As I woke Tuesday to a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and a phone call from my dad, it was soon brought to my attention that a rather strong storm front was bearing down on me in Orlando. So much so that the local radar was brightly colored with yellows, oranges and reds along with the friendly warning of tornadoes in the area.  So I sat by hour after hour watching the storm pass by, and finally around 1 o'clock the storm was light enough outside to pack up and be readying for a tough afternoon ride. I got onto the road around 2 pm and headed West on highway 50. The winds were extremely strong blowing into my face from my left side, which made being out on the road extremely dangerous. The crosswind was plenty strong enough to blow me and my trailer around, but what's worse were the cars flying by trying to fight the push that would send them into me on the right. I made it only about 9 miles before I realized something was wrong and saw that my back tire had a bad wobble to it. I pulled over into a shopping center and started examining my bike. Turned out one of my spokes on my back tire had broken, and needed to be replaced. I carry spare spokes so that was no problem, but after further inspection I realized that of all the spokes on my bike the one that broke was in the group that is behind the cassette (gears) which requires a special tool that I didn't carry due to its heavy weight and size. So, I called Jamie and Jenny, my hosts in Orlando who were only nine miles back and asked for help. Jamie came in his truck ten minutes later and luckily there was a bike shop only a mile or two down the road. Well after brining my bike into the shop and getting it up on the rack, we quickly realized that I also had a flat front tire and a broken back brake pad. When it rains it pours, right?

After about an hour we got all my bike's problems sorted out, I thanks Jamie profusely and I got back on the road. With the poor weather and my set backs, I had only about two, maybe three hours of riding time left. After pushing forward I made it to Leesburg, which was my goal for minimal distance that day in order to make my Wednesday trip to Gainesville possible. The kicker was that as I reached the Southern edge of Leesburg, I noticed my back tire was going flat. I pulled into a parking lot, decided it was a slow leak and pumped it up in the hopes that it would hold for a few more miles. That inflation lasted about a mile, where I pulled into a church parking lot and pumped it up again. At this point I was feeling quite desperate to find a place to camp since it was getting close to dark and my rear tire wasn't holding air. A short ways up the road from the church I saw an undeveloped neighborhood that went a short ways off the main highway. I rode in to take a closer look, and found no homes, just empty lots. At the back of the subdivision there was a small stucco office with a concrete "patio".  I decided to disregard the "No Trespassing" sign in the window and set up camp on this patio. I didn't try to hide, I simply figured if a police car did a sweep through the neighborhood that night and found me, I'd explain myself and hope for the best. Luckily, no such explanation was needed and I made it through the night without incident. Before falling asleep, I changed my tire's inner tube, ate some peanut butter tortillas and trail mix, and called my mom to let her know I was okay.

Wednesday morning I packed up camp, and got onto the road around nine o'clock. It was a much prettier day, very sunny, not too hot with a good strong wind blowing right into my face. I guess you can't have everything go your way. I stopped in Ocala for lunch and took about an hour to rest. I received word that a member of the Sunrise Rotary Club in Gainesville had offered to host me and that made the afternoon ride even easier with that motivation. I pulled into Ron and Diane Farb's amazing house around 4:30 in the afternoon and was warmly greeted. The Farbs have hosted several world travelers, exchange students, and humanitarians in the past and were excited to have me stay in their home. Ron is a world class mountain climber, world traveler, and started his own non-profit, Climb for Cancer. Over the past six years he and his wife have raised over a million dollars for the foundation. They are both very interesting and very caring people. This morning, April 16th, I spoke at the Sunrise Rotary Club meeting at the Hilton on the University of Florida's campus and was very happy with the experience. The members of this Rotary club were very friendly, and very receptive to having me there to share my experiences and plans. They asked lots of good questions, and in the end, while I was speaking with members individually, they passed around a Sunrise club coffee mug and gave very generously to me with personal donations, leaving me quite speechless. I'd like to thank the members of their club, again, for their hospitality and generosity, and for not holding the fact that I am a Gamecock against me. I'd also like to thank Ron and Diane Farb for opening their home to me and being wonderful hosts.

Tomorrow is going to be a LONG day. I am aiming to reach Perry, FL which is 95 miles away from Gainesville. I don't actually know anyone in Perry, so motivation may be lacking, but Tallahassee is 56 miles after Perry and I don't want to fall too short of Perry making Saturday's ride that much longer. Luckily I will be able to take a few days off in the capital. I am staying with a friend from college and will hopefully have more opportunities to speak to people. I think the wind is supposed to be at my back for at least half the way tomorrow, so that is good news. I just hope my body keeps going strong. The good food the Farbs filled me with will definitely be put to good use as fuel. So, thanks for reading. I'll post more from Tallahassee...goodbye Gators, hello 'Noles!