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.

Pensacola to Crestview

Today was a 69 mile ride and I personally was very tired from yesterday and hit a wall at about mile 30. It was very humid today,but the temps were only in the 75-80's.Gail was very strong and humidity doesn't bother her. I got into the sag car at 44 miles and got a bump up to mile 60 and met Gail and 2 other riders and starting riding again. We had lunch in a lovely bistro that had hardly anyone inside at Crestview and then a great stop for ice cream at Sonic.

Tomorrow is the last long ride at 93 miles and I am hoping it is a little cooler,a tailwind,and flatter terrain then today. I don't ask for much and one week from tomorrow,we will be riding into St. Augustine,Florida and I am sorely looking forward to that day!

I put some pictures of the ferry ride from Dauphin Island to Fort Morgan and a picture of Gail and myself crossing into Florida. That is it for tonite.

Dauphin Island to Pensacola, FL

Wow, can you believe that we crossed our last boarder on our quest to the Atlantic Ocean? We have arrived in FL. What a huge feeling, we're almost there. Our bikes are clicking, squeaking, chirping, dragging and a bit more banged up then when we left with them on March 8. I took mine in when we arrived today to be told that the mechanic couldn't get it to make the click. Oh well, only 8 more rides. So I hope my bike can stay sound.

Our day started off with a short 2.5 mile ride to the ferry. The 45 min ferry ride took us to Ft Morgan where our ride began.

On the way over we saw both oil and natural gas rigs, great to see. And one Dolphin swimming. Then the ride began in ernest. Right away we were hit with very strong head winds that lasted for almost the whole 60 mile ride. We rode with 4 again and have our pace line moving well. We stopped along the way for a nice quick lunch. We all shared shrimp Po Boys then back on the road. We all arrived tired but looked forward to our last Margarita party.

First the hotel where we're staying had cocktails from 5-7p. So we all enjoyed our evening including a wonderful Jumbolia dinner.

Riding with Wendy & Gail -- Sort of!

Today was our monthly Pedal Pusher Ride.  The Pedal Pushers are the women riders in our Cycling Club.  We get together once a month to go for a nice ride to somewhere and share coffee and stories!  Today we rode to Misty Woods Park.  Virginia and Diana led the riders through the bike trails and roads around our community until they reached the final destination.  I don't know how long the ride was.  I do know it wasn't as long as the one Wendy and Gail took today, but we all had a good time and felt like we were there with them for a little bit of our day!

We send a big hello to the "wilds" of Alabama and Florida and to all the gals making the trek with our gals!  We were lucky and did not experience any major problems or flats on our ride today.  Good thing since Gail and Wendy weren't there to fix them!

When we arrived at the park, we enjoyed coffee, apple juice, banana muffins, and home made trail mix thanks to Virginia.  The day was sunny but a little breezy!  It was a beautiful day to get together and share our stories!  We missed our two friends, but they were certainly there with us in our hearts and minds!  Hopefully, they felt the same at their
end.

Here are a few action shots along the route:

This is one combined picture but I think everyone has been included.  The individual pictures will be posted on our club gallery in the next couple of days.  Kathy was the official sweep, but George brought up the rear for a good part of the ride!

Rest Day at Dauphin Island

Today was our rest day,but I didn't feel I rested as I woke up and got up and had coffee on the balcony at 5:00am. And lo and behold,Gail also got up and had coffee too. Then at 6:30 am,I met Jo,another rider,and we walked a mile to get breakfast and a mile back. Jo couldn't use her bike,because her back rim suffered a crack going over that horrible bridge to Moss Point. Another rider also needs a rim and someone else needs truing on her rear wheel and there were at least 7 flat tires among the riders.

Typical House on Dauphin Island

After the walk,some of the riders went out to see the end of the Island,which has homes all on stilts. Then the bird Santuary was the other way and then lunch of beef ribs. We are having our dinner on our balcony with food we have collected from restaurants and local grocery stores.

Tomorrow we take a ferry to Fort Morgan and ride 59 miles to Pensacola. Talk to you tomorrow.

Moss Pt to Dauphin Island, AL

Wow, we're in AL! I'm having a hard time believing that we're in AL. When we left Moss Pt, Ms we were only about 6 miles from AL. So our arrival was first thing this morning. There are some pix of the Welcome to AL sign. Then off we went to get ourselves to the Island and guess what, yes, the head winds were there once more😳. Sure would like to leave them behind. So the 4 of us who rode together Wendy, Judy, Helen and me, took turns taking the lead. It really helped to have each of us pull for a little and then the next rider comes forward to take the wind. We were happy to have a short day.

