Counting Down the Days

Lady Slipper along the roadway in Florida

One hundred year old tobacco barn along the route

Turtle Log

Russ skinning his road kill

April 22 - De Funiak Springs - Sneads (Three Rivers State Park) 94 miles. It worked out best for me to drive the whole day on the freeway and the others biked. According to Russ, nothing to exciting, just hot, humid and headwinds. They did bike around the lake which was surrounded by beautiful homes.

April 23 - Sneads - East of Tallahassee - 98 miles The plan was for us gals to switch riding at the half way point because neither of us care to do close to a century ride. The only reason why the rides are so long at this point is that camping is rather scarce. However, Russ broke a spoke at around 24 miles and luckly Dawn was able to make a detour and met us on a country road. So that Russ wouldn't miss out on the miles, we put his bike seat on my bike and he rode the rest of the route. Dawn and Mike switched onto the tandem bike to join him. From there I drove the 70+ miles to the campground, unhooked the car (a feat that is not easy) and drove back into Tallahassee to a bike shop.

What happened is that Russ heard a snap and then his back tire just jammed into his bike frame. He didn't know what was wrong except his back tire wouldn't rotate. At that point, I thought the bike was toast! The first bike shop that we called thought maybe it was a broken axle based upon our description of what happened. However, it ended up being a broken spoke and the bike shop was able to fix it right away. Because of all the delays and such long milage, the bikers didn't get into camp until close to 7 pm. (Maybe I had the better day after all).

April 24 - Tallahassee to White Springs - 81 miles. It rained on us a little last night and we woke up to a cloudy humid day. The original plan was to switch driving half way but Dawn decided not to bike. About two hours into the ride it started to rain hard so we called Dawn and asked her to pick me up at the halfway point. When we reached the half way point the rain had stopped and the sun was out. But I decided to jump into the motorhome and hitch a ride to the campground. That might have been a good choice because it is almost 4 pm and the guys still have not arrived. They arrived around 4:30 pm (another head wind day) and Russ's big find for the day was a dead corn snake. It was dead when he saw it on the road and he stopped and skinned it. He said he wants to make a head band for his cowboy hat. He has spent the past hour on the internet looking at how to preserve it. Now he has it in a baggie with lots of salt. Speaking of road finds, so far 53 bungie cords (total length attached to each other equals over 45 yards) one knife, scissors, pliers, saw, hammer, reflectors, sunglasses, cup holders, antlers, dew rag, plastic flowers and now a dead snake! Our little cubby under the motorhome is stuffed with everything he has collected.

Today is Saturday and we plan to reach St. Augustine on Tuesday so we are happily counting down the days. (170 miles and counting!) I think all of us are ready to reach the final destination.