We’re back where we left off last Sunday, in Midway – it seems like a year has gone by in only a few days. We spent yesterday doing some much-needed work and making phone calls. Our planned appearances in the Panhandle were canceled because of Alberto, but we have re-scheduled them for the 29th.
We are getting back into our bike riding mode again, spending time tonight making certain we are totally prepared for tomorrow’s ride. It’s been 3 days off the bike!
Today was a great FREMA meeting (Florida Real Estate Marketing Association). We had a record pre-registration, but the impending tropical storm kept some people away. The meeting was excellent, as usual. Chelsea and I wouldn’t miss these meetings unless we are thousands of miles away! We are seriously happy that the FREMA board voted to give us $500 as trip sponsors. That puts them at the Bronze Brake Pads level. 🙂
We were all set to go to Tallahassee again tonight, but Alberto is threatening to turn into a hurricane and we would be riding right into it. We opted to stay put here in Tampa, probably tomorrow too, as Alberto isn’t expected to blow through town until Tuesday night.
We got a great start, but it was already 77 degrees and very high humidity when we left at 6:30 a.m. We got horribly lost in downtown Tallahassee, and ended up going an extra 5 miles in extremely steep terrain, and losing almost an hour. We were so glad to finally be out of town! After that, things went really, really well, and we made astonishing time. We ended up doing 30 miles, even after our early difficulties. We have now hit 334 miles!
We had a wonderful ride today! We did over 65 miles, and loved nearly every bit of it. The hills are definitely getting steeper and steeper. We are doing many more of them, and we are starting to feel it in our knees and quads. We are now in Tallahassee!! We stopped just about 9 miles south, and we will start again in the morning. Sundays are quietest in the big cities, so we are looking forward to getting through Tallahassee while it’s cooler and quieter. We ended in 104 degrees today!
We started out on a disorganized note today, and didn’t really recover. We are very proud of the fact that we made 42 miles, considering that we had some serious hills that were very tiring, and that we rode in higher traffic, lower shade routes all day. We ended in 98-degree heat, and it felt so good to stop!
We are writing tonight from a motel about 15 miles north of Live Oak – on the west side of I-75, and only 3 miles from White Springs. Chelsea and I rode another 60 miles today, and we did it all by 1:30 p.m., eating only a Greens Plus bar each and several handfuls of trail mix. We continue to drink astonishing amounts of water. One really nice thing about getting this much exercise is that we have no trouble sleeping at night! Our goal has been to ride at east 60 miles a day, and be able to write and do research for several hours a day.
So here we are, 4 days and 142 miles into our trip. It’s been much easier than we expected in most ways, so far, but more challenging in others. We left St Augustine at high noon on Sunday June 4th, in 84-degree heat. Yes, it was a crazy thing to do, but we were very determined to just get a start. We are very glad we did, as it ramped up our energy, and helped us get systems set up in a more gradual way.