70.3 miles 336 feet of climb.
The day started out overcast and humid. There is rain in the forecast and thunderstorms predicted for Perry, our destination for today. We took a vote and elected to ride out a storm this evening in a motel and not camp. Tomorrow may be rainy, but not necessarily a thunderstorm. One thing at a time.
We started on our old friend Highway 98 and spent most of the day riding on the shoulder. It was smooth and traffic was light in the morning. We made good time and averaged 15 mph on the first 20 miles. There was a new bike trail along side the highway and we rode on it for a while. The surface was not quite as smooth as the highway shoulder and it did slow us down a bit. We met a biker going the other way on the trail from Tallahassee doing a day ride. We chatted a bit and he was surprised to find out we had ridden from San Diego.
Highway 98 went south of Tallahassee through the Saint Marks National Wildlife Refuge and the Aucilla Wildlife Management Area. The road was flat and lined with the Forrest on either side and we were riding through the trees for most of the day.
After about 40 miles of the same tree-lined road, we stopped at JR's Aucilla River Store and next to it was a sign that said, "Get a Belly Full MO's Place. Best food around!" There was no other food around. MO's place was closed because they were getting a new vent installed. We went into the store and found that it had a very limited variety of items for sale. There were one or two items of each thing on the shelves. They were, however, well stocked with Spam. I bought a little snack size bag of chips and a bottle of water. James bought something similar and we ate the sandwiches we had prepared that morning before we set out on a bench outside the front of the store. We chatted with folk as they stopped for gas or went into the store and they were interested in what we were doing and then told us why they couldn't possibly do it. One guy noted that we seemed awfully old to be doing this. Harris stopped too and others rode by. We did have the threat of rain hanging over us.
We still had half of our 70 miles to go and we were still riding on the highway, it was flat, and still in the forest. If we had had this scenery in a place like West Texas, I would be talking about the beauty of the forest and how great it was to be riding through it. Now it is near the end of our trip in Florida. The ride was, well, monotonous.
Miles and miles of the same. Traffic was picking up and there were more trucks, but it was no different. Edgar Allen Poe in his "Philosophy of Composition" said that a story should be able to be read in one sitting and should have what he called "the singularity of effect." The effect here was...monotony. The poet William Wordsworth in the Preface to his 1802 edition of Lyrical Ballads he talks about the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling recollected in tranquility." It is a feeling that regular conversation could not project. While Wordsworth may have been spontaneously overflowing with powerful feeling, I was feeling monotony.
James and I even resorted to singing along with the Beatles that James had on his bike speaker. We did a very loud and off key sing along version of "Yellow Submarine" and "Octopus's Garden." The road still went on and on.
Finally, we reached Perry. On the outskirts we found Deal's Famous Oyster House. We went in for a late lunch and had some great oysters and broiled fish.
It had not rained and we would not have checked into the motel for the evening. Later, we will have a meeting and decide what we will do tomorrow. There are only five more days left on this ride.
As I am writing this in the Gandy Motor Lodge in Perry, it is pouring rain and thundering. As you can see, we probably won't be going swimming.
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