St. Augustine

Done!

We rolled into St. Augustine and on through to Vilano Beach about noon. St. Augustine is not actually on the ocean but is sheltered behind some islands so we had to go on to Vilano Beach to touch our wheels to the Atlantic. We wound up touching the Atlantic up to our feet because we turned away from the water to have our picture taken and a wave came up to surprise us.

As we pedalled toward St. Augustine, we noticed a lovely bike trail running alongside our road. We switched over to the trail. The trail is a converted railway route running straight toward St. Augustine. We pedalled along happily until the trail simply stopped abruptly in the woods and the railroad tracks resume. Evidently the county ran out of money at that point. We had to turn around and pedal back most of a mile to get back to the highway.

We unloaded our baggage at the UPS store to ship home. See Steve's blog velomange.blogspot.com for a photo of the clerk atop the box trying to stuff all of our gear into the box. We'll go to a bike store tomorrow to see about shipping the bikes home.

We're proud to have completed the trip. It was an experience that few people will ever have. It's hard when one is tired and aching pedalling into a headwind to enjoy the moment but the moments weave together into an unforgettable whole that I wouldn't want to give up.

Thanks for reading. See you all soon I hope.

Palatka

We had good riding today. The roads were quiet; many people were at home or at church I guess. Sixteen miles were on a rail-to-trail bike path. Steve rode along with a group of students from the University of Florida for a time and talked with them. Back in Texas, at some campground, we camped with Rutger Meyer, a U of F student who was pedalling from Florida to Austin. Some of these students knew Rutger. Small world!

We pulled into Palatka early enough to have a chance to examine the historic section. Many of the old buildings have murals on them. Michele encountered a fine grasshopper with red legs and a yellow racing stripe. Statues venerate the soldiers and sailors of WWI and celebrate the chivalry of the Confederate soldiers. We enjoyed milkshakes at Florida's oldest diner(1932).

One way or another, we'll be finished tomorrow. We repacked our stuff tonight so that we can conveniently keep one pannier for luggage and send everything else home by UPS.

Below: cooking our raviolis in camp; a bayou; the grasshopper; Michele and Steve on the road; the road; a mural celebrating some connection with Billy Graham; our milkshakes.

Gainesville

We have had two long days. A total of over 150 miles for the two days, a lot for Michele and me, maybe even for Steve at this point. Serious headwind again today. Lovely back roads with little traffic. The scenery has been unchanged since Austin: mostly skinny little trees densely packed on both sides of the road. There have been a lot of tree farms with each tree in its place. There have been some horse farms and some field crops. Yesterday, we had sixteen miles of caterpillars crossing the road. I feel like I have killed enough animals heedlessly so I tried to steer around the caterpillars. I probably annoyed my companions with my erratic steering. I was worse today; I went off the shoulder o to the rough while fiddling with my odometer. We camped last night at an RV park near the intersection of I-10 and I-75. It was our last night for camping, so we decided to use our reserve dinner, two packages of Trader Joe's rissotto, supplemented by some cans of Chef Boyardee mini-ravioli. The canned ravioli reminded us of childhood meals. The rissotto was better. We finished off with a round of Little Debbie fruit pies. After dark, I managed to tangle myself in a pair of plastic chairs and fall on my face. Fortunately, the potential witnesses were already in their tents so my dignity was preserved. I estimate that Steve and I use around 5000 calories per day, Michele somewhat less. We are eating accordingly. Starting Tuesday, we're going to be back to using 2500 calories. We're all worried about how we're going to adjust our eating to a less strenuous activity level. We're all drinking diet soda now instead of high-octane root beer or Dr. Pepper for a start. I had a Yoo-Hoo yesterday for fun.

Monticello

We have had fairly easy riding the last two days. The terrain has been flat to gently rolling. Nothing remarkable has occurred.

We stayed in Quincy last night. We found another sub-$35 motel, but it was much nicer than the fleapit of the previous night. A deluge of rain fell after we arrived. The sky cleared. We went to dinner at AJ's fried chicken joint. On the cashier's recommendation, I had the fried pork chop sandwich. It was excellent. Shortly after retirning to the motel, there was another deluge.

One sound has followed us all the way: the call of the mockingbird. It's a loud distinctive call. Now we hear frogs and insects adding their voices, especially whenever the road crosses a bayou.

We pass a lot of roadside memorials, presumably for traffic accodent victims. One caught my eye and caused me to ask a local about it. A motorcyclist was struck by a driver who "didn't see him". The memorial eternally reproaches the driver: "Can you see me now?"

Grocery stores here commonly include a minnow tank for fishermen. Better than the night crawlers in the stores on our previous ride.

Back in Pensacola, there were pelicans wearing jersies for each of the military branches. I have no explanation.

Right at the Alabama-Florida border, there is a place called the Flora-Bama. The reason for the Flora-Bama's popularity is that Florida has a lottery with bigger prizes than Alabama's. Alabamians drive to the Flora-Bama to buy their lottery tickets. The border actually runs through the building and is marked on the outside. You can buy your tickets on the Florida side of the building.

Chipley

We followed a ridge today. The terrain was alternately pastures and swamps. We're always hoping to see an alligator below us when we cross a bridge. There was some threat of thunderstorms in the afternoon so we wanted to complete our ride before we got wet. We just made it, pulling into a motel just as the first raindrops fell.

I finally managed to fall off my bicycle today. I rolled into the motel parking lot, swung my leg over the back of the bicycle, and hooked the leg of my shorts on the nose of the saddle. From that moment on, the only question was how long I could stall the inevitable crash. No harm done other than to my dignity.

