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 57- Palatka FL

 We are at the Quality Inn in Palatka on the last night of our tour. Dinner was at the Azalea brewery and awards were given out to all participants — tongue-in-cheek, of course. They were as follows, and as memory serves: Most likely to deliver an impromptu dissertation: Carl Most likely to speak up and be right: Kelly Most likely to build a bike on the side of the road: Adam Most likely to cry at the ceremony: Jack  Most likely to bribe her way to being the favorite: in  Most likely to bribe her way to being the favorite: in Most likely to use shit in a sentence: Terry Most likely to ask or something is when it’s right in front of them: Sue Most likely to ask or some thing is when it’s right in front of them: Sue Most likely to burn the house down if coffee is not ready: met Most likely to stop a stranger and ask questions: me It was not the raucous affair I think we all had hoped for, mostly because we are all a bit introspective and conflicted as the tour comes to an e...
1 comment
Read more

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 w...
6 comments
Read more

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