Ready

Riding Day 35 – 78.07 miles

Everyone was up early this morning, including our host, Cory. We drank coffee and gave each other a hard time like guys will do, packed our stuff into the OREM, took a few pictures of Odie and his son, and then we were off to tackle the day ahead. Cory, you were an amazing host, and I hope you’ll visit San Diego in the not-too-distant future and let me return the favor.

The drive to our starting point in Cottondale, Fl took about an hour, and as The Bob drove us south, I sat in the back and watched the scenery go by. It looked a lot like Southern Iowa where I grew up, pastures surrounded by sloughs of trees with small creeks and ponds here and there, and I wondered if the kids growing up there ventured out to catch frogs and snakes, climb trees, wade in the creeks, and fish for bluegills and crappies in the ponds, or were they instead glued to cellphones and TVs?

Once we started riding the miles flew by almost unnoticed. The landscape was unchanged from the last 3 or 4 days of riding, and Odie and I were basically on a mission to get to Saint Augustine sooner rather than later. That might sound like we’re basically over this adventure, that maybe we aren’t paying attention or are no longer connecting with the good vibes that are all around us. And maybe that’s true to some extent as we’re tired and worn out, our bodies ache (my butt is killing me) and it’s getting tough to eat the same stuff everyday as we fuel ourselves with an overload of calories in the form of nutrition bars, chips, dried fruit, M&Ms, etc,…Things that tasted so good a few weeks ago are now consumed without joy. An insidious monotony has crept into this experience, and as much as I try to hold onto the wonder and joy of what we’re out here doing, I’m ready for it to be over.

With that said, we’ve left the Adventure Cycling route and are forging our own path to Saint Augustine. Instead of meandering along less-traveled roads that often don’t have a shoulder to ride on, we’re instead sticking to major routes with good shoulders that are more direct. This will probably save us at least a day of riding and hopefully have us dipping Hank’s front wheel in the Atlantic sometime on Saturday afternoon. Our total milage will be less, but we’ll still have ridden a bike from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

We experienced flat #4 today, and it took me about 30 minutes to fix it. A tiny piece of wire was the culprit, and I found it by carefully running my fingers along the inside of the tire. It was time consuming to work the wire free from the tread, but there’s no point in installing a new tube if you don’t get whatever caused the puncture removed. At least we were able to make the repair in the shade, because the temps had soared into the upper 80s by mid-afternoon.

A few miles after the flat was repaired, we entered Tallahassee, Fl, some 70 miles into the day, and for the next 8 miles we mixed it up with busy traffic and drivers who couldn’t have cared less that we were riding in a lane designated for bikes. We got honked at several times and had to traverse three lane roads stuffed with cars and stoplights. There were also a lot of hills, which in city traffic is a complicating factor, especially when you must do an uphill start on an ungainly tandem with cars mere inches away. My left arm was brushed by a pickup doing about 40 mph at one point, and shortly after that we called it for the day. We’re done with riding in any city of consequence as the farther east we’ve traveled, the more unforgiving the drivers have become. In a nutshell, they just don’t seem to give a shit if they hit us or not, and I promised Odie’s mom that I’d keep him safe.

Tonight, we’re camping in a spot called Tallahassee East RV Park. The woman who checked us in advised us not to go near the pond because of the cottonmouth snakes. She further stated that there might also be gators, but they haven’t seen any recently…so I’ve got my feet propped up in another chair as I write, hoping that the snakes can’t jump and the gators stay wherever they currently are! I’m sooooooo ready to get home, and I know that Odie and The Bob are as well. I also know that when we reflect back on this adventure and everything that happened, both good and not so good, we’ll all be damn glad we did this crazy thing, but right now, a mere three days from hopefully vanquishing the beast that is The Southern Tier, we’re ready….