Day 55: Perry to Ichetucknee State Park

62.7 miles 1,022 ft of climb

Well, not really Itchetuknee State Park. After spending the night in a motel in Perry and weathering an evening thunderstorm, we voted to spend our rest day in an Air B&B that James found online that would accommodate all fourteen of us. It's getting close to the end of our ride and the thought of camping with rain in the forecast was not terribly appealing to us.

We started riding early in an attempt to beat the rain forecasted for the day. It was cloudy and humid and I had all of my rain gear with me on my bike, and I even had on my waterproof socks. The road was flat and had a decent shoulder. James and I clicked off the first twenty miles fairly fast, at least for us, averaging around 15 miles per hour. We were hoping to find a nice cafe in Mayo, but ended up stopping at the Dollar General. The town itself had lots of vacant storefronts as we went through and looked like it had seen better days. Here's today's route and my waterproof socks with my biking sandals.

The scenery shifted. We were no longer going through a forest, but there were open farm fields with sheep and cattle grazing. There were also flowers along the roadside and in the ditches, a reminder that it was, indeed, Spring.

The day turned out nicer than expected and the scenery was a big improvement over yesterday. We crossed over the Suwannee River and stopped at a park along the river to eat our lunch. Sharon and Karen were already there, talking to a local resident also named Sharon. She pointed out the place where the steamships used to dock and told us about some of the river's history. She said that they used to have a local newspaper that they referred to as a next day Mullet wrap because it was typically only three printed pages long. She was launching into a diatribe about the book of Revelations and then how "those foreigners" were ruining the country, told some inappropriate jokes and we decided we needed to leave.

We left the park on a bike trail parallel to the highway. It was great to be on a trail, but it was in poor condition with large, tire busting potholes. We moved over to the road, which, ironically, was faster and safer than the bike trail.

The Air B&B was even nicer than we had hoped and could easily accommodate our entire group. The owners, Fay and Ken, lived nearby and were as friendly and welcoming as could be. Ken has two cars, a Shelby Cobra and a Shelby Super Snake Mustang. He was proud of them and has been giving us rides in them. It was Stephen's 62nd birthday and his wife sent him cookies and a cake. Karen and Harris spearheaded a group who (in conjunction with Stephen's wife) made his favorite meal and toasted his birthday with Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon (he lives in Seattle).

There is a high probability that it will rain tomorrow, but I can think of worst places to land than this place. We are fast approaching the end of our ride and this is a good way to chill and enjoy ourselves before we embark on our last two days of riding.