Racking Up Miles--and Calories!

Friday, February 17

After a good night's sleep at the Zen Hostel, I was able to make an earlier start and got on the road a little after 7am.  It was a chilly start though at 37 degrees!  I was glad to have brought gloves and riding mittens...

Getting the earlier start was great, both for my mindset but also for making good progress.  The area outside of Gainesville was quite nice to cycle through, and then I took a break around mile 20 and indulged in some chocolate mini donuts.

I went through the town of High Springs which looked to be the epicenter of tubing and possibly scuba diving.  I was able to take some more advantage of local advice from the hostel the night before and jumped on 27 out of High Springs to take the hypotenuse again.

After 27, I was mainly on country roads with little traffic, with lots of tiny churches at which I was able to take a break and stretch my back occasionally.  I had mainly been snacking when I rolled into Wellborn and found Bob's Butts BBQ.  The pulled pork sure hit the spot.  The server left the pitcher of iced tea on the table for me.  It must have been obvious I needed it!

I then decided to push on a bit further to the next campground 10 miles further on.  It was a private one, but much improved from the first one.  It was a music venue, but after confirming that the music was indoors and would not impact my sleep, I checked in.  The only complaint was the number of folks driving around in ATVs.  Why go camping then?

It was a long day, but I started to feel today (finally) that this ride was do-able.

Day: 2
Time: 9 hours
Distance: 80 miles

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Saturday, February 18

Alas, my hopes for last night's campground were not realized.  While the concert was indoors, there were plenty of campers indulging in loud music and partying.  Some yahoos in a golf cart came by around midnight with their radio blaring and decided to stop next to my tent for some reason.

So when I got on the road a little before 7am, I was not feeling all that rested.  It was an overcast morning that was cold and damp  There were storms predicted for the day, but luckily they didn't come.  However, I did have my first stretch of rain for about 2 hours, from 10-12.  I decided that a Burger King break was in order and got out of the rain for a bit.

The skies cleared and I had good sunshine in the afternoon.  About 20 miles outside of Tallahassee a guy stopped to ask me if was biking the Southern Tier.  He had run into a guy from Quebec last year doing the ride who had started FROM Quebec!  He himself had completed the Continental Divide race and was planning to do it again.  Crazy!  (More on my changing perspectives on all this in another post...)

I did get burned by deviating from the planned route.  I attempted to take the more direct route into Tallahassee only to have the shoulder disappear.  Luckily I was able to take another road that connected me back to the planned route.

The last 10 miles into Tallahassee were tough!  Not only was it the last 10 miles of a 90-mile day, but flat Florida was not so flat here.  Some of the hills started to look like Everest to me!

I did finally make it into Tallahassee and stayed for a night at a non-profit bicycle house.  After Julie saw pictures of my "room," she shared the opinion that perhaps I should be staying at more for-profit hotels from here on.  I leave you to decide...

Day: 3
Time: 10.5 hours
Distance: 90+ miles (trip odometer stopped working for a bit because of the rain...)

(post by Will)