenience store and wait the rain out, so I was able to keep things dry.

We are in St. Augustine, FL.  This city is supposed to be the oldest continuously occupied city in the US, founded in 1565.  It is also the place that Ponce de Leon was sent to find the “Fountain of Youth”. I hope to take a walk around the city and see some of its history tomorrow.  We went up town for dinner tonight and the place looks very touristy.  There were a lot of people roaming around tonight.

We rode 68 miles today.  All in all, I did enjoy the ride.  The wind probably helped as much as it hindered, so for me, it was ok.  This Nor’ Easter is supposed to continue through Monday, so it looks like we get to deal with it more.

Spanish Moss in the trees

Getting everything secure for a ferry crossing today

Day 47 – Yulee, Florida

We are in our last state.  Do you know what a Nor’easter is? The locals say we are going through one.  The wind increased in velocity all day and by this afternoon, it was really howling.  Bill, Merv and I pretty much drafted on each other to get tour destination.  We were heading east today to get here and have about 10 more miles to get to the coast and then we will be heading southwest.  If this weather pattern continues, which it is supposed to, it should push us along for much of tomorrow.

The bad part about the weather is that we are back in rain.  We didn’t have to ride in any today, but this afternoon, it really came down.  The thunder was shaking the ground it was so loud.  The campground that we are staying at has a recreation room and we are all in here eating, reading and just hanging out.  The tents are outside and I have yet to see how the tent went through the down pouring of rain.  This rain is supposed to continue the next few days, so we may be riding in it tomorrow.

It was kind of a boring day as far as events. We rode about 55 miles.  After today we will be riding right down the coast of Florida for the entire way.

For those who don’t bike, drafting on a bicycle is done by following someone ahead to take advantage of his/her breaking the force of the wind for you.  It is amazing how much more you can do when drafting.  The way it was done today is that the lead person pushed through a mile of riding and then pulled out in the road slightly and let the other two pass.  That cycle is continued, so that you are only riding directly into the wind every third mile.  It is a little more dangerous in riding, because you have got to be real careful not to bump into the person ahead.  If you bump, there is a good chance the one in the back is going down.  If done properly, you can ride much faster and much longer than you could normally do.  In life it is much the same.  When we have people we can learn from, or people who help us out, we can accomplish so much more than we would if we simply go after life on our own.  We also have many opportunities in life to be of service to others and should take that opportunity.  We are able to help out someone else and the great thing about that is that we will see that we received something from it as well.

Guess where we are at

Day 46 – Okefenokee National Park

We had a nice day today.  I did wake to a flat tire.  I have begun putting the tube in my tire so that when I find the hole in the tube, I can find out where the tire might have something in it. Today I found another shard of metal in the same place that I received my second flat.  I think the same piece of metal has caused four of my flats.  It was difficult to find and it just worked away slowly on the tube until it wore a whole.  I fixed it and I hope that that particular problem doesn’t cause anymore flats.

We rode about 45 miles today.  About 10 of which was going to the Okefenokee Swamp.  We took a boat tour into the swamp.  It really isn’t a swamp, it is a peat bog.  Back in the late 1800’s, some people had the idea to drain the bog and started digging a canal to do it.  They ran out of money before the canal was finished and that is where they take the tour boats.  It really is pretty in there with the Cyprus Trees and Spanish moss hanging.  We were able to see alligators and turtles and a bunch of birds.

I also had to cook again today, so this has turned out to be a busy day.  It is quite late at night so this posting is going to be rather short.  This is our last day in Georgia.  Tomorrow we will begin the trek down the eastern side of Florida.

Day 45 – Peanuts

It was a big day of riding today.  We rode 85 miles, but it was very pleasant.  The day started off very cool again today and it again made a nice day of riding.  We rode through mainly farm country today and mainly saw cotton, peanuts and onions.  One thing that was interesting was there was quite a bit of irrigation, which we haven’t seen too much of.  The locals were saying that this area doesn’t get the rain that other parts of the state get.  Things still looked pretty green to me.  Georgia is a beautiful state.  It seems to be a little more open than other states that we have passed through.  I mean by that, that the trees have been cut for farming in more places and you can see over the horizon a few miles instead of just seeing trees on the side of the road.

We stopped at a farm where some peanuts that had been dud up were drying on the top of the ground.  They were windrowed much like beans are in Idaho.  We shelled a few and had a taste.  They weren’t very good.  I’m sure they need roasting.  You see a lot of boiled peanuts around here.  I haven’t tried any yet.  I need to take an opportunity to sample some.

We also stopped at another convenience store where they were cooking up some lunch for the locals.  I had some mustard greens (which is like spinach or swiss chard) and potatoes and gravy.  Again it was very good.  The greens were very fresh and even had a little grit in it.  I imagine it was dirt from picking that morning.

We are staying right don town Nahunta, GA.  There are two railroads that come together here and we are hearing trains about every 30 minutes.  There is also a pen of dogs right next to where we are camped that yelp every time someone moves.  It will be an interesting night.

I rode with Tim and Nancy today

Peanuts and a good picture of cotton

How do you like the hair