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

Day 44 – Happy Birthday on the road

Today is my 51^st birthday.  I mentioned earlier, I think, that this trip was a dream of mine to mark my half-way point through life.  I am glad that I was able to do this.  It has been good for me to learn of myself, to learn much of my country and to think upon God as I have. Today has been a very good day.  I miss spending it with my sweetheart, but I have been treated very well.  We didn’t have a long distance to ride today so we slept in a bit.  We woke at 7:30 to begin breakfast by 8:00.  It was another quite chilly night, so I was ready to get up.  At the beginning of the trip, the nights were so warm that I sent home my 20 degree bag I bought a 55 degree bag at REI.  The last few nights, I have been sleeping in my cloths to stay warm.  I hope I did the right thing in sending that bag home.  It should warm up.

The ride today was wonderful.  It was a short distance of 35 miles and it was beautiful.  We passed small lakes, farms and houses and I really enjoyed the travel.   We have ridden by a lot of cotton, but I have yet to see it being harvested.  I do hope I get the chance. We are camped just outside of Reidsville, GA in a state park.  This park is beautiful as well.  The tourist season here is over and there are not many campers.  The camp is so clean and quiet.  There is a lake in the middle of it and it was just so pretty tonight.  I will send a picture.

The group has been so kind to me today.  Not that they aren’t normally kind.  They would all say, “Happy Birthday”, and the cooks cooked me my favorite meal of hamburgers and made this great desert of pound cake topped with fruit and condensed sweet milk.  It really was good.  I spent much of the time this afternoon getting some office work done, which now seems like a break from the riding/camping routine.

Many of you sent me a nice note of happy birthday as well.  I appreciate you my good friends and family.  You are what is important in life.  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. We have a much longer day tomorrow of about 85 miles.  I think the rest today will help us get through it.

The place we are staying

Us getting ready today

Some scenery along the way

Day 43 – Georgia

We had another beautiful day of riding today.  We got up at about 6:30 and it was still dark. I don’t know why the others always insist on getting started so early.  It was also pretty cold this morning.  We gauged it at about 46.  I know that is not too cold by Idaho standards, but when you are camping and riding in it, it is plenty cold.  However, that is what made it such a nice riding day.  It ended up in the lower 70’s and the wind was not blowing as hard as it has been and that made for some great riding.  We traveled 75 miles today and are now in Statesboro, Georgia.  We are camping again and had a nice dinner of burritos.  It was our tour leader Dave’s turn to cook and every time he cooks, it is burritos.

The riding was somewhat uneventful so I am going to write a bit about hostels.  Before this trip, I had never stayed in a hostel.  They are a more inexpensive way for people to travel.  In Charleston, a hotel room is going to run you $150 at best and most are $200+.  The hostel cost us about $20 per person.  Keep in mind that we booked as a group and they had eight people in a room.  I think for others it was about $40 per night. We met a lot of foreign people in this hostel.  There were about three from the UK and some from Australia and Germany while we were there.  They are mainly young kids (in fact other than us, they were all young) and most of them seemed to be partying about every night.  I don’t  know if they knew people coming into the City or they just party with whoever.  The place was pretty clean when we arrived, but the place was loaded with people over the weekend and by Sunday morning, it was getting a bit grungy.  I don’t know who’s job it is to clean the place.  In our room of eight on the last night, we had two young men that were not part of our group.  They went up town to find some things to do and didn’t come in until very late.  I guess we got back at them because we left very early and it was hard leaving without making quite a bit of noise. The beds are these mattresses covered in plastic and they give you clean sheets and a pillow case.  They make a terrible racket getting on and off. They tell you absolutely no sleeping bags, which I guess is to protect against bugs coming in. Anyway, I think I would rather camp than stay in those.

Tomorrow we have a short day to ride.  We are only supposed to ride 35 miles, but Georgia is a lot more hilly than we have had the last few weeks.  They are not high hills, but there are a lot of them.

Which RV would you rather have?

I saw peanuts on the road today, but I don't know what a peanut plant looks like.  I will have to investigate.  There is a lot of cotton here and a lot more "not so fancy" homes.

