Days 121 & 122: Oviedo, FL

We've continued to make modifications and improvements to Loraine (our van).  The effort has been helped by signing up for a 30 day trial of Amazon Prime, which gives us free two day shipping on a lot of what is sold at Amazon.com (we won't be here long enough to wait for free standard shipping).  We've been amazed by having stuff arrive on Saturday and Sunday, and it has greatly simplified fulfilling all of our shopping needs!

The big news today is that we had our Katzkin leather kit installed, so we now have one less place for dog hair to become embedded.  Coupled with the vinyl floor in the cab and the vinyl load floor in the cargo box, this is likely the easiest vehicle we've ever owned for managing pet hair.  Of course Corwin Ford managed a slight screw up on that order, but we've come to expect that.  We had requested perforated leather for the seat inserts, like we had on our crystal blue Miata.  Instead, we  got plain solid inserts.

A factory match for the interior would either be grey or a very light whitish-beige.  The latter was a bit too light, so we opted for a slightly darker, warmer color (sandstone) - it won't show dirt quite so easily, and won't absorb heat from the sun as easily as the grey would have.  The main thing is that it is easier for us to keep the seats clean, though we also gained a storage pocket on the driver's side seatback (where we can store our supply of leather wipes).  It will make life a bit simpler for us, and simpler is better.

Our new Katzkin leather!

We installed our new fork mounts on the load floor.  In trying to figure out the optimal placement, we learned that by eliminating the handlebar bag on Alea's bike we ended up with the maximum amount of usable space (with it on, it made it hard to get my bike out of the side door).  We bought her a new rear rack today that mounts to the seat post, and and a bag that fits on top of the rack.  That will replace her seat bag, which I'll get, since it is a better design than my present seat bag.  She happily noted that on rainy days the new rack would greatly reduce the road spray that gets sent up her backside in the form of gritty, muddy stripe.

The main effect of storing the bikes with fork mounts is that we end up with a lot of surplus space in the rear middle portion of the load floor.  That helps to resolve a problem that has vexed Alea these past four months: our mesh laundry bag, which is too small and gets caught on all manner of sharp bike parts and just generally has been of very marginal utility.  Now that she has a 'normal' laundry basket, she is very happy.  And we still have a lot of left over floor space, for storing groceries, etc.

I ordered a mesh pocket from Amazon.com, which I had planned on mounting to a bulkhead that we originally considered adding above Lana's new den.  It has the hook-type of Velcro tape on its back, which is intended to stick to a carpeted surface.  That bulkhead idea was dropped, so I was thinking of returning the item.  Then we realized that we had a different use for it.  We purchased some additional loop-type self-adhesive velcro, which we stuck on one side of our new laundry basket so that we can attach the pouch.  The pouch gives us a place to store our Resolve stick, bag for delicate items, pre-measured laundry detergent, etc.  We also purchased a coin purse to hold laundromat quarters, which we can clip to the basket.  So yet another aspect of our life on the road has become much simpler.

Our spiffy new laundry basket.

We added another small shelf below our charging station for our Luggable Loo, freeing up yet more floor space.  Our REI Alcove shade structure goes underneath it, as does my handlebar bag (when I'm not using it).

A shelf for our Luggable Loo, safely strapped in place.

An item of nearly daily concern while traveling on the road is where to answer nature's call.  In rural areas, our van and camper make the solution very simple, providing a mobile pissoir that is fashioned by simply opening up the rear barn doors of the van.  If we want more privacy, we can open one or both doors on the camper, creating a completely enclosed space to commune with nature.  To simplify such a practice for Alea, I installed a toilet tank spare roll holder by the rear passenger side door, putting the toilet paper near where it is needed.

A supply of paper where it is needed most.

And finally, I needed to solve two minor problems: where to store my baseball caps and how to keep our broom from sliding forward into the cab (it is stored strapped with our outdoor furniture, atop our drawer pedestal).  A simple piece of 1x2 attached to the front edge of the drawer pedestal did the trick.  I angled it at about 30 degrees, so that it sticks out above the rear of the front console, where Lana accesses her new den, putting it just so that the end of the broom handle rests against the back of the stick.

A simple and efficient cap rack , plus broom stop.

Lana's den with her new crate pad.  Note the two spare bike tires on the left of the pad.

We also drove over to Palmetto on Sunday to meet with Teri and Carson Robinson, to discuss the details of our staying at their vacation home during December and January.  We're very excited about being able to stay there, but we'll hold off on giving those details until we finish cycling across the state.  We'll be back on the road some time between Thursday and Sunday, if all goes well.

Days 117-120: Thanksgiving in Oviedo, FL

I had a short day's ride on the day before Thanksgiving, riding the 36 miles to just past Mt. Dora, FL.  From there we left our Adventure Cycling route and drove across northern Orlando to Oviedo, where we are staying with Alea's sister Jean (where we are camping in the garage).  We will return to that spot when we continue our journey to Palmetto, FL in the coming days.

A rare sign in Central Florida - a steep hill sign near Mt. Dora.
The hill was steep, but short.

The three of us had Thanksgiving dinner with Alea's other sister, Ann.  We certainly appreciated that meal far more than similar meals in the past, given the very basic cooking style that we've adopted for life on the road.

