73 Miles to Palatka, FL ......

If you have been following the weather, you saw the flooding in Pensacola, where we were a week ago. I carried my rain jacket with me today--just in case, but again, we got in before the downpour. We have been so lucky with rain because, so far, we've only had one day of it.

I felt good on the whole ride today. It was pretty uneventful. I took a pic from the bridge in Palatka and some pics at a Dairy Queen stop just before the bridge. We actually rode a couple extra miles until we found the DQ. 

It was 90 degrees and extremely humid at noon.

Only one more day to ride to get to the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes it seems as if the trip has gone fast and at other times it feels as if I've been at it forever. I'm ready to go home, but I'm sure I will miss parts of this routine. I just can't think of what that would be right now.

77 Miles to High Springs, FL ......

Looking at the weather report this morning, it looks as if we have some nasty weather to the west of us that is coming our way. Luckily, most of us finished our ride today before it started to rain. We'll keep our fingers crossed about the next 2 days.

We crossed the Suwanee River today (as in the song "Way Down Upon the Suwanee River ....."). See pics. We also visited the Ichetucknee Springs. The water was clear and it was tempting to go in for a swim. I didn't have a bathing suit and really didn't want to ride 25 more miles with soggy bike shorts, so I just got my legs wet. Even that felt good because it was hot and humid.

I'm posting a pic of Rona and me that was taken a couple of days ago.

54 Miles to Perry, FL ......

As I'm writing this blog, I've got an ice pack on my left knee. It was injured a number of years ago (originally falling off a horse and years later a snowboarding accident) and then I had arthroscopic surgery on it for a torn meniscus about 1.5 years ago. I know it's swollen, but hasn't been too problematic. Only 3 more days of riding and I am intending to ride every inch of the way, so I'll push through. There aren't that many of us who can say we did that, but I'm not sure of the exact number.

I feel as if I'm on the TV show "Survivor" because I've got bug bites, heat rash and have lost some weight that I didn't really need to lose.

Today's ride was short and pretty uneventful. The humidity today was high and the temperature was

in the low 80s. The bugs were an issue when we stopped, so we didn't stay long at the SAG rest stops. I rode with Sandy again because we do well together when the terrain is flat, as it was today.

I'll say a few words about my rest day, yesterday. Being Sunday, four of us decided to attend a church service at a church that was located right next to our hotel. I'm posting a pic of the sign in front of the church. It turned out to be an evangelical service with a lot of singing and the arms in the air and parishioners speaking out, "Praise The Lord", etc. I hung in there for about 45 minutes and then snuck out. I think it lasted a couple of hours....

The four women I had lunch with yesterday are the "foreigners". From the left: Sheila from Scotland, Joyce from England, Helen from British Columbia and Janine from Calgary, Alberta. Joyce is my roommate again tonight. Sheila and Janine paid extra so that they could always have a single room. There are pros and cons to that arrangement. The pros would be having your own space and not putting up with someone's snoring or whatever, but the con would be that you don't get to know some of the women very well, especially if you ride at a different pace.

48 Miles to Crawfordville, FL .....

We were all set to roll out this morning, but our guide had us wait an hour for the fog to lift (pic). Because there was no shoulder on the rode, she was afraid we wouldn't be visible enough to motorists.

Some of us added 11 miles to the ride by taking a side trip to Wakulla Springs State Park. We sat and had a "proper lunch" (as the British ladies say). I didn't go on the boat ride, but several did. I posted a pic of the women with whom I had lunch and of the swimming area there.

We stopped at Walmart on our way to Crawfordville because Woman Tours doesn't provide meals on our days off and there is absolutely nothing within walking distance to our hotel. I sort of have a rule not to get on my bike on my day off.

It was almost 90 degrees at 3:00, but another beautiful day.

54 Miles to Quincy, FL .......

Yay. We're now in Eastern Standard Time. 

My legs felt heavy today when we started our ride (was it because of the humidity, recovering from yesterday's ride or the hills we encountered? Or a combination of the 3?). We did 1309' feet of climbing and here I thought Forida would be flat. I really took my time on the ride because it was relatively short and there's not much going on in Quincy, so no need to rush.

