Epilogue 1

This morning I am prepping for the drive back to Phoenix. That is Mapquesting the route (it should be I-10 all the way, but I-10 gets confused around Houston in Texas), paying this month's bills, and totaling up the mileage from the ride.

Mileage total for the Ride of a Lifetime stands at 2719.4 .  That includes our little detours, my wrong turns, and all the rest. I still can't get over what a great ride it has been, and can't wait to start planning the next one.

I will run up another post later reference the return trip and some of the other stuff that happened on this trip. But for now, got to pay the bills and get ready to go home.

We left St. Augustine at 0700 Phoenix time (1000 local time) on Saturday the 2nd. I had told father that I planned on driving straight through from Florida to Arizona, and that he might be more comfortable taking a flight back. I even checked the flights out of Jacksonville and found  him a flight - 6 hrs, home (in Phoenix) by 3PM the second, under $200, and an extra day to drive back  to Colorado, because he is very worried about getting back to vote. He decided that he would  rather ride back  with us - 15 to 17  hours in the car, no stopping, no meals, just snacks and drinks in the car.

But he decided that he wanted to ride back with us. This is the same old fart that complained to me for 5 weeks because he had to sit in the car driving for us and it stiffened up his knees too much. So we loaded up the car and took off for the return. I stopped every 2 to three hours for gas breaks or potty stops. So father, playing the martyr and throwing his best guilt trip at me, rode in the front passenger seat and refused to eat or drink the whole trip. He also refused to fasten his seatbelt and wouldn't recline his seat to nap. Acting just like a spoiled little baby, he finally about 3 AM, demanded that we had to stop and sleep for a few hours. I told him that we had discussed this, we weren't stopping, and I had offered to let him take a plane. He was delivered to his home in Scottsdale at 2:30PM and we said good-bye. He could have been there almost 24 hours earlier if he wasn't being a pain again.

Day 40 (Melrose to St.Augustine, FL)

Where's Waldo?

That's the title I wanted to use for today's post, after spending last night in Waldo, Florida. But it really seems like a lame title when today, WE FINISHED THE RIDE! We rolled onto St. Augustine beach just before noon this morning, November 1st, a day before my 60th birthday. The feeling was so good as we rolled onto the beach and started walking toward the Atlantic Ocean for our pictures, that Karen started to cry a little, and I was even a little choked up. The other side of that coin is that we are both willing to get on our bikes and ride back to Phoenix.

Yesterday we ended our ride in Melrose after I realized that we had ridden 10 extra miles due to my mistake. Father took us to Waldo, the closest town that had a decent motel (according to the locals). In fact the other local establishments were referred to as "roach motels".  So we stayed at the Comfort Inn in Waldo, ate Mexican food one more time, and retired.

The day started out cool, in the mid 50's, and overcast. Because it was in the 50's I was just wearing my regular short sleeved jersey (my birthday present from Karen) and bike shorts. It took a few miles to get warmed up, but when we did the excitement of finishing took over and we really started spinning, running almost 18mph average for the 56 miles.

I modified the ride again, taking straight roads instead of the ACA paths (thanks Dennis for the reminders). It cut off a few miles and was still a nice, pretty ride. For anyone else coming this way, we came in on 100 to 206, then straight to the beaches. The shoulders are very nice, except where they lead up to bridges. There they narrow and the quarter mile lead in to the bridge has speed bumps that will loosen your eyeballs.

We got to Crescent Beach and rode north on A1A to the first St.Augustine Beach sign we saw. There we took photos, and turned down the road to the beach. The pure white sand of the beach and the smooth Atlantic Ocean were a very welcome sight, and gave no indication that hurricane Sandy had recently passed by. Karen and I took photos, drank our bottle of celebratory Champagne, and enjoyed being done. We also talked to one off the local Beach Patrol Police officers who is wanting to do a similar tour. He was impressed and very inquisitive about bicycle touring, so we were glad to share some of our info and adventures.

We are done, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. Thanks for all the interest, comments, and for keeping up with our adventure. Now it's back to Phoenix.


Map and Numbers:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239213526#.UJLbRC5Fxa8.blogger

Day 39 (White Springs to Melrose, FL)

Today we started at White Springs, a small sort of town near the intersection of I-10 and I-75. We left from there following the ACA route south on 137. The morning was cold again (42 degrees) and we enjoyed a nice traffic free ride. Passing through Wellborn, we saw a great example of southern car customizing.

We saw several deer this morning all of them walking into or from the tree farms. I still don't know what kind of trees they farm or why, but the farms are interesting, going on for acres or miles.