Me, Alea and Jean.

Me, Jean and Ann.

We are taking this opportunity to get resupplied and to reorganize the cargo area of the van.  We've placed a couple of good sized orders with Amazon.com, some of which will show up today.  The main thing that we are waiting for are two fork mounts that we'll use to secure our bikes to the cargo box load floor.

The goals for the changes in the van are:

1. Create a space behind the seats for Lana.  Increasingly, she leaps over the seats to travel back and forth between the cargo box and the cockpit.  We were getting concerned that eventually she could get hurt doing so, plus it is clear she'd rather be closer to us (her bed has been in the rear driver's side corner for the past four months).  
2. Secure our bikes in a manner that increases floor space and eliminates the need the need to swap the bikes at the end of each day's ride.  Our current system of 'rafting' one bike next to the one anchored bike has been hard on the finish of both bikes and is less than optimal.
3. Organize the cargo box so that Alea's items are all accessible from the back barn doors and all of my items are accessible from the side door (or vice versa).  We spend too much time opening and closing various doors to get at the things that we need.  This should put everything within arm's reach and make it possible to get what we need more quickly, while needing to slam doors far less often.
4. Create some additional usable space in the cargo box.  While the cargo box is pretty much loaded to the gills, by eliminating a few items and relocating others we will gain additional usable space above Lana's den.  That gives us a place to store the new car vacuum cleaner that we've ordered (Lana is shedding more now than she ever did in Idaho), and to make it easier to access some of our existing gear. 

We had originally discarded the notion of storing the bikes with the front wheels off, mainly because of a safety feature that converts the quick release wheel skewers into an exercise in frustration.  Back in the 1970s, one of the bike manufacturers (probably Schwinn) lost a lawsuit that resulted in all manufacturers adding little nubs to the ends of the front fork dropouts (where the wheel is attached).  With these nubs added, once you released the quick release skewer, the wheel could no longer drop off the end of the fork - you needed to unscrew the skewer wide enough to clear those nubs, and then re-screw the skewer when putting the wheel back on.  I took a Dremel and ground off those nubs on the aluminum fork dropouts on both of our bikes, so that the quick release front fork works like it had for decades before that lawsuit: release tension on the brakes (there's a lever for doing so) and flip the quick release lever, and the front wheel drops straight out.  Reverse the process to re-install the wheel.  With that change, removing the wheel every day to store the bike in the van becomes a much simpler proposition.  And storing the bikes in that manner greatly changes how floor space is utilized in the cargo box.

After planning (through repeated trial and error) where to put the floor mounts for our two bikes, it became apparent that we could move Lana's bed behind the front bucket seats.  And it became possible to create a storage shelf above her den, to give us better access to frequently needed items.  So I spent Friday constructing her den, while we are waiting for the floor mounts to arrive in the mail.  I designed it in such a way as to also create a place to store two spare Gatorskin bike tires without the need to lash them down or fold them.

Lana's new den, and our tire storage solution.
She enters between the seats by crawling over the console.

The key change that made it possible for us each to have our 'own' cargo box door was adding another shoe organizer in the rear passenger side of the box, identical to and opposite from our existing shoe organizer.  We had stored most of our shoes in the existing organizer, and stored all of our extra coats in the space behind the organizer.  Now Alea's shoes (all of them) and coats are on one side of the van and mine are on the other.  And there are now extra shoe pockets available for storing chamois lube, oil, and other items we use frequently.

Alea's new shoe organizer and coat storage.

The cargo box, sans les bicyclettes.

The change in how the bikes will be stored has opened up a large area of floor space between the bikes, which gives us a lot more room for storing dirty laundry.  It also keeps the laundry away from the bikes' drive trains and the associated oily mess.  That same area provides space to store items purchased on shopping trips (which was sometimes a complicated process when we would unhitch and leave the camper at the campsite).

We should have most of these changes completed early in the week, as well as several other minor tweaks that I'll be sharing...

Day 116: Blue Spring State Park, FL

It was overcast and warm when we awoke this morning.  By 8 am it was in the low 60s - good enough weather to hit the road.  So we drove back to where I had left off yesterday, only to find clear skies with the temperature 10 degrees cooler!

A stork that Alea spied along side the road (sans baby).

Despite the undesirably cool weather, Alea pushed on, covering a total of 46 miles today and fixing another rear flat tire along the way.  We left our Adventure Cycling route at Deland, where we drove together to Blue Spring State Park, FL, the winter home of the manatees.

Our route took us by the Fountain of Youth (we didn't stop).

Once we had set up camp, we hiked town to Blue Spring, which is very scenic.  We saw gar, sunfish, catfish, one large turtle, various cranes and egrets, and some large underwater shapes, which were resting manatees.  They were quite far from where we could view them, so we didn't take any pictures.  And the winds created ripples on the water surface, further obscuring what could be seen.

Blue Spring.

For quite some time now we had been searching for some plastic leg caps for our two galley tables.  The table where we set up our Dometic refrigerator was missing a cap, though until now we didn't perceive that as much of a problem.  That has changed with our most recent campsites, which have been on level sand.  Once we set the Dometic on the side table, the table leg sinks a couple of inches into the sand.  In the morning when we stow the tables and collapse the legs, that sand comes spewing out of the table leg, scattering all over the galley.  So we contacted Camp Inn and they offered information on where to find an alternative leg cap that works far better than had the original cap.  So another small problem has been solved...

