After spending a good portion of the morning catching up on blogging and the like, we left the Floyd's house. Realizing about a mile down the road that we never said goodbye to Bonnie, we had to turn around. We made our way back, said our goodbyes, took some pictures, and headed downtown to the bike shop since Paul and I needed to pick up a spare tire (as I'm losing the one around my waist), and pump up the ones we were rolling on. We also ended up buying some other backup materials, because you never know.
We got some Quizno's (who fortunately is piggy-backing on the $5 sub deal at Subway) with Gene, whose sub I almost forgot to pay for after he let a few strangers sleep in his house the night before. Instead of buying drinks, we asked if it would be okay to fill our bottles with water. They were fine with it and we figured out that we could just do that from now on instead of paying for water or powerade at gas stations… a big money saver. We filled up and Gene showed us where to head on our way out of town. It was already 3, and we had about 75 miles to go… yikes!
Our destination was Marianna, FL where there were caverns and a natural blue spring that was 65 degrees, emm…. how refreshing. It was a pretty uneventful ride to Marianna. We rode up near the Georgia border, and could tell because they had advertisements for peaches at all of the stores. We were making decent time, but the hills and late departure would force us to see the caverns and springs the following day.
After putting in some work to get to a gas station outside of town, we were instructed the campground would be about 6 or 7 more miles up on the right, we'd make it easily be dark. So we naturally procrastinated and stuck around for a while.
By the time we made it to the campgrounds the office was closed. We went in anyway, setup shop, and took a dip in the pool to clean our clothes a bit. We changed and went up the street to a nice little diner where the folks there helped us out on how to get to the caverns and springs the following morning.
After leaving the diner we returned to the campsite, ready for bed, and greeted by the most boisterous wildlife under the mason-dixon. I'm pretty sure everything was nocturnal that night, and had something to say. The chance of rain also forced us to use the rain cover which allows the tent to double for a nice humid oven suitable for bread-making on a summer night in Florida. While not the best sleep ever, we managed just fine, and were excited about the site-seeing the following day.
Life was good.
I probably check your site, ehhhhhhhh, 15 times a day. Definitely is entertaining entertaining through out the long work day! And for everyone else im my office in as well. I passed the site onto them and they all agree that what you are doing is amazing. And that it is! Continue to stay safe, and don't worry, Megs is in great hands 😉
Upper 90s here today and tons of schools dismissed early!! Imagine if you two could do that!! Keep pedalling!
Mom has kept me posted on your every move but tonight (it is way past my bedtime) I decided to go back and read all of your blog entries. Your writing is so entertaining I could not stop…hence it is very late. You decided on “life was good” as a sign off. I like it and I assume you chose the past tense to describe the day's events. Life is good would work too as all of the experiences, good food, and good people you come across are defining your life as it is now. I am not sure I am supposed to write all of this here but I will check in tomorrow and you can advise me. Stay safe, hi to Paul and we are all enjoying this ride you are taking!!!! Love, Dad
Keep it up boys!!! Very impressive!
Just wanted to let you know that wiffle ball season is now under way and Albert stadium is up and running…I can tell from your blog that everything is going smoothly with the trip and that you are meeting many wonderful people. We're all looking foward to your return, Ride Safe!!!!
This is so great to see and read. What a terrific experience. While we all suffer the high costs of fuel for our driving, you guys picked the perfect time to beat the use of fuel with all your travels. Be safe and careful. I was so glad you didn't do this trip alone. KCT