Then we saw it, the Dauphin Island bridge! We practically forgot the headwinds. The pelicans, seagulls and Gulf views were all there for us. It was beautiful. The bridge is very long before the climb. We hardly noticed it with so much to see.

We stopped at the top to just look and of course to take photos. Down we went first to lunch at Barnacle Bill's, natch, then a local bakery and finally to our condos! They are wonderful. We're on the 3rd floor with fabulous views. Tomorrow promises to be relaxing. We'll let you know.

Wiggins to Moss Point

First order of business is trying to explain Gail's blog yesterday. In her defense,she did consume a margarita and then write the blog. Our rest day is Monday in Dauphin Island and Gail was disappointed we were not there today. It is a short ride of 47 miles to get there tomorrow and we all are looking forward to getting to the Gulf. I have no idea what Gail was saying about her socks getting through the day, but she is on her meds now and all is well.

Anyway,getting back to today's ride of 72 miles. Because of the storms a couple of days ago,we are enjoying low humidity and mild temps and I am greatful for that. We still have dogs chasing us and some chip seal roads, but overall the area is very pretty. We had lunch at a Shell station that sells fried chicken and the owner told us "our chicken is so good, it will slap your Momma"
And it was and we had mashed potatoes and we still had to ride 22 miles more.

The day had 3 bridges to cross and the second bridge is where the pictures are from and we stopped at the top to take them. The other 2 women in the picture are Helen Pagenkopf from Wisconsin and Judi Soule from CT.

When we got to the 3rd bridge it was at the 70 mile mark and it was steep and at the top the wind kicked in and you could barely pedal going down. They have these metal suspension joints and after hitting the second one,I flatted going down the other side. I pulled over to a safe spot and to change the tire and as my friends joined me,Helen and Judi also flatted. Now Curt I know you want to know if Gail flatted too,but she was the only one that did not have a flat.

We changed 3 flat tires and helped on a 4th flat tire for the brother-law of one of the riders.
Diane,I am really good at changing tires now. This is my 3rd flat for the trip. We all made it in okay and it is Mexican food for dinner tonit

Bogalusa to Wiggins, MS

We arrived in MS today! And that means a margarita party was had tonight before dinner. Since the day was cold, windy, overcast and a tiny bit of rain we got to not only eat inside but sit at tables. A real treat for us. Our day started off very dreary, sort of how it ended. However, our 61 mile ride was so fun. I've found a way that works for me with these long rides. I had bought cycle sox that had 2 bikes on each sox making 4 cute bikes in total. So I give each bike a quarter of the ride, today that was 15 miles per bike and only 1 mile for me. It really works😊.

We had some really rough roads that we labeled MS Rock Seal, even more so than the infamous TX chip seal. Then there were the dogs. We've noticed that many are not fenced or on a chain and cyclists are fair game! Mostly I tried to out run them. However, the big ones will be able to out run me😒. Our riding friend, Helen, a very small woman has a huge voice and when she yells "get" they listen! We stopped at a place called Scooters where I had gumbo for lunch, perfect! But it was so cold afterwards. We had a temperature drop of almost 40 degrees overnight. So I guess that means we could be happy for all the rollers that followed to help warm us up. Wendy, Helen and I really had a good day.

PS - we're trying to find out what those small mud pyramid things are. Any opinions?

Hammond to Bogalusa

Today we did 60 miles through the back roads of Louisiana and passed the Global Wildlife Center. There were herds of exotic animals,but we had to keep on riding as no bicycles are allowed inside as the animals are not in cages. It was overcast and humid,but no rain yet. Tomorrow is showing rain and storms and lower temps. We only had 1 dog think about chasing us and that is a good thing. Dinner last night was fried catfish,red beans and rice,coleslaw,and fresh strawberries.

I have put some pictures on the blog that have unique story to them.

The picture where Gail and I are standing on the fray,is to show you how close the trucks are to us in Arizona and the next picture shows we survived it.

There is a picture in New Mexico where the local police officer gave us an escort to our lunch spot.

I found in Silver City in an antique store outdoor patio lights that were shotgun shells

The picture where all the riders are near the trailer,this is the chaos in the morning when we eat breakfast,get your snacks,pump your tires,and load your luggage.


Well that is all for now. Talk to you tomorrow.