Our campsite tonight has cost $27.00 and comes with power and water, with showers available nearby.  It also comes with what in my mind is the best urinal design that I've ever seen.  It seems like all the others are designed to cause splash back on the floor, your clothes or both, and I've always wondered why in over a hundred years there hasn't been a better design.  It seems that has finally been accomplished, and it is waterless, nonetheless!

A splash proof urinal (by Kohler)!

We were pretty envious of some ARB awnings that Ben Hedrick had mounted atop his camper.  We loved the simple, lightweight design and thought they might work for us atop the van, giving us a place to escape the glaring sun or the rain.   But it turns out that we would need a roof rack system with either cross bars or a wire rack in order to mount them to our van.  That would not only be expensive, it would add a lot of weight and drag, and reduce our fuel economy.  It's not the simple design that we initially thought, so we've decided to remain envious...

We sighted another armadillo as we took Lana for her evening walk.  It seemed to have burrowed after a source of food and allowed us to get quite close:

Day 115: Tomoka State Park, FL

It appears the Law of Averages has won out over the Wind Gods (it had to be the former, as I failed to make any sort of offering to the Gods).  I had a screaming tailwind coming straight out of the north today, allowing me to cover 44 miles at a pace that exceeded 21 mph (despite having to grind a couple of miles into the wind to leave the campground).

It was pretty cold (low to mid 40s) when we got up, so we went out for breakfast, rather than suffer through preparing it for ourselves.  Then we drove into St Augustine to look around a bit before the tourist crowds were out and about.  I always like visiting Castillo San Marco, a Spanish fortress constructed in the early 1700s (though earlier wooden forts at the site date back to 1565).  And the Spanish Colonial architecture of the nearby town buildings is also interesting, though nearly every one of them is now a bar, restaurant or souvenir shop.  No doubt the current look is far from what it was 250 years ago.  But it's still pretty cool...

Castillo San Marco.

We also took a look at the old coquina quarry.  Coquina is a type of soft limestone partly consisting of fossilized sea shells.  It was the primary building material for the Castillo and many of the other early buildings of St Augustine.

Of course we ventured out to look upon the Atlantic Ocean before hitting the road today, though an ocean view was also available along several miles of today's route along Highway A1A, particularly around Flagler Beach.

The view of the Atlantic Ocean from Anastasia State Park.

We are camping tonight at Tomoka State Park ($27.00, power, water and showers), which is located along the Intercoastal Waterway.   We may actually be back here in February, as there is a Tearjerkers gathering planned here for February 4th through 7th.  And as it turns out, there are two other teardrops camping here tonight.

We stopped by to visit with one of them, our neighbors Ben and Laura.  They are in a Panther trailer that isn't quite a teardrop, but a pretty similar concept - that everything you need can come in a small package.  Ben describes it as a teardrop on steroids, a fair description, given that it is more than twice as heavy as our camper.  But there were lots of great ideas - many of which I had never seen  before on a "micro-camper."

It has been cold and windy all day, with the high barely reaching the mid-60s.  That doesn't sound that cold, but it was enough to make us get a fire going at 3 pm today.  Even then, it wasn't enough to warm me up after today's ride.  But a nice, hot shower helped restore my core temperature and make the evening more tolerable.

Day 114: Anastasia State Park, FL

We officially arrived on the East Coast yesterday, after 114 days on the road!

Alea bucked a strong headwind for half the day, covering a total of 50 miles, about half of it in the rain.  About 1/3rd of the total miles were on paved rail-trails, and the last few miles were in heavy tourist traffic, parts of it with no shoulder.

A section of rail trail awaiting improvement.
Some day this will be part of a paved cross-Florida trail.

We camped in a tent site at Anastasia State Park ($30.80, power, water and showers).  For such a large park, the sites (at least on our loop) are large and private.

We managed to find a bottle of champagne, and if we hadn't dined out the past couple of nights, we would probably have also done a celebratory dinner in town.  Instead, we dined on deli food by our campfire.

We took a walk after getting the camper set up (we can't take Lana on the beach, so we were doing the nature loop).  An older woman was walking two large, friendly labs.  It appeared she was going to hold them and let us pass, but I suspect that Lana tried giving them the "stinky eye."  At least that might explain the aggressive response of the dogs, who both broke free of their owner.  Instinctively, I jerked Lana up by her harness, landing her seamlessly in Alea's arms.

When the woman attempted to round up her dogs, the younger of the two took off.  So I got the dog to come running back our way, and tried to grab her leash as she dashed by.  It slipped through my hands, bursting a blood vessel in one of my fingers (she was much faster than she looked).  But the jolt of almost being stopped caused her to stop to figure out what had just happened, allowing the owner to get her back under control.  So the champagne on ice had my finger to keep it company.

Another cold front came through last evening, bringing more typical winter weather for this area.  The lows will be in the upper 40s, with a high around 60.

This poor little mouse seemed to be ailing, as it wasn't bothered by my flashlight and camera in its face.