Another of the cash crops down here are the "Miniature Horses". There were several ranches raising and advertising the miniatures. I took a photo of one of the horses, that could only have been about three feet tall.

Karen and I have come to the conclusion that of all of the states we have ridden through, Florida's drivers are the worst and most discourteous. Today we were yelled at, honked at, and nearly forced off the road several times. Even when the drivers have room to move over, they frequently will move closer to the bicyclist in a distinct effort to try moving them off the paved shoulder. Karen and I have been aware of this almost since we crossed into the state and we ride VERY defensively. We hate being around these drivers. While many of the motorists are OK, there is an extremely high percentage of what the good ole boys in Mississippi call "dumbasses".

After we got to Gainsville today, we had only ridden about 65 miles. Karen and I decided to ride another 10 miles to cut down our final day total. We felt so good after that, that we rode another 10. The riding was on smooth pavement with a good wide shoulder, and a nice breeze had come up (about a 15 mph tailwind). After the extra 20 miles we were standing around the truck discussing whether we should try to get 10 more, when Karen slammed my finger in the truck tailgate. I vented thoroughly, then we started riding. After we got to Melrose, I got a chance to look at the route for tomorrow, that I had previously prepared for father. It turns out that I took a wrong turn once we decided to ride the extra miles. I had mapped out and prepared a route that would have saved us about 12 miles, but when we rode the extra mileage I reverted to the ACA map. What all of that means is that we rode about 30 miles in order to get about 20 miles ahead. Bad move on my part.

Now we are down to the wire. Tomorrow will be the last day, and we only have about 68 miles to ride. The feelings are very mixed now; the ride itself has been so great that it is almost a shame for it to be ending. The stress that father has induced into the venture makes part of me glad that this will finally end. And the end is so close, almost literally in sight, that I find it hard to stop tonight and I want to keep riding to FINISH. I can't believe that tomorrow at this time Karen and I will have ridden completely across the country. So off to sleep, and wake tomorrow to finish.


Today's map and numbers are on the following link:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/239002392#.UJHPE3jTtxE.blogger

Day 38 (Monticello to White Springs, FL)

What a great day in Florida. We got started riding from Monticello about 8:30 AM in a 39 degree, 20 mph tailwind. While it was a little chilly, we were dressed for it and took off ready for the morning. The scenery was still pretty much the same, lots of vegetation and more tree farms than I have ever seen before. They grow some kind of long-needle evergreens here that are planted about 10 feet apart and in rows that seem to go on forever.

We have been wearing bright orange traffic vests for most of the ride. Last night Karen decorated them in honor of Halloween.

Happy Halloween

Even the cheerfully decorated vests couldn't brighten the attitudes of the Florida drivers. They still honk (not the cheerful little toot-toot that you give to acknowledge or encourage, but the long blast that is normally accompanied here by a "Get the F@%& off the road!") These roads were again smooth, well maintained, and only moderate hills. With the tailwind, we had a good ride, not shedding our jackets until after the Suwannee River and park turnoff (Highway 132). I can understand the song about the Suwannee River, it is a beautiful river.

Karen looking south and west at the Suwannee River

We rolled past the Wellborn turnoff (Highway 137 at 136A, right beside I-75) to check for motels and restaurants that are shown on the ACA map. Just about a mile off route is an America's Best Value Inn. We registered there, and after cleaning up we crossed the interstate in search of a restaurant. There is a McDonald's just across the freeway (we will go hungry before eating there) but a couple of miles further is the town of White Springs. There is one restaurant there (Big Belly's) with a limited choice but OK food. It is right next to a laundromat. So we got caught up on cleaning our bike clothes while we ate, and returned to the motel to ice down our coolers.

Two days left to ride, tomorrow night in Gainsville, then Thursday and the Atlantic Ocean at St. Augustine.

Here is the link to today's map and figures:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/238710458#.UJBRW6MYJk8.blogger

Day 37 (Chattahoochee to Monticello, FL)

Comfort Inns have become a welcome staple on this tour. The rooms have always been clean, generously sized, and the staff helpful. Not an ad for them, but it is an endorsement. We stayed at a Comfort Inn again last night in Midway (a Tallahassee suburb), and it is nice to get a good rest in a comfortable room. In fact, I rested so well that I forgot to set my alarm and we slept in an extra hour until 7AM. The motel offered a decent hot breakfast, after which we loaded up and trucked back to Chattahoochee to continue our ride. We stayed on Highway 90 from Chattahoochee all the way to Tallahassee, and other than a few spots with no shoulder, it was a very nice road. Smooth pavement, light traffic, and courteous drivers. When we got to Tallahassee, I wanted to adjust the route some by taking the ACA route through town, then continuing east on 90.

