Palatka to St.Augustine

Today was a 47 mile flat route to the Atlantic coast,which included a 6 mile police escort through downtown St.Augustine. All 27 riders made it to the end,where we walked through the sand to dip our front tires in the ocean. We didn't stay long as we were in a light rain all day,and after our picnic lunch with family and friends,it started pouring very hard. We had 2 surprise visits from Bell Brinn and Nancy Howard,who were injured on the trip and had returned home. Both of these riders came down from their home states just see us finish.

Our last dinner tonight was in a local restaurant and there was lots of drinking with all the toasts to each other. I am ready to come home and this trip is once in a lifetime,because its to tiring to ever do it again. My bike is being shipped tomorrow and it will need some repair work and my body needs to rest.

I want to thank all my friends and family for all the good wishes and support,and my 3 good luck charms are still intact and I keep them on the bike forever. See you all when I get home.

High Springs to Palatka, FL The final Day!

Tomorrow we leave Palatka for St Augustine, FL. Our final full ride was 73 miles and although tiring since we had a 76 miler the day before we were excited to to be at the near end of this 2 months journey. How do I wind this to a conclusion? I think of the friendships made, and bonding that took place because all of us were doing something we love and being pushed almost every day to do more than we thought we could. For me the biggest experience was self reliance and the independence needed to be able to take care of myself. I just loved the challenge of knowing I could do whatever was needed to end the daily ride successfully, mostly. At beginning when I hurt first my left knee then my right leg I wondered just how was I going to be able to complete the ride. I think I was just suffering from over use and the hurts worked themselves out, thank goodness. Our friends seem to be looking forward to their next adventures. I know I am. Wendy heads home and is really looking forward to seeing Charley her darling dog. I'm heading to Key Largo with Tom for kayaking and snorkeling. I'm sure as the days go on more and more thoughts of this trip cross country will be brought to mind. For now I'm saying good bye and thank you all for your support and good wishes. It meant so much to hear from you and know you had our best and safe rides in mind. So for now we're clicking our heals together and saying there's no place like home😊.

Perry to High Springs

Today was a 76 mile route and we have a 5 woman pace line to help with the mind numbing straight road of 45 miles. Each woman goes for 2 miles then we switch and we have been doing this for the last few days of long straight roads. But today, Gail wanted to take the lead and stay there, so we changed from the second position. Gail is so strong and has no problem in the wind and we followed like little ducklings behind her. The second half of the ride was mid 80's, but very humid and I was struggling, so the last 17 miles I left the group. They were busy eating ice cream and I had to keep going, so I ate everything in my bag I could stomach at our 60 mile sag stop and finished the last 17 miles with Moira from Scotland. We also had to fight off the bugs called"no see ems" that constantly bite your arms and legs. We try to drink a lot and eat energy snacks, even if you are not hungry and we finished at 2:30 pm, where it was close to 90 degrees. Thank God Subway was right before the hotel and we all met up again for a late lunch.

Today was my birthday and Womantours had asked earlier in the week,what I wanted for dinner tonite. I requested hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans. It was great and all the riders really enjoyed the meal. Then a past rider had brought 2 cakes and I have some pictures of that and a card signed by all the riders.

Yummy!  Yummy!
Happy Birthday, Wendy!  [added by Admin]












I want to say that Gail and myself have accomplished a lot of goals on this trip, but one I cherish is that we are still good friends and without her, this trip would not of been as fun, nor would it been as hard getting through everyday. There were no easy days on this trip and Gail was there everyday riding her heart out and smiling. She is truly an athlete.

Tomorrow is 73 mile day to Palatka.

Crawfordville to Perry, FL

This is so hard to get a handle on that this cross country adventure is quickly peddling to an end. Our ride today was a relative short one, 54 miles without so much as a tiny incline. The climb was a grand total of 171 ft. Most were thrilled to have a flat mostly non headwind day. Two of us, myself included, had a bit of a difficult time with the very flat terrain. This was 52 miles without a turn or change of scenery. Our final 3 days will also be flat so I'll have to pump myself to ride flat for 3 days😳.
6 of us had a great lunch at Pouncys, a local place. Then we took off for either the motel or Walmart. Dinner is on our own tonight so Wendy, the birthday girl, gets to pick the restaurant of her choice👑.
On our day off in Crawfordville Tom came to visit and took me to Tallahassee! It was so nice to spend time together and get to see a little of the Capitol of FL. Mostly I got things done; a hair cut, manicure and pedicure, all needed! Tom is now in St Augustine and has golf plans with another rider, Dolly's husband, Don. Tom will wait there for our final ride, the Police Escort into St Augustine. We're all meeting this with different thoughts. I'm still sorting through the finality of the long ride.
No pix today😔!

Rest Day in Crawsfordville

Today I had to get the bike cleaned and one of the riders, Brenda, is an excellent bike mechanic and adjusted my rear cables for me. She is a piano tuner by trade and uses the same care in that endeavor as she does the bike tuning. She also adjusted Gail's bike and it was great after that.

Then it was off the Wakulla state Park for alligator boat tours, swimming, and hanging out. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing.

Wakulla Springs State park

                                Aligator!!  Saw 5!

This is Bruce the dog. I hugged him as I miss my dog very much. He was at the park with his owners. 

Gail had gone yesterday, in anticipation of seeing her husband, Tom, and spending the night in Tallahassee. It was great to see someone from home again.




Tomorrow is a 54 mile ride to Perry, which we considered a short day.

I am putting pictures in from the park and we did see 5 alligators, but no Manatees.

A Celebration at Burger King!

Marianna to Quincy

Today was 54 mile ride and it was very hilly. I thought it was suppose to be flat in Florida. We have pictures of one big hill crossing the Chattahooche River and we felt like we were in Texas again. Again we had dogs chasing us, and in this instance, this pack brought friends and we ran for our lives. One of our fellow riders had a whistle and was trying to blow it, but she also needed to breath. The whistle sounded more like a toy than a dog defense.

We had a lovely lunch in Quincy at Burger King as we could get food and ice cream at one stop and the hotel was only 2 1/2 miles away.







The mood of the tour has changed as we get close to St. Augustine and people are ready to go home. Everyone has missed their favorite foods, coffee, pets, friends,family and generally their way of life. My life has been put on hold for 2 months, although I get a Charlie gram every morning from my cousin Chris. I will never complain again about our roads in California as my cycling parts have taken a beating. I could never of done this trip without the help of my cousin,she has been so terrific with taking care of my home and dog. My neighbors Curt and Ginny are just as fabulous and I so miss all my friends. Well that's it for now.

Crestview to Marianna, FL

Today was our last long ride on our cross country trek, 90.74 miles. One week from today will find us in St Augustine and getting ready to start new adventures. But our day today was a very pleasant ride. It's referred to as 90 on 90. Yes, we were on route 90 for the whole day, almost all 90 miles.

We did stop to take a picture at Alligator Creek. And for our good luck we did get to see a baby turtle😉.

Also there was a a swamp that was picture worthy.


We stopped for lunch to find one of riders had a flat. We work like a rehearsed team with each knowing precisely what her job is. Judy, the flat haver, takes the tire off and removes the tube, Helen hunts out the placement of puncture, I blow air into the tube, Judy inserts new tube into tire, I then spent a very long time wrestling with the tire to get it back on the rim, Wendy used her CO2 cartridge to blow the tire up and reset it back on, Helen taught us how to center the tire back on and bingo the bike is ready to go! So off we went to finish the ride.