Shifting Gears

FINAL BLOG: Wrap up & Reflections – Wrap Up I wrote my last blog on 11/4 at about 1pm, after we arrived and celebrated on the beach in St. Augustine. Heather and I explored town, and the major highlight for me was the statue of Ponce de Leon & the Grilled Cheese Gallery. As a student, I loved history and was especially fond of the early explorers of North America. About a week before riding into Florida, I recalled that Ponce de Leon was chasing the Fountain of Youth when he discovered Florida and only then made the connection to my own chasing of that fountain. I loved that we both had the same terminal point, and thought that was pretty cool. What I didn’t remember nor see in my trip planning, was that St. Augustine is home to the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. You can actually buy a souvenir bottle, and fill it with 2 ounces of Fountain of Youth Spring water from the actual Floridan aquifer. Heather, who thinks half of what we have in our house is clutt...

Day 45 11/3 Gainesville, FL 67 miles touring and to Palatka, FL Day 46 11/4 Palatka, FL 33 miles to St. Augustine Beach + 4 miles to St. Augustine, FL – After a breakfast in Gainesville on 11/3, including expertly seasoned eggs cooked up by Bryan, our 21 year old host, we rode off with our student hosts who were proud to show us around their FU campus.  Heading off with Austin (left) and Bryan (right), our campus guides The campus highlight was definitely riding right into The Swamp, their football stadium.  A unique riding end point We stopped in at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park where we hoped to spot alligators in the wild. Heather, thinking this 12’ specimen is sleeping and unaware it can move up to 35 mph on land, poses way too close. Does she think this is Disney fake?  I wondered to myself if she gets attacked, do I finish the ride tomorrow alone? That’s probably 50 husband demerit points for thinking that way. My daughter Sydney, posting this blog, thinks it i...

Day 40 10/29 Milton, FL 86 miles to Bonifay, FL Day 41 10/30 Bonifay, FL 74 miles to Quincy, FL Day 42 10/31 Quincy, FL 69 miles to Greenville, FL Day 43 11/1 Greenville, FL 63 miles to Lake City, FL Day 44 11/2 Lake City, FL 47 miles to Gainesville, FL –  Our ride to Milton had been on Highway 90 which had amazing pavement, a wide shoulder marked as a bike lane, and great signs to motorists to yield to cyclists when merging as well as when making right turns. It was hands down the best road stretch in the past 6 weeks! And this good fortune continued for us as we rode on it the next 4 days into Bonifay, Quincy, Greenville and Lake City.  The weather started to feel more like autumn with cooler morning starts around 55 degrees and days that remained in the low 60’s. It was actually a welcome relief from the relative heat and humidity in the prior days. I was grateful to have brought my full fingered gloves, neck buff, and ear warmer.  Cooler weather attire We shortened ou...

Day 38 10/27 Gulfport, MS 80 miles to Dauphin Island, AL and Day 39 10/28 Dauphin Island, AL 69 miles to Milton, FL –  Leaving Gulfport, we faced good news and bad news. Good news was another day of water views, very flat terrain (it turned out to be a mere 680’ of climb over 80 miles which is like nothing), and heading to a host on a beach on Dauphin Island. The bad news was fierce winds off the water strongly against us and weather advisory of high winds coming in for the night.  Flags showing the wind against us at 9:30am The first 14 miles towards Biloxi were mostly Gulf views like yesterday. I was enjoying watching a group of 4 seagulls flying in formation together and each diving down to the water to try and scoop a fish. I kind of forgot I was cycling while focused in on them.  We then crossed the Biloxi Bay Bridge, 1.7 miles of a private bike and pedestrian lane on the Gulf side affording the best wide, sweeping views, similar to Bay Saint Louis.  On the east...

 Day 37 10/26 New Orleans, LA 74 miles to Gulfport, MS – Yesterday’s rest day was not a chill laid back lounge day. With 30,716 walking steps recorded, I need to rethink future rests.  Today we considered returning to Cafe du Monde for more beignets for breakfast, but given our full day of riding ahead, we decided we needed more protein. After about 10 miles we ate eggs at Waffle House and it struck me that one of the things I appreciate about Heather is she’s just as comfortable at Waffle House, or eating leaning against a highway guardrail, as she is at a very fine restaurant in the French Quarter.  Once out of the city, it was a spectacular ride on highway 90 with water views for much of the day.  First we rode through the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge near Lake Borgne We met a solo Southern Tier cyclist, Roger, who was in his mid 60’s, and was from Montana. He was an old school, traditionalist in so much as he had no map that day, used a flip phone ...