I rode with Gail from Midland, TX. today. She's a retired OB/GYN and has a 24 year old daughter who lives in Los Angeles. Gail's 1st husband is deceased, but she is remarried to Wes, who visited her several times while we were riding through Texas.

I took some pics from a bridge outside Chattahoochee, a town we passed through. We stopped for lunch in Quincy and then were caught in a brief shower on the way to our hotel. It was a nice, relaxing day. 

94 Miles to Marianna, FL .......

Never mind a Margarita party for crossing a state line. I feel as if we should celebrate getting our last 90+ mile day over with. We still have a couple of days of 70+, but if we don't have strong winds or heavy rain, those are manageable.

When we started our ride this morning at 7:15, it was quite foggy, but that burnt off in a couple of hours. Then the temperature rose considerably. Right now, it's ~85 degrees. The heat didn't really bother me. Some women are bothered by the bugs, but they seem to stay away from me.

We rode on US 90 for most of the day. It had a nice, wide shoulder until we got into Marianna where it went from 2 to 4 lanes with no shoulder...... Kinda scary when cars pass so closely.

I took a couple of pics of a river we crossed so you can see how high it is. The street was flooded, so I was glad we were on US 90 which was higher.

At the 60 mile SAG stop, Nancy, our SAG support for today, squirted us with a squirt gun. It felt pretty good.

69 Miles to Crestview, FL ....

It was another beautiful day where the wind wasn't an issue. It was 80 degrees when I arrived at the hotel. 

The first 27 miles of the ride was quite busy with traffic and some road construction. Then we were on a bike path for 6.5 miles (pic) and then rode on some quiet country roads. The terrain was a little hillier because we have left the coast. The last 15 miles was on US 90 with more traffic.

My roommate tonight is Connie from Charlottesville, VA. She's a semi-retired attorney who does real estate law. She has 2 children and 5 grandchildren and they all live close to her. Her husband surprised us one night and sent rum cakes that he had made. Connie said that at Christmastime (from Dec. 1- Dec. 21st), he makes over 2,000 rum cakes that get shipped all over. The next bike trip she has planned is the Horsey 100 in Kentucky at the end of May.

Tomorrow's ride is another long one (~94 miles). Once that is over, we can rest a little easier with the end in sight.

60 Miles to Pensacola, FL ......

I loved today's ride. We had to be at the ferry at 8 AM and luckily it was only 2.5 miles from our hotel. I thought we would be in Florida when we got off the ferry, but actually, we were still in Alabama for about 32 miles.

The weather was perfect and we had a tailwind for much of the ride, so 60 miles clicked off pretty easily. We went over lots of bridges and rode parallel to the water for much of the day. A lot of the houses are built on stilts which I find unattractive, but are a necessity so close to the water. I took a couple of pictures from the bridge crossing the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway. The last picture from a bridge is when we were entering Pensacola.

A highlight of the day was crossing the Blue Angel Parkway and being entertained by them. They flew in 4 or 6 plane formations and seemed to be having a lot of fun. It made me wonder if you would get used to the noise if you lived in that area.

The pelicans are all around the city, much like our painted lighthouses are in the Portland area. Oops. The Navy pelican got on twice. I'm going to leave it there because last time I tried to cancel one pic, I deleted the whole post.

41 Miles to Dauphin Island, AL ......

We had an early start today to avoid the church traffic (Happy Easter all), so we arrived here before 11:00. We crossed numerous bridges and saw lots of shrimp boats (pic). I took a pic of the 3.5 mile bridge we crossed to get to Dauphin Island (see map). We're surrounded by water here.

It was in the high 50s when we left this morning and in the low 70s now, and it's sunny and blue.

We're staying at the Dauphin Island Beach Club, in condos. There are 5 of us sharing this condo, but it's big enough so that I have my own bedroom and only share the bathroom with one other woman. We even have a washer/dryer in the unit that doesn't take quarters to operate! 

There is not a lot going on here for restaurants and shops, i.e., it's not built up at all. Tomorrow is a rest day and I'm not sure what I'll do other than relax.

All the pics after the map were taken from our balcony.