Our motel reaches a new low for quality. At $30, we figured it would be shabby. The alternatives are all a few miles out of town at the interstate. We chose to go with decrepitude over more miles with rain threatening.

Steve decided to eat a late-morning sausage and biscuit. It was terrific. The locale? Another gas station/grocery! The percentage of our standout meals on this trip eaten in gas station parking lots is remarkable.

Crestview

We have had an uneventful couple of days. One flat today. The terrain has been pretty flat. The sky has been partly cloudy; it's a relief to pedal into a cloud shadow and feel the temperature drop.

Seven states are done. One remains and it's a long one. We'll be a week crossing Florida.

I pedalled off yesterday morning with my B&B room key in my pocket so I had to stop at the post office this morning to mail it back. We waited for the bike shop to open, to Michele's frustration. She likes to get an early start. Steve and I almost always find a way to delay. And then the bike shop didn't have a tire pump anyway.

I attach a photo of an example of restrained Florida architecture.

Dauphin Island

We are at Dauphin Island, Alabama. We had a rainy ride to get here, slowed by two flats. We are feeling somewhat mildewed; our wet shoes, in particular, are reeking.

We took a rest day here. This sandy spit of land is the site of Ft. Gaines, which, along with Ft. Morgan across the channel, guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay during the War of Northern Aggression (sometimes called the CivilWar). The channel was limited to a narrow passage by Confederate mines (then called "torpedoes") so that the forts could concentrate their fire on any Union warships which might try to force an entrance to Mobile Bay. Admiral Farragut brought his Union fleet up the channel. The first ship struck a mine and sank in about 30 seconds. The captain of the next ship signaled the admiral for instructions on what to do. The admiral allegedly replied, "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" the remaining Confederate mines misfired. The Union fleet then engaged the Confederate ironclad Tennessee. The ships blasted away at each other from as close as three feet. The Tennessee was disabled and eventually surrendered. We toured the fort and watched some re-enactors in period dress fire their weapons and make bread.

We have enjoyed two nights in a comfortable b&b. This will make us go soft. Back on the bikes tomorrow.

Biloxi

Today was special. No flats, for one thing. But we also had some great experiences.

We decided to go to the Biloxi area on our way to Dauphin Island. We turned off the published route and encountered a little country store. Three generations of the owner's family were loafing in the shade under the store's awning. They immediately invited us to sit down and "visit" for a while. The owner gave us hot boiled peanuts (apologizing for the peanuts' being from last year's crop; this year's crop won't be harvested until July). The owner, Maudie, consulted with Steve at length on the route, calling on her other customers to add further details.

We returned to our bikes after a delightful hour with Maudie. Our road was sometimes fully canopied by great arching oaks. One unhappy note: there are many loose dogs which sometimes chase us. They are not ferocious; just going through the motions. One ran out to impress us just as a car passed us. We heard the collision and the dog hobbled off yelping. I went to the owner's house to let her know about the injury. She replied "He's been hit before." she explained that the dogs chew through the rope if she ties them up.

We found ourselves in Saucier around lunchtime. Raffeo's Seafood has masses of fish and crawfish on ice. They offer killer po' boy sandwiches. Michele and I split the 14 inch catfish po' boy while Steve had the eight-inch shrimp po' boy. The owner was so excited about the gumbo that he brought us a cup to taste, promising that it would be even better after simmering overnight.

Doris Dena made hot tamales and sold them out of her house for 35 years, as her father did for 30 years before that. The City of D'Iberville (just outside Biloxi) named her street after her. Her son carries on the tradition and he is training his nephew. We wanted to have Doris' tamales for dinner. We were disappointed to discover when we arrived at Doris' at seven that the shop closes at three. As we lamented our fate in the street, doris's son, R J, stepped onto the veranda of the house next door to see what the noise was about. We explained and R J said "There's some left. Lemme get the keys and I'll get you some." R J served us a sample round. We had a chat with R J while he packed up two dozen tamales in newspaper. We niked half of them on Steve's room; we'll have the other half for breakfast. See Steve's blog, Velo Mange.blogspot.com for pictures.

M I S S I S S I P P I

We are in Poplarville, Mississippi. We rode in the rain most of the day. The cool rain felt good in its way. Our clothes were soon soaked. The wet shorts caused some chafing. There were diffuse flashes of lightning and distant thunder, not close enough to cause any worry. Today makes five days out of six with a flat tire. Churches are scattered fairly closely here. A church porch made a good sanctuary for changing the tube. I neglected to mention that St. Francisville was once the capital of the Free and Independent Republic of West Florida. In the summer of 1810, rebels overcame the Spanish garrison at Baton Rouge to establish the Republic of West Florida. The new nation adopted a constitution based on the US model. The flag was a white star on a blue background. They had an army with a patriotic marching song. US presidemt Madison declared that West Florida (which is now part of Louisiana and Mississippi, not any part of present-day Florida) was part of the Louisiana Purchase and sent a governor and garrison to take over. The West Florida government was, at first, inclined to resist, but eventually acknowledged the annexation. The Republic lasted 74 days, start to finish. We had one of our best lunches of the trip yesterday. Surprisingly, it was at the Valero gas station in Clinton, Louisiana! They had terrific fried chicken and stupendous spicy meat pies. Our night in St. Francisville was at a slightly seedy but very comfortable b&b. I could have spent much more time there. We were warned that the campground here at Poplarville is dirty and run-down, so we made arrangements to stay at a rental cottage instead. I knocked on a door to ask for directions to our b&b. "it's that way", both replied, pointing in two different directions, both wrong, as it turns out. Steve went out to get chiliburgers for us to dine on en suite. Our hero!