Sleeping in the Lap of Luxury!
My first full day's route put me on a bike trail where I ran into the first person I've seen during my trip who was aware of the Southern Tier route. I was taking a break at the Carraway trailhead of the Palatka-Butler trail when Dave pulled into the lot and asked if I was going to St. Augustine or San Diego. Before I had a chance to reply, he surmised that since my stuff was still too clean surely I must just be beginning and on my way to San Diego.
About 12 miles after this encounter, I made my first mistake when I failed to realize that I needed to jump off the trail to catch the road that the map had me follow. Luckily, I had only gone about a mile before I realized my mistake. Much further and I might have cried!
When I was talking to Dave earlier, I was able to ask him about how Highway 26 was. The map route had me take the two legs of a triangle, but if I stayed on HW 26 (the hypotenuse) it was more direct and a shorter ride into Gainesville. Dave assure me it was fine, which it was. This experience taught me that I should ask locals for feedback when in doubt. Thanks, Dave!
I rolled into Gainesville around 3pm. When I called the hostel where I was hoping to stay, they said they had space but that no one would be around to let me in until 4:30. Oh well, as long as I was off the bike was all that mattered to me at that point!
The Zen Hostel turned out to be a wonderful place and just what I needed after the previous night's experience. They had a private room available for only $10 more than for a bunk-bed shared room, and I jumped at the option. As you can see at the top of the post, it's pretty basic, but it's unquestionably the best accommodations I've had thus far!
While the building was a bit old, everything was clean. The courtyard was also very pleasant and lived up to the Zen name. The hostel also allowed free use of laundry machines, which I decided to take advantage of even though I had been on the road not even two full days. I hand-washed clothes for 35 days before (when Julie and I walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain) so I'll take advantage of a machine when it's offered!
With Julie teasing me by sending pictures of luscious food her friends treated her to at a French cafe (above), I felt justified in a little extravagance, so I treated myself to a bacon burger and beer in town. I had other suggestions from someone who knew the area, but it turned out they were too far to walk to after not sleeping the night before and then biking all day.
Day: 1
Time: 6 hours
Distance: 50 miles
(Post by Will. There won't be daily updates, and some blog posts--like this one--will be a bit delayed, pending Will's access to wifi and Julie's time constraints.)
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