We are camped tonight by the famous, historical and beautiful Suwannee River at a Florida State campground. It is probably the nicest State campground I have ever been in. Everything is very beautiful, the huge trees, Spanish moss, vines, the river and the trails. Big showers with lots of hot water and our camping sight is super nice as well. Today was by far the most enjoyable and comfortable day of bicycling we have had on the trip. We didn’t bicycle through any big cities, the roads were smooth, the shoulders were wide, the traffic was minimal, no rumble strips, few bugs, no wind, flat terrain, clear skies, absolutely gorgeous scenery, and only 55 miles. It just doesn’t get any better than that. I expect that tomorrow will be close to the same except we will go a bit further, 65 miles, and then stay at another Florida State campground that is supposed to be just as nice as this one.

After two 90 mile days on the bicycle today was soooo nice!! Slept in until 8 am, and  the RV campground had a breakfast that was very, very tasty.  Then  we drove to a little church, in fact we just about doubled the attendance, but we had a great time with the people, and the sermon was good as well. Came back and ate and slept some more, worked on my bike, and watched some NBA play-off basketball. So far we have bicycled  for 40 days, had 9 rest days, and gone 2,715 miles, for a skosh under 70 miles per day average. We have 5 more ride days left and we will be a skosh over 3,000 when we get our  front tire in the Atlantic Ocean. So far I still have not had a flat tire on my bicycle, though I am expecting that one of these mornings John is going to let the air out of one of my tires while I am sleeping, he has had 10 flats. Well, I need to go, the ladies just built a fire and we are going to have s’mores.

We rode 90 miles again today though the official number from John is 89.7 for today and yesterday was 89.9, but I think I will officially declare both days to be 90 miles. I was very tired after yesterday’s ride, but today I was near death when we rolled into camp. There was a very strong head wind all day, we had lots of rollers so we were going up and down and the “ups” were particularly tiring, and we rode all the way through Tallahassee on our bicycles in crazy traffic.  Part of what an adventure is for me is pushing the limits physically and the last two days certainly did that for me. It feels good now after a great dinner and a hot shower. Tomorrow we are going to sleep in, have a nice breakfast, and go to a little Baptist church, and then sleep the rest of the day. Five more ride days left and we will be a bit over 3,000 miles and ready to head home. So far no flat tires for me.

Today we rode right at 90 miles which is the most miles I have ridden in a day on the trip, but tomorrow we are going to be riding 91 miles to Tallahassee, so I will have a new longest. We are going across the top of Florida which is the wide part of the state.  It was cloudy and cool all day but no rain and tomorrow it is supposed to be clearing with some sun, super. We are in a camp ground tonight and I am sitting in the laundry room where it is warm reading my IPad and writing this blog. Lots of head wind today, 10 mph with gusts to 24 mph, and tomorrow is supposed to be a bit worse. Florida has been great in that almost every mile we have been riding in a designated bicycle lane. I love designated bicycle lanes. Also, so far there have been no rumble strips in Florida, and no “chip seal”, the roads have been as smooth as my clean shaven cheeks. Also, of the States we have driven through Florida drivers have been by far the best and most gracious and careful around us as we ride. In the cafe’s, campgrounds, and motels people have been very interested in our trip and have asked questions and talked and talked until I was looking for the door. Yikes, it is now 9 pm and it is POURING rain!! Whooooeeeeee I hope our tent doesn’t leak tonight. I think I might just sleep in this laundry room😀

I recently wrote about the things that I hate most riding my bicycle across the USA . The top five are “chip seal”  using 1 inch gravel which makes the road terribly  rough to ride on. Speaking of rough, “rumble strips” can shake a bike apart and its rider in a matter of seconds, I hate rumble strips. A head wind is absolutely relentless in draining a rider of all energy quicker than climbing a 6 % hill. It seems that God has given us supernatural power in that which ever direction we ride the wind is coming from that direction at 10 mph. Also things that cause me to break my vow of not grumbling are bugs, especially when they get in my hair underneath my helmet, and rain that lasts all day long. On the other hand there are some things that happen on this trip that are better than a huge bowl of ice cream. I think number one is designated bike lanes. They are usually about three feet wide, clearly marked with nice white lines and a picture of a bicycle and rider periodically painted in the lane, and a sign that says, “bicycles only”. The sight of a bicycle only lane makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. They give me a great sense of security. Riding along in a bike lane allows my mind to be freed up to think about the future, sermons I am going to write, and fish I am going to catch. I love designated bicycle lanes. Today, almost all day long we were riding in a bike lane, and even though it was pouring rain all day it was a good day. I love designated bicycle only lanes.

here is my uniform for riding in the rain

Crossed into Florida today. We only have 8 ride days left. Today we rode all day in a torrential downpour. When I woke up this morning I looked at the weather report and I knew we were going to have an adventure when a big red explanation point popped up with a warning of flash floods today. I have never seen it rain so hard in my life, and we were riding in it. We rode 72 miles today and it was mostly flat with only a little bit of head wind but this is the most tired I have been at the end of any day on the trip. I think it is just the pressure all day long of trying to see and navigate in around the standing water and traffic. The challenge of it and the adventure of doing something like today that I had never done before was fun but it certainly wore me out. We are in Pensecola, Florida and because of the weather we opted to stay in a Motel again tonight, which is super because now I can watch the Golden State Warriors set the all time NBA record for most wins in a season as they beat the Memphis Grizzlies!

It doesn’t show up very well in this picture but it is pouring rain. Last night about midnight it started raining hard and rained all night long. About 2 am our tent started leaking water and by morning much of what was in it was wet. I am thinking, “I really don’t want to ride in this stuff all day” so I google “closest cheap motel” and 7.4 miles away right on our route was one for $65 a night. We had a little bicycle council meeting amoung us all, and decided to take another rest day at this motel. We called and they had enough rooms and “yes” we could check in at 9 am instead of waiting until 3 pm. So now we have stuff hung up all over our motel room with the heat turned up and the fan on high trying to dry everything out. We will take it across the street to the laundry mat if it isn’t dry by 3 pm. This is our first rain storm of the trip. I thought for awhile we might make it without one but what would a bicycle trip be without a rain storm.  The weather report for tomorrow is for rain but not heavy rain so we will bicycle tomorrow for sure.

Crossed from Mississippi into Alabama today. Tomorrow we will enter into Florida and have about a weeks worth of riding left and then we will be home. I am anxious to get home and back to work  and see everyone, but there is a bit of melancholy sadness as well of the thought of the trip being over. It is a simple life, riding your bicycle all day enjoying the scenery, thinking, and then camping. The sadness I think comes from recognizing how busy and complicated normal life is and we are about to jump back into it again.

Today we rode our bicycles along the Gulf of Mexico in Mississippi and in Alabama. There was a lot of wind coming off of the water so it was mostly a side wind from the South as we rode East and was a bit of a nuisance but not bad. We saw quite a few Armidillos that had been hit by cars but most were squashed to bad to take a picture of, but this one was in good shape so I drug it out of the road amidst traffic and had John take a picture of us, me and Mr. Armidillo. We rode about 75 miles today and tonight we are camped in the yard of a warm shower host. They fed us dinner of genuine Southern cooking, with collard greens, corn bread, red beans and rice with sausage, and sweet potatoes.