Day 113: Gold Head Branch State Park, FL

We saw our first snake yesterday, a venomous Eastern Coral Snake.  It was a juvenile (about a foot long - about half adult size).   Coral snakes can be confused with non-venomous King Snakes, and a rhyme helps to distinguish between the two:

"Red on yellow kills a fellow

Red on black you're OK Jack."

Yesterday was a day off, while we waited for the possibility of an available campsite near St Augustine today.  We explored the remainder of the developed portion of Gold Head Branch State Park, then passed the rest of the day reading, playing games and walking the dog.  The rains returned in the late afternoon, in the form of light to very heavy showers.  We drove into town for dinner and the rain came down so hard that the road was barely visible, with large amounts of water on the roadway.  But after that it was mainly lighter showers throughout the night.

Moss Man.

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...

Days 110 & 111: O'Leno and Paynes Prairie State Parks

Wednesday was my turn to ride, so I got out and installed my new saddle.  I think I may have discovered part of why my old saddle was becoming uncomfortable the closer I'd get to riding 50 miles in a day.  The bottom of most bike saddles consist of two parallel bars or rails that are attached by a clamp to the bike's seat post.  So I sat the old and new saddles on a picnic table and placed them on their rails.  This was to see if the new saddle was taller, which would require that I lower the seat post a bit.  It was clear that the rails on my old saddle were bent, most likely from a crash years ago.  So it is likely that the slightly deformed saddle had caused a bit more pressure on my right side than my left, and it was that extra pressure that would cause me to become more uncomfortable as the miles piled up.

Woo-hoo!  Spiffy new jersey!

So I managed to do 42 miles, pretty much all of them into a fairly stiff and gusty quartering headwind.  The fact that I had lubed the chain the day before helped me to maintain a decent pace of almost 17 mph.

About 5 miles from our campground I was run off the road.  Some sort of work pickup towing a slightly wider trailer decided to pass me on a road with no shoulder as another car was traveling in the opposite lane.  He squeezed the pickup by me without causing any alarm, but he was misjudging how fast he was overtaking me, so the trailer squeezed me close enough to the edge of the pavement that I had to bail out onto the grassy verge.  Unfortunately, that's just another day at the office for us.  It usually takes us by surprise, as we'll ride for hours on roads with no traffic, then traffic will build quickly as we enter into a less rural area.

So we stayed at O'Leno State Park on Wednesday night ($20.16, power, water and showers).  The roads are more rustic (at least on our campground loop) than the other Florida parks that we've been in, but other than that it's another great campground.

We had been invited to stay the night with Julie Braden and her papillon Tiffy, who live in Lake City, FL.  I had met Julie on Ancestry.com when I had just begun digging into my Malone and Hunter roots, and she provided me with some information that helped focus my early research efforts.  We aren't related, though one of her ancestor's siblings had married a child of my 4th great grandfather, John Hunter, Junior.

We didn't take Julie up on her offer to spend the night, in order to stay on track to stay at St Augustine this coming Sunday.  But when she offered to let us do some laundry, we couldn't refuse to do so and also have the chance to learn a bit more about her and her family.

Alea rode on Thursday.  It was in the 70s early in the morning, with lots of rain showers throughout the day.  Needless to say, the humidity was close to 100%.  She was fortunate enough to have had a good shoulder, bike lane or bike bath nearly the entire way, but nonetheless got soaked and covered with road spray.

A swamp at the north end of Payne's Prairie Preserve.

She stopped riding just SE of Gainesville, where we drove off route to Payne's Prairie's Puc Puggy Campground ($19.98, power, water and showers).  It rained most of the afternoon, so we drove into Gainesville for dinner, only to get trapped in near gridlock traffic.  After about a half hour of inching along, we eventually were able to find a place to eat.

Aha!  The reason that University of Florida located in Gainesville,
(Alea is a UF Gator)

Earlier in the day we got booted off our MiFi connection.  We understood why after getting stuck in traffic.  Imagine all those people calling to let people know that they'll be late or won't be able to stop and pick something up on the way home, and it's easy to understand how easy it is for the cell towers to get overloaded.  This is probably an acute problem in Florida, where a local newscast claimed that in the winter the population swells by more than a million more people, most of them arriving right about now.

Day 109: Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park

Alea had a somewhat easy day today, only 25 miles, but the entire distance was into a 10 mph headwind.  But before she could get going this morning, we found that her front tire was flat.  Rather than fix it right then, we put my front wheel on her bike and sent her on her way.  I drove ahead and found a place to wait for her, where I repaired her flat (a sharp rock had worked its way through the Kevlar-belted tire) and lubed my chain.

Is my tube replaced yet?

Thanks for the bread crumb on that last turn...

We're camping at Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park ($22, power, water and showers).  If Stephen Foster sounds familiar, it is because he is credited for having been the "father of American music," including the familiar song "Old Folks at Home" (the lyrics include "way down upon the Suwannee River," along which this park is located).

We made this a short riding day in order to have time to shop in Jacksonville, home of the only REI in Florida (plus it also has a Performance Bicycle store).  Our timing for shopping at REI was perfect, as they were in the middle of a sale.  Most of what we bought was 25-33% off.  Given that we spent over $600, we probably saved $150-200 today.

