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. AnonymousNovember 20, 2022 at 4:54 PM

    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 53- Perry FL

 We had a very windy night which made for a great sleeping. I set an alarm for 1:00 AM so I could see the Artemis unmanned moon rocket launch, but when I got up I found it had been pushed back and well, 70 miles, so I chose sleep over history. It was gray when we got up, and gray as we headed out. And chilly! I wished I’d opted for leggings over my shorts but was happy to have gloves. Small victories.The temp said it was almost 60 – my body threw the BS flag. I was cold all day. Not much to say about this ride. We had a 20 mile bike path that took us off route 98 for a while. We met another Bike traveler named Tony who had been on the road since June 26.  He started in Connecticut and rode to Indianapolis, then back towards Pittsburgh where he rode the trails to DC. He then went to Key West and is now on his way to New Orleans. We asked questions about his gear (there wasn’t much!) and traded a few stories and wished each other well. We got off the trail and crossed the St Mar...
3 comments
Read more

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...
5 comments
Read more

Day 46- Gautier MS

It was a perfect day for an 80 mile ride. We got up really early, planning to get on the road quickly since it was going to be dark by five and we had so far to go. This was no mean feet for me as sleep was hard to come by last night. My bladder woke me at one and four, at which time I was treated to Matt singing the song of his people. And I didn’t need my alarm because the water dripping from the condensation On my tent onto my face was hard to sleep through. Kelly and Adam were on the road by 615. We followed far behind, rolling out an hour later. The roads were awesome right from the beginning. Great pavement and low traffic throughout. Mississippi offered up some treats and some oddities. The first was as we headed into McHenry. On a one and a half mile stretch of road, I counted eight old fire hydrants. And hardly any houses. This roused my curiosity. I passed a man walking a dog and asked him about it. He looked exactly like I expected a rural Mississippian to look, except the d...
1 comment
Read more