Day 112: Shopping for Champagne

I know it's just the Law of Averages at work, but a less rational person might think that he'd angered the Wind Gods.  Lately, every time it's my turn to ride the wind is in my face, even as we've changed directions a few times over the past several days.  I'll need to think of an appropriate offering to put me back in their good graces, but so far I've not thought of what that might be.

The great news is the sun is back out and shining on us once again!  Rain and cold weather are always challenging.  We either get wet, stay couped up in the cabin too much, or both.  That's why on rainy days we figure that, at a minimum, we need to eat at least one meal out, so that we can spend an hour or more in a warm, dry place with plenty of elbow room before heading back home to pass the evening.

The city park in Melrose, FL.

A good part of my riding yesterday was on converted rail trails, where the only real hazard is that often the sun barely penetrates the surrounding forest, causing a slippery layer of moss to form on the asphalt.  Our map showed that one such trail ended at Grandin, FL, but we've since learned that there is now a mostly completed trail nearly all the way into St Augustine.  That's great news, as we weren't looking forward to the traffic, especially if it was anything like what we experienced in Gainesville yesterday afternoon.

So I rode 30 miles to Florahome, which is where Alea will continue from on Sunday.  From there we back tracked to Gold Head Branch State Park to see if we could find a campsite for two nights, knowing that virtually all of the other state parks within 50 miles or so are fully booked through the weekend and all of next week.  We were in luck, as we were able to get a back-in tent site for tonight and tomorrow, actually giving us both the time and the weather to do some exploring while we are here.  The site was $20 per night (power, water & showers).

Despite the fact that the park is booked at near capacity, when we arrived our campground loop was nearly deserted.  So we took advantage of that fact and washed the camper for the first time in at least a month (not many parks appreciate vehicles being washed in campsites, but we didn't see anything saying that it was prohibited here). 

Our campsite and our CLEAN camper.

After that we took a hike, starting at the spring that feeds Gold Head Branch.  The clear springs are one of the best things about inland Florida.  Within a mile the stream had started to darken a bit, caused by tannin being leached from decaying leaves.  Most of the trail was in a ravine that was noticeably cooler than the uplands.

Gold Head Branch spring.

Crystal clear water at the head of Gold Head Branch.

Let's go find some lizards!

We ventured into town to make certain that we were adequately provisioned for the weekend.  While there, Alea tried unsuccessfully to find a bottle of champagne.  When she rides into St Augustine on Sunday it will mark the end of her first coast-to-coast bicycle tour (and only my second), which we figure deserves some sort of celebration.  So we'll have more shopping to do on Sunday...