We started out this trip with some pretty well worn cycling clothes, and decided it was time to replace several items.  We also decided that having four sets of cycling clothes can help to cut down on the number of trips that we make to the laundromat, so we each bought one extra short and jersey.

And we made a stop at Performance Bicycle, where I've selected a new saddle with considerably more padding than my existing saddle.  I didn't have time to put it on this evening, but hopefully I'll have a chance to do so in the morning.  With luck, it will help to extend the distance at which I can comfortably ride.

We got Lana a new bone recently (having mistakenly left the old bone at a previous campsite).  She's obsessing over burying it, so we've been entertained the past few nights as she hides in it one place, then goes back 20 minutes later to find a better hiding place.  It's clearly very serious business to her...

Lana tries once again to hide her new bone...

One of the features of this state park is a carillon tower.  The quarter chime just now has us both hoping that it doesn't chime all through the night...

Day 108: Suwannee River State Park

The weather always seems to give us one or two days with lows in the mid to upper 50s and highs in the 70s and 80s before another cold front or rain system passes through to cool things off.  So today was our day to make hay while we had lots of sun to work with.  We hit the road a bit earlier than usual, in an effort to cover a longer than typical distance.  We could have had a short day and stayed at a KOA, but decided to split the riding so that we could stay at another state park.

Virtually the whole day had some sort of headwind.  For the first hour or so it was around 5 mph, but after that it was pretty consistently around 10 mph with a stronger gust or two thrown in to keep us off balance.  Add some rolling hills and 10 miles of construction at the end, and it was a fairly challenging day.  We were fortunate to have good weather, as the construction would have been a real hazard in the rain.

I rode the first 52 miles, and aside from the rolling hills, it wasn't too bad.  Alea did the last 32 miles and once again managed to get the stinky end of the stick.  First, there was a fair amount of traffic through Madison, FL, though most of the way through town there was a nearly empty parking strip to ride in.  Then came the construction.  They had paved most of the westbound side of the highway.  That left the eastbound side prepped for overlay, which included texturing the shoulder to assure the overlay would adhere properly.  That made it too bumpy to ride on, so Alea cautiously rode against traffic on the freshly paved westbound shoulder.  That lasted for several miles, before she reached the section that had been prepped on both sides, but had yet to be paved.  That was the worst section, which lasted about 5 miles and had more truck traffic than we had seen all day.  Alea was especially cautious and eventually got past all of that.

The courthouse at Madison, FL.
I always appreciate when municipalities are thoughtful enough to provide
for the welfare of all of their citizens.  Sights like this were pretty common
before Reaganomics.

So we eventually made it safely to Suwannee River State Park, where we are camping for the night ($24.20, power, water and showers).  We somehow managed to get one of the more private sites in the campground (likely because the pad is too short for most of today's RVs).

We asked the park ranger about the fact that so many state parks are nearly fully booked for next week.  She said that happens at Thanksgiving and around Christmas and New Years.  The weekends are often booked, but midweek it is possible to find sites in most parks (and availability is much better after Martin Luther King Day).  That's good to know, as we were starting to wonder how difficult it would be to get from St Augustine to Palmetto?  It'll only be a two or three day ride from St Augustine to where we'll leave our route to stay with Alea's sisters in Oviedo, and we can wait out the holiday rush there.  We'll be able to leave on Sunday and get across the state before the following weekend, so finding campsites for the final days of this year's trip should be no more difficult than has normally been the case.

Day 107: Newport, FL

Another cool morning in the mid-40s, but it warmed up fairly quickly.  Alea bundled up early, but was shedding layers about every hour or so.  By the time she had completed her 57 miles it was in the mid-70s.  It was a challenging ride early, with lots of rollers and no shoulders (though mainly only church traffic).  Getting through Tallahassee was easier than getting through Pensacola, but it's never fun driving in retail traffic, especially on those sections with no shoulder.  The last miles of the day were relatively easy, along a rail-trail on mostly flat terrain.

It's warming up - time to shed a layer!

We are camping at Newport Campground ($22, power, water and showers), a small campground run by Wakulla County.  The Adventure Cycling maps didn't show this campground or much of anything elsein this area, aside from a KOA near Monticello (30+ miles farther down the road).  We had Googled for 'camping' and 'campgrounds,' but came up empty.  Then we tried 'RV Park' and this showed up, about 15 miles off of our route.  It's a pretty nice little campground, though there are lots of ant mounds on our campsite, and it got pretty buggy as it got closer to evening.

This is one of the few weekends where we've had decent over-the-air TV reception on a Sunday, and the first such time when there is actually a Seahawks game scheduled this evening.  Of course with us being in the Eastern Time Zone, we'll be lucky if we managed to catch half of the game before nodding off...

We looked ahead to see what sort of booking problems we might encounter at Florida State Parks.  It's looking like there aren't many sites available next week, as everyone is capitalizing on their time off during Thanksgiving week.  Especially at the beaches, where virtually no campsites are available until the week after.  We're thinking that it is looking as though we should have pushed harder to reach Orlando at least a week before Thanksgiving (as originally planned), but so much for hindsight.

I suspect there will be other private campsites available, so we'll figure things out as we go along.