That was a real nice plan, and as the saying goes, the surest way to make god laugh is to tell him your plans. Trying to get across town, we had road closures, road construction, bridge construction, no bike lanes, rude drivers, and we got turned into Florida A&M college on a road that looped around the campus with only one exit. We finally found our way back to Highway 90 and got out of town as quickly as we could. Once we left Tallahassee, the remainder of the ride was great. Scenic and smooth, the only thing missing was the tailwind we had enjoyed all morning. We arrived in Monticello and trucked 6 miles south to the Super 8 Motel at the junction of 19 and I-10. That will be our home tonight.

This was another day without photos. The picture I took a few days ago of Karen riding through the tree shaded road has just repeated several times. Each day lately seems to be a nice road under a tree covered canopy, with variations on the wind and temperature being the only differences.

Then there is father. Karen told me today that she thought he would find a way to totally tick me off 10 times by the end of the ride. This morning, he started out on the ride back to Chattahoochee by telling me that the mileages on the directions that I had printed for him were "way off".  I lost it, and told him, as I do daily, that the mileages were estimates because we were not going to be following the mapped route and the distances I had were the best I could do. He looked at the instructions a few seconds more, then said, "Oh, that's a road number". He thinks he is funny, but I am so tired of the negative comments.

Then his second shot was the fact that he got up this morning and had taken no shower yesterday or this morning and he slept in his clothes. He was in the truck with his intolerable B.O. and his chronic, disgusting halitosis, and he was literally making us nauseated.

Third, at the first rest stop, as we pulled in we noticed that instead of parking in a sunlit spot to stay warm, father was parked in the shade with the engine running and the heater on (he obviously isn't paying for gas and doesn't care who is). As Karen and I were getting ready to get started again, father walked away saying that he needed to get a map in the truck stop. He took off with the keys and left the truck unlocked, in a truck stop. I would have locked the truck and left, but he has walked away from the truck with the keys laying inside it already on this journey. We had to wait several minutes, that we could have been biking, for him to get back. After 5 weeks, and both of us telling him, he still doesn't realize that the bike trip is the purpose of this whole journey. When we are bicycling, we are making progress toward our goal. When we are waiting on him, it takes away from our cycling time. These are things he could do WHILE WAITING FOR US. He doesn't get it, at all. So third item was the parking , and fourth was getting the map, which doesn't even have enough detail to show most of the roads we are traveling, and leaving the truck unlocked.

The fifth stunt today was his directions. He was waiting at the second stop, and told us that the next turn we made, a left, came to a dead end and then we had to go either left or right. I had him look at his instructions, and they said to make the left turn, then an immediate right. He is trying to create problems where I already have an answer. What he didn't tell us was that the road was closed a block past that. Had he told me, we could have rerouted to our planned route. As it was, we got detoured, got separated, and he got lost. We found our way back to highway 90, where I called father. He was totally lost, and we had to wait about 20 minutes for him to get to us. We were waiting in a Popeye's parking lot where the local gentry were threatening to run over us  and yelling at us.

Then the sixth and seventh bonehead moves of the day. As we left the parking lot I told father to go 5 or 6 miles east on 90 and wait there so we could finalize the route for the day. We got about 1/2 mile out of the parking lot and father saw a sign leading to an earlier route we were had discussed. He turned off there and promptly got lost again. We waited for him (again) about three miles down the road on the crest of a hill, and he drove by a few minutes later. As he tried to stop in a busy traffic lane we told him to go on, thinking he would go 2 or 3 miles farther, as we discussed earlier, and wait. WRONG. He went about 1/4 mile and pulled in to a right turn lane of a busy intersection and stopped. We passed him less than a minute later and motioned for him to go on. Three miles later he hadn't passed us. My phone rang and I answered, and of course, it was him. He was lost and wanted to take one of the previously discussed routes to Monticello. I got mad, told him to stay on 90 and go east because it was our route, it was the shortest route, and it was the way we were going. He passed us a mile later.

He was waiting for us in Monticello. He was parked in front of a run down motel (known locally for the hanging suicide that had taken place there a few months earlier). Father said that the motel and the police station next door was the whole town and there was nothing else, the motel rate $45 per night. I rode about 2 more blocks down the street and found a restaurant and gas station, and noticed that the police station was actually the school administration building. The guy at the gas station said that we were just on the outskirts of town. He told me how to get to the other motels, the bed and breakfast establishments (including the haunted one) and the restaurants. I went back to the truck, we loaded up, and went to the Super 8 Motel.

