Skip to main content

Day 56- Gainesville

 What a horror show last night was. I should’ve known when I walked into the bathroom and heard a woman tell a kid she’d “beat him like a stepchild” if he left the building, that she was probably part of the advance party for the evenings upcoming entertainment..


No owner on site and no campground host equals no sleep on our part. A crew rolled in around dinner time, set up tents, commenced to drinking and laughing and having a generally good Friday night time. By 11 o’clock the music went off and we were hopeful but the party went into Floritucky overdrive (apologies to my friends from Florida and Kentucky who were raised right.). I decided not to act on my “ask all the questions“ strategy because this time all my questions started with “What the f*#%?”? They carried on till 3:30 AM at which point the roosters next-door took up the slack. Happy birthday Kayla! I hope you have a two day hangover. 

I felt better at wake up than I thought I would; actually, we all did. We headed out around 830 on route to Gainesville. Lots of cattle, lots of hay, lots of good roads to calm the soul.


Today was a day of seeing interesting roadside sites:A drive-through liquor store. Or maybe a drive-through bar. Are curbside pick-up cocktails a thing in Florida?

A gravestone in the shape of logs

  • People fencing in a park, or maybe Larping
Jack, Ankur, Sue and I stopped at Bev’s Burgers for second breakfast along with the rest of the residents of High Spring FL. It appeared  we’d be waiting a while for service so we headed down the road five more miles to a Waffle House and a hashbrown bowl. Say what  you want. It sticks to the ribs and it’s good food fast.

I ended up riding on my own after that and enjoyed the bike paths in and out of Gainesville. Florida excels at these.


I navigated on my own to run some last days errands and then cruised on to our Warm Showers host’s home.





Tom and Martha Harris have hosted groups for years and have five lovely acres for us to camp on. Martha made us a delicious dinner, Tom served great wine and made a bonfire, and we’re now snuggled in our tents for the last time.

Things I learned today:
  • My phone navigation skills are still crap.

Comments

  1. Wow. Nothing like an all-night party in the camp ground. Probably good you kept your questions to yourself for sure. Glad you are settled in at a peaceful place for the night. 3 rides to go!!!! Debbie

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 58- St.Augustine FL

 To our utter surprise we woke up to dry skies with the sun peeking through the clouds. No rain in the forecast — what a gift! We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and set off around 9 o’clock. Family and friends had been given an arrival time between 1130 and 12 so the pace was leisurely.  We rode mainly bike paths. No spectacular scenery, just quiet miles with lots of introspection. As we neared Saint Augustine I started to feel the excitement grow. I was ready for the ride to be done, to see Greg and Gemma and the rest that would be there to join me. It wasn’t quite time to stop paying attention, however, because our route took us right through downtown Saint Augustine’s narrow streets and traffic was both heavy and unforgiving. It wasn’t till I turned into the state park that I got a little emotional. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the realization that this adventure is truly over. I rode in and spotted Greg’s truck right away - and next saw Sarah and Walt and Gemma with a b

Day 33 Smithville Texas 53 miles

 If you had asked me at the beginning of the trip which state would have had the steepest climbs, I would not have guessed Texas; however, that seems to be the case. Today I felt right at home. We had our map meeting this morning at breakfast and all seemed doable. I did one last check with the front desk to see if my absentee ballot had caught up with me. It had not. Greg, your vote will not be canceled by me this year! We headed out through sidestreets to leave Austin, a city I can highly recommend. We traveled bike lanes and bike paths  out to some rural roads.  Of course we had to stop for second breakfast burritos! We were riding in a group of about six when we came up on a stretch of road that had house after house with loose dogs. All of them ran at us. We must’ve made a crazy sounding group. Some of us hollered. Some blasted air horns. Several of us have “dog dazers“ which is a little clicker device that is supposed to repel dogs. I’m not sure how well it really works but no on

Day 1- Ocean Beach to Alpine

 Day 1 is in the books! Great day that started at Dog  Beach and a back wheel dip in the Pacific. Tad, Kathy, and Charlotte met me down there. It was great to see them as we headed out. The ride was flat for the first 25 miles or so, but hot! Temps were in the 90s with blazing sun and clear blue skies. We separated out early into smaller groups. I found good peddling with Sue and Ann. We also crossed paths with Adam and Kelly, the tandem riders. Our route took us to through Mission Gorge regional park which was absolutely gorgeous. A nice pass that cut through the mountains and made it possible for us to miss an incredible climb. No worries; there are plenty more ahead of us. At 30 miles we made sure we were fully loaded with water and electrolytes. I’m not sure if I’ve ever consumed this much fluid in a single day. Then the climb began. On the map it looked evil, almost straight up. In reality it was less steep than it was long. It was 6 miles at about three or 4% grade. It did requir