Day 106: A Drive to Malone, FL

I used the cool morning as an excuse for us to go see Malone, FL, one of four towns (that I know of) with my surname that are located within the United States.  It seemed like a nice enough rural agricultural area, though 'downtown' appeared to have been dying on the vine for a while.  It looked as though the big employer is Malone Peanut.  And if we were willing to hang around until next weekend, we'd be able to attend their annual Pecan Festival (a definite temptation).

Yesterday, we spent some time fixing a leak at the top of the galley bulkhead on Alea's side of the trailer, which we had discovered while at Dauphin Island (it took a couple of tries, but I believe I finally did get the repair done properly).  The folks at Camp-Inn said that when they repair such issues at the factory, that they always do both sides, just in case.  So I finished off the other side today.  It will take some time for Alea's side to cure, so we may end up waiting for the next rainstorm to determine with certainty that we are once again watertight.

We seem to be hitting milestones fairly regularly of late.  The latest is that Loraine just passed the 10,000 mile mark.  She was at about 2,000 miles when we started cycling, and we suspect we've traveled close to 5,000 miles on our bicycles (we aren't keeping track of those numbers).  So we're a little puzzled that we've somehow managed to drive the van another 3,000 miles that isn't connected with our cycling (though about half of that is likely related to our visit with Joe, and attending the Camp Inn Camp Outt).  So in the future, we likely need to budget an extra 25% of our bicycle route miles to cover our dining/shopping/entertainment trips and for seeking the occasional campground that is well off of our route.

Day 105: Bainbridge, GA

We've surprised ourselves, and have managed to stick a toe just inside the Georgia state line, making it the 16th state that we've visited on this trip.  And we finally are in the Eastern Time Zone, having spent more than two and a half months traveling within the Central Time Zone.

A cold front came through last night, so we awoke to temperatures in the upper 40s.  By the time we left the campground it was up to the mid-50s, but not expected to reach the mid-60s (and the point where extra cycling clothes are not necessary, at least not if the sun is shining) until around 1 pm.

So I donned my heaviest long sleeve jersey, heavy wool socks, a light vest, my earmuffs and midweight gloves and set off eastward.  I was dressed warm enough that I didn't need to ride hard to stay warm.  But I was also dressed too warm to push hard, as I would easily overheat.  So I set a slower pace that was more conducive to riding longer, and thus farther.  So it was a fairly easy day, despite a quartering headwind or sidewind pretty much the entire distance of 47 miles.  Even at my slower pace we crossed the Eastern Time Zone around noon Central Time, and it was only a few miles from there to our campground for the night.

We continue to be impressed with Florida roads.  They are in great shape and along our route most have good shoulders.  That's a fairly big change from when we lived here 30 years ago.  But everyone in Florida now seems to realize that bike facilities (especially trails) are a big draw for retirees, who want to a place to exercise without putting their lives at risk.  I wish the rest of the Gulf Coast states would figure that out! 

We're staying at East Bank Campground ($22, power, water and showers), a Corps of Engineers campground on Lake Seminole, just north of Chattahooche, FL.  It is like most COE campgrounds - nicely laid out and well kept, but with toilets and showers situated to be convenient to almost none of the campsites (we've become spoiled by the Florida State Park campgrounds, where such facilities are centrally located and close to everyone - but two nearby state parks were booked for this weekend).

We'll be spending two nights here, so that we can do some sightseeing and to attempt to plan our destinations for the next week or so.

Day 104: Falling Waters State Park, FL

The blog just exceeded 10,000 page views!  It's good to know that so many people have found an easy way to fall asleep at night.  ;-)

This was our best day in weeks.  It was warm when we started riding, it was mostly flat for the first half of the day, and the wind was mostly behind us.  The high was in the low to mid-80s, but the humidity wasn't off the scale.

We had a lot of ground to cover today, about 66 miles.  So we 'doubled up' - Alea rode 41 miles in the morning and I did an additional 25 miles the afternoon.  

We've ended up at Falling Waters State Park ($19.08, power, water and showers).  Falling Waters is Florida's highest waterfall, falling something like 73 feet.  But all of that is below ground level, as it falls into a sinkhole (there are several other sinkholes all around it).

We got some instructions from Camp Inn on how to deal with our leak problem, but things did not go as planned.  There is a missing rubber cap strip on one end of our galley hinge, which MAY have helped to cause our leak (that, plus the high wind and rains on Dauphin Island, which forced a lot of water into that corner of the galley).  We're waiting to hear back on that, as we'll need some supplies from Camp Inn in order to fix that.

This weekend will give us an idea of what we are up against while camping during this time of year in Florida.  Most of the state parks are booked for the weekend.  We'll hope that the same isn't true of the private campgrounds, at least if we can't squeeze in at one of the several state parks nearby.  If we strike out this weekend, then we'll need to plan where we'll be every weekend for the rest of our travels.  Hopefully, if we can reserve a campsite about a week in advance, we won't continue to have this problem.

It's also worth mentioning that someone tried throwing a wad of aluminum foil at me while I was riding to day.  Their aim was high, so it sailed over my head and landed about 12 feet in front of me (obviously, they were aiming at my helmet).  I guess the moral of this story is that it's not a good idea to ride during lunch hour in the south when there is a tavern on the route.