Day 42 – Alligator Country

It actually felt good to get back on the bike again today.  It really did our group a lot of good to take two days off from riding. I think everyone’s psyche, as well as body were somewhat rejuvenated.  The ride was on a little busier roads than we usually ride due in part to having to get back on our route in a different direction, but it was a nice ride today.  I ended up missing a turn and riding about 10 miles further than we were supposed to ride.  I had no idea for about 10 miles that I had missed the turn.  I checked the GPS on my phone in this town called Walterboro, where the next town was because the names of the roads were just not matching up.  It said 22 miles when I was expecting 11 miles and when I figured it out, my morale just sunk for a bit.  It is kind of weird how that happens.  Then I just said to myself, “You know what you need to do, you just have to ride the extra miles and enjoy it”.  That is what I tried to do and it turned out fine.  I rode a total of 76 miles and it was a beautiful day of riding.

We did spot a dead alligator on the side of the road.  It will be fun to start to try and see them in the rivers and swamps that we are passing.  Tomorrow, we will cross into Georgia.  The weather has cooled down considerably.  It was 47 degrees when we took off this morning and it really never did hit 70 all day.  It does make good riding weather.  The wind blew from the south all day slightly, which was a bit annoying. 

I tried to listen to conference on the bike while riding, but I kept losing my signal and finally gave up.  I did get into camp early enough because of the time difference to listen to the last session.  I sure did enjoy that.  There was a talk that was given by a Japanese fellow and he talked about the missionaries that came to him and taught him.  It was a bit emotional for me to listen to that talk because it reminded me of the people of Korea that I was able to work with.  I so remember the day I came home from there. A bunch of people I met during the two years I was there came to the airport to see me off and it was so bitter-sweet.  I wanted to go home and see my family, but I knew I wouldn’t see these people again in this life and I had developed such a love for them.  It still tears me up a bit when I think of them.

I do a lot of thinking about the people that I meet on this trip.  We are running through areas that are predominately black and the people that I have run into have been so kind.  I stopped to get a chocolate milk today and the lady behind the counter was so kind.  I told her about being lost and she was just so nice to say that it is a beautiful day and it will be ok.  I ate my sandwich outside and this older man with few teeth came up and talked to me for a bit.  When I got on the bike to leave, he said, “You be careful out there now”.  It is just nice to think how many good people there are in the world, in which billions of them, we never meet.  I wonder what these people’s lives are like I run into and hope they are happy.  I have seen people living under bridges and you wonder what has happened in their life to get them there.  It is just humbling to think that all these people are God’s children and that He knows them and loves them.

Day 41 - Mutiny!

We had a bit of a mutiny yesterday.  As we studied the maps on today's ride, we noticed that as we rode out of Charleston to the north, we would circle around the outskirts of the City and begin heading south and we would travel about 140 miles to a place that if we just headed south out of the city, we would get there in about 70 miles.  This trip to Charleston is a spur on our maps that allow you to come into the city, but to get back out, you just follow the spur back out.  Anyway, we all thought that we could not travel today and be at the same place we were supposed to be in tomorrow night, with a lot less travel.  We all put the proposal to our leader last night and he petty much had to conform because no one was going to ride the route that was mapped out.
So, this day really has been a day of rest.  We all did very little and this has been the first day on the trip that has been a second day of no riding.  There is a WWII aircraft carrier on the other side of the harbor that I wanted to visit called the Yorktown.  It was very interesting, but was much the same as the battleship that I visited in North Carolina.  Today is also General Conference for the LDS church and I was able to stream the sessions in on my phone, which I really enjoyed.  I wish that I would be able to listen tomorrow as well, but as I move around, it is real easy to lose the signal. I think I will try to listen on the bike, but I would be surprised if it works.

There is not many miles to report today.  I did ride the bike around town today instead of walk and taking the bus.  The bus just took too long to come around.  I think everyone in the group really enjoyed the two days off the bike.  It seems the moral of the group is better than it has been in a while.

It is hard to believe that it is October.  The weather here really cooled down today.  It was about 90 degrees yesterday and I think the high today and for this weekend is only about 70.  The wind really blew here today and I am hoping that it is not quite so strong tomorrow.

Here are a few more pictures of the city.  They have quite a few cobblestone streets in the city and they say they came from stones they would put in the ships from Europe to use as ballast as they would come over carrying furniture which was quite light and carry rice and tobacco back which is heavy so the would leave the rocks