I can't trust him, I can't believe half of what he says, and he refuses to do what we need him to do to make the ride comfortable and successful.

So Karen says, "I want to up my estimate" referring to the number of ways and times my father can tick me off on the remainder of this ride. No Chance. If she is keeping score, let her figure out his stunts.

Maps and numbers:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/238395366#.UI7nhhSLt5E.blogger

Day 36 (De Funiak Springs to Chattahoochee, FL.)

De Funiak Springs is not a big town, about 5,000 population. We spent our day off there, mostly because it was on the schedule, and because I was too beat to do another day on the route. On Saturday, we tried to drive to the beach to try some fresh seafood. After a 30 mile drive to Santa Rosa beach, we drove around and found nothing but houses. The few restaurants we found were closed, so no seafood. We all grabbed lunch at Whataburger and went back to the motel.

On the way back, Karen spotted a winery next to the motel. The sign advertised "Free Wine Tasting", so guess what. We got to the motel and she and I took off on foot for the winery. We asked father if he wanted to come with us, but he stayed in the motel and claimed that he wanted to read because he didn't like wine. When we got to the winery, we found that they were having a classic and muscle car show, the wine tasting, and a free concert (60's and 70's easy listening music played by a very good local band). We had a good time walking around, listening to the music, trying a wide variety of surprisingly good local wines, and looking at some great cars. One of the cars was a Karman Ghia, that looked just like Karen's first car. Others were prize winners from various categories in different shows. I got some photos, Karen got a case of wine, and we returned to the motel.

Oh, the cars!

From "A"'s and "T-buckets" to Muscle cars and....

This Monster F350 that was extreme.

The Music Venue

Karman Ghia deja vue

So many show cars.

Father didn't want to go for dinner, so Karen and I went to a little restaurant on the west edge of town called "Mom and Dad's" and had a good Italian dinner. We came back to the motel, got a decent night of sleep, and got up ready to go this morning (Sunday the 28th).

We modified the ACA route to stick almost completely on Highway 90. It cut off a couple of miles and was a good road, smooth pavement, good shoulders, and not too much traffic (but it was Sunday). Father was on the spot for our two breaks, and when we got to Chattahoochee, we loaded up the bikes to look for a motel. There was one terrible place on 90 just east of the center of town ( I don't remember the name, it is the only motel, a white building). The rooms were dark and stunk, and I could see the sky all around the wall mounted air conditioner. No discussion was needed, we took off for Tallahassee and got a room at the Comfort Inn on the extreme west end of town.

The ride today was nice, the only problems being the strong wind out of the north all day long, and the temperature. The temperature wasn't that bad, as it allowed us to  keep  cranking with overheating all day long. No photos, as it was very overcast and cloudy all day and there was nothing very photo-worthy.

The maps and numbers are as follows:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/238146035#.UI3Sdbk3iK0.blogger

Day 34 (Pensacola to De Funiak Springs, FL)

We have finally reached our last rest day, after riding from Pensacola to De Funiak Springs. The day started with us getting a ride from our motel back to the ACA route, then we began pedaling about 8:30 after fighting rush hour traffic to get started. There was a strong headwind again, not quite as strong as yesterday, but unrelenting, straight out of the east all day long.

The first few miles of the route, highway 90 has very high traffic, moderate speed vehicles, and no shoulders. This was a disappointment because the best (only) photo opportunity was of I-10 heading east out of Pensacola. The interstate is an elevated bridge as it leaves the city, and it seems to disappear into the ocean. But, no photo op.

We continued on the way with several climbs, overall an elevation increase of over 200 feet. The high temperature today was over 95 degrees. With the headwind it was a difficult ride. I hit one of those points again where I hurt all over, felt sick, felt hot, and had a backache. It made for a tough day, but it was just a matter of pedal til you get where you're going.

There were a couple of other points of interest along the way. There were a couple of places with "wheelchair crossing" signs. These are a lot like the "elk crossing" signs or "deer crossing" signs in Arizona, but the road kill is a little gamier here. Florida also does something different with their garage sales. The sellers post all of their wares in the large grass shoulders along the highway. It is like traveling through a swap meet on the highway.

So no photos today, but the numbers and maps are on the link:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/237303383#.UIsI5XvfDoc.blogger