Days 102 & 103: Blackwater State Park, FL

Alea had a tough day's ride yesterday.  It was 58 miles of cool temperatures, heavy traffic, headwinds and rolling hills.   Fortunately, the end of the day was on lightly traveled rural roads, but it was still a very tough day's ride (the traffic was the worst part).

We were fortunate yesterday.  A helpful person in Pace, FL told us to take the southern route to Blackwater Park, claiming it was the shortest and fastest route.  But we were both tired of all the traffic, and decided to stick with the northern route into the park, as shown on our Adventure Cycling maps.  We were lucky we made that decision, as the southern access to the park was blocked by flood waters (this area has received 9" of rain in the past week, so it's not surprising that the flood waters have persisted for a while).  The access from the north had no flooding problems.

So we are camping at Blackwater State Park ($22.30, power, water and showers) for two nights.  The sites are all level (with no sand) and the showers are hot, so it's a great place to camp.

Our van is getting close to having been driven 10,000 miles.  It has an indicator light that should tell us when to change the oil (rather than just changing it every X miles).  So far, it hasn't said it was time for an oil change, though the manual states not to exceed 10,000 miles between oil changes.  We tried making an appointment in Pensacola to have it changed at the local Ford dealer, but we would have had to wait around too long.  So we made an appointment for today at the Ford dealer in Crestview, FL.

The lack of the oil change warning light coming on (thus far) had us puzzled.  Is there a problem with the oil sensor?  Or is our driving style simply less likely to cause the oil to break down (after all, we usually never drive more than 50 miles per day, and only about 10 miles at a time before stopping the engine)?  The service person didn't seem to think it was odd that the light had not gone off, so it would seem that even the near constant towing hasn't been that hard on the engine.

Sunny skies are finally here again.  About 9:30 the skies became partly cloudy and within a couple of hours the skies were clear, and the temperatures climbed into the mid-70s.

I rode into Crestview this morning (21 miles), where Alea met me with the van.  So when we leave tomorrow we'll begin our cycling in Crestview, helping us to put the next state park within a day's ride for us.  While having the oil changed, we were also told we needed to replace a stripped lug nut.  I asked why it wasn't covered under warranty, since only Ford employees had ever touched the wheels?  I was told that I'd have to get Corwin Ford to pay for the damage, since they caused it.  Thanks once again, Corwin Ford!  It seems the Corwin Curse hasn't completely left us...

Last night we were once again accosted by four legged thieves.  We've been in the habit of leaving the galley hatch open until we settle in inside the cabin for the night, a habit we apparently need to change.  This time Alea figured out what was going on nearly instantly, though not before the thief made off with a full package of tortillas (we figure a raccoon was the most likely culprit).

We heard back from Camp Inn about how to fix the leak in our camper.  Unfortunately, it requires a drill and drill bits to make the repair.  We have neither, so we'll need to figure out where to get those.  Luckily for us, the weather should stay dry for several days (but then we've heard that before).

Day 101: Big Lagoon State Park, FL

Before leaving Dauphin Island we took a picture of the ferry we normally would have taken across the mouth of Mobile Bay, and another picture that gives a sense of what the wind was like (bear in mind it was nearly twice as strong last night).

The ferries remained out of commission for another day...

...due to high winds.

So we drove around the Bay, where Alea dropped me off at the eastern ferry terminal.  She drove off to find a bike store and get some bike supplies while I hammered out the miles with a brisk side wind or quartering tailwind, depending upon how the road meandered.  Since I was starting late (it was nearly noon), the plan was to hammer out the 40+ miles with only one pit stop, a little more than halfway along the route.  Needless to say, it was very flat (in fact portions of the roadway were still flooded from last night's rains, which were heavier on the east side of the Bay).  But there was a good shoulder and fairly smooth roads for most of the route, though I was constantly dodging trash cans for several miles, as today was the pickup day in that area.   The temperature was in the upper 50s when we left Dauphin Island, and it was around 65 degrees, overcast and breezy for my entire ride.  

We crossed into Florida (our 15th and final state for this trip!) this afternoon and are camped on the outskirts of Pensacola, at Big Lagoon State Park ($22.30, power, water and showers).  I saw a sign along the road advertising a Greek restaurant, so we'll be going to town to enjoy a bottle of Retsina and whatever looks most appealing on the menu.

We discovered a leak in our trailer while I was changing clothes to get ready to ride.  We've determined more-or-less where the water is getting in, and it is my recollection that there is information about solving this problem on the Unofficial Camp Inn Forum.  I suspect there is a drain for the channel for the hinged galley lid that has become clogged.  It's not supposed to rain tonight, so we should have time to figure that out tomorrow.

Day 100: Dauphin Island, AL

Today is a bit of a red letter day, as it is our 100th day of tagteaming across the country!  It's also the 104th night in a row that we've camped in our teardrop camper (after leaving Boise we had camped four nights before we started our cycling).  That is more than double our previous record of 49 nights camping.

We woke up to some pretty good rain this morning, but we weren't happy with where we were camping.  Tiptoeing into that nasty toilet in an attempt to keep from dropping through the floor grew old very fast.  And Grand Bay had little to offer to distract us from the weather.

