Tallahassee
Sorry everyone for the delay on entries, let me catch you up since my departure from Gainesville.
I left Gainesville and the day started great. I had a strong tailwind the whole morning, and I was able to maintain a good speed most of the day. The beautiful day and good conditions allowed me to set my personal best for this trip so far and I cycled 105 miles. This sweet accomplishment had it's share of sour too, though. About five miles before Perry, FL I felt a snap in my back wheel and a spoke on the inside of my gear cassette (same as in Orlando) had broken. With little options, I adjusted the tension of the surrounding spokes in order to minimize the wheel's wobble, and continued on to search for a bike shop in Perry. But, of course, like any small town in the middle of nowhere Perry had no bike shop. So with only a short amount of day light remaining, I decided to continue on toward Tallahassee and try to find a place to camp off the highway. About a half of a mile before I found a hunting trail suited to camping a second spoke on the same side of my back wheel snapped. More than frustration, I felt worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the capital of Florida without some kind of motorized assistance. Fortunately, even with the second broken spoke my wheel's wobble had not increased and was still ridable. So I found the hunting trail, set up camp, called my friend in Tallahassee to warn him of my situation, ate some trail mix, granola and fruit then passed out from exhaustion. And for the record, there is a type of mosquito in Florida that is larger than any other I've seen in my life, and they could care less if you have bug spray, on the contrary, I sprayed my shoulder right as one flew through the spray, landed and bit me. I retreated into my tent realizing that it was a losing battle for me.
The next morning I awoke to the lights of a pick-up truck at 5:45am realizing that it was Saturday and the hunter had come out and found me on his trail. Luckily, he didn't even speak to me. He closed the gate behind him, got in his truck, and drove off into the woods. I got up a little later, ate, packed and left for Tallahassee. The capital area is really rather hilly and it was a tough ride in. By the time I got to my friend's place I was pretty tired. It was so great to see my friend from college that I hadn't seen in so many years, I actually didn't recognize him at first! I stayed with J.C. Barnes and his fiance Sara Roberts for several days while I spoke at a Rotary club meeting, put up flyers around the FSU campus, and ordered an expensive replacement back wheel so that I wouldn't have any more breaking spoke issues. The Rotary meeting went well, and I experienced some more of the generosity that makes Rotarians such special people. Then J.C. showed me around campus and gave me the 25 cent tour. After relaxing, rehydrating, and refueling for a few days and getting my bicycle upgraded I was ready to head back out on the road. J.C. and Sara are awesome hosts, and great friends. Sara is going to be the best wife ever, and I'm totally jealous of J.C. Thanks for a great stay, ya'll, and I'm going to do everything I can to be at your wedding in October.
I left Gainesville and the day started great. I had a strong tailwind the whole morning, and I was able to maintain a good speed most of the day. The beautiful day and good conditions allowed me to set my personal best for this trip so far and I cycled 105 miles. This sweet accomplishment had it's share of sour too, though. About five miles before Perry, FL I felt a snap in my back wheel and a spoke on the inside of my gear cassette (same as in Orlando) had broken. With little options, I adjusted the tension of the surrounding spokes in order to minimize the wheel's wobble, and continued on to search for a bike shop in Perry. But, of course, like any small town in the middle of nowhere Perry had no bike shop. So with only a short amount of day light remaining, I decided to continue on toward Tallahassee and try to find a place to camp off the highway. About a half of a mile before I found a hunting trail suited to camping a second spoke on the same side of my back wheel snapped. More than frustration, I felt worried that I wouldn't be able to make it to the capital of Florida without some kind of motorized assistance. Fortunately, even with the second broken spoke my wheel's wobble had not increased and was still ridable. So I found the hunting trail, set up camp, called my friend in Tallahassee to warn him of my situation, ate some trail mix, granola and fruit then passed out from exhaustion. And for the record, there is a type of mosquito in Florida that is larger than any other I've seen in my life, and they could care less if you have bug spray, on the contrary, I sprayed my shoulder right as one flew through the spray, landed and bit me. I retreated into my tent realizing that it was a losing battle for me.
The next morning I awoke to the lights of a pick-up truck at 5:45am realizing that it was Saturday and the hunter had come out and found me on his trail. Luckily, he didn't even speak to me. He closed the gate behind him, got in his truck, and drove off into the woods. I got up a little later, ate, packed and left for Tallahassee. The capital area is really rather hilly and it was a tough ride in. By the time I got to my friend's place I was pretty tired. It was so great to see my friend from college that I hadn't seen in so many years, I actually didn't recognize him at first! I stayed with J.C. Barnes and his fiance Sara Roberts for several days while I spoke at a Rotary club meeting, put up flyers around the FSU campus, and ordered an expensive replacement back wheel so that I wouldn't have any more breaking spoke issues. The Rotary meeting went well, and I experienced some more of the generosity that makes Rotarians such special people. Then J.C. showed me around campus and gave me the 25 cent tour. After relaxing, rehydrating, and refueling for a few days and getting my bicycle upgraded I was ready to head back out on the road. J.C. and Sara are awesome hosts, and great friends. Sara is going to be the best wife ever, and I'm totally jealous of J.C. Thanks for a great stay, ya'll, and I'm going to do everything I can to be at your wedding in October.
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