We hemmed and hawed about what to do, but when the weather let up a bit Alea decided to ride, rain or not.  Our original goal was a campground on the east side of Mobile Bay (yesterday I had mistakenly thought it was in Florida, but the campground is a few miles west of the state line), but the Mobile Bay Ferry shut down today due to high winds (and there is a good chance it will be closed again tomorrow and perhaps longer).  So we made it only as far as Dauphin Island Campground ($32.48, full hookups and cable TV), which is located just across from the ferry terminal.  This campground is a far better deal for the price than the one last night.

Soon after we arrived here the rain stopped, but the wind is easily blowing at 20 mph and gusting to 30-35 mph and hasn't let up all afternoon (it's really rocking the camper right now!).  So we're happy to have cable TV (our cable just BARELY reaches the multiplexer box), so that we can pass some time watching football.

We did take some time to explore our surroundings.  Fort Gaines is just down the road, one of two forts that have guarded the entry to Mobile Bay since the early 1820s.  We also took a stroll to an adjacent nature area and had a brief walk on the beach.

I would have taken some pictures today, but Alea's phone seemed to have been near death, so we traded phones while she was riding.  This morning we weren't able to get hers to wake up except on USB power (despite being fully charged), and that didn't last long.  It seems to be working now, so perhaps there was an application update that was faulty and they've now sent out an update that works.  Time will tell.

We've made the decision to drive around Mobile Bay tomorrow, and will resume cycling at the ferry terminal on the other side of the bay.  We checked the weather reports, and if they are accurate it is likely the ferry will be docked for at least a few more days.  The detour will also allow us to find a pet store and a bike store, so that we can buy some needed items.

Day 99: Grand Bay, AL and Redneck Hijinx

We're back in Alabama for another day, and should be in Florida tomorrow.

This morning was a bit more interesting than is normally the case for us.  It started out with me almost immediately missing a turn, which took me several miles off route.  But with Alea's help, it was only a few miles ride down a connecting road before I was back on track.  That was somewhat fortuitous, as it put me a short distance behind two cyclists heading east, whom we may never have met if I hadn't made that wrong turn.  I pushed hard to catch them, and it turn out that they, too, were riding this stretch of the Southern Tier.

Their names were Russ and Steve, and they live in Bremerton, WA.  They are being supported by Russ's twin brother.  He drives their van and plays golf while they are cranking out 70 miles per day (that is because their time is limited, as Steve has to return to work at the end of the trip).  It is probably the last that we'll see of them, as they'll stay well in front of us at the daily distance that they are traveling.

For them, this was actually the third leg of a coast-to-coast tour that they've done in segments over the past three years.  The first year they did the western third of the Northern Tier, last year they did the middle third of the Trans Am Route and now they are completing the eastern third of the Southern Tier.  Their starting point for Year 2 lined up longitudinally with their end point from Year 1.  Likewise for Years 3 and 2.  Steve carried a laminated map of their route in a jersey pocket, which helped to illustrate their scheme.

I had a small stroke of luck after I left them.  I took a shortcut to bypass 6 miles of riding the main route along a stretch with more traffic than we've become accustomed to seeing.  About 1.4 miles was supposed to be an oiled dirt road surface, but instead it was all freshly paved.  And just as I turned onto the road I was overtaken by a farm tractor (I was wondering what was making all that noise behind me).  Riding behind the tractor for about 4 miles I was able to maintain a pace of 21 to 22 mph with hardly any effort, so that was a welcome surprise.  It also assured me that nobody would pass too closely, as they had to swing out into the oncoming lane to get around the tractor (and that was when part of the contraption that he was towing was riding on the grassy part of the road shoulder).

But then about a mile before we reached our campground for the night, I felt an impact on the left side of my back that knocked a bit of wind out of me.  It seems someone driving a brown Nissan Pathfinder had either hit me on the back, threw something at me or hit me with his side view mirror.  I didn't see a hand out the window as it passed me, but I also didn't hear anything hit the pavement behind me, so it was probably the latter.  What ever it was, it hit my cell phone, and the main force of the impact was absorbed by that and the Adventure Cycling map that was in the same jersey pocket (a little body fat also helped, thanks to too many Twinkies lately).  I'm hoping someone tried to slap me as they drove by, because if they did I suspect they got the stinky end of that stick.  With luck he broke his hand on my cell phone (which didn't sustain any obvious damage and is working fine).  He didn't stop and neither did I.  I suspect we are both fortunate that I didn't catch up with him...

So we are camped at Grand Bay RV/MH Park ($25, full hook ups).  It's not worth what we are paying because earlier in the day someone decided to leave the shower running in the only bathroom.  The floor is soft in several places and it has been left to dry out on its own.  The owner had put up an out of order sign, but told us we could use it at our own risk (I suspect it was obvious that I needed a shower when we spoke with him).  We should be able to get by dealing with the soggy toilet for one night; at least that is our hope.  

But for self-contained cyclists, the good news about this campground (provided that the bathroom is put back in decent working order) is that they can now camp here for FREE.  It seems this is a very recent decision, after the owner realized that their park is located on the main route of the Southern Tier.