North Florida Tour Pictures.....

 

Rozmo told me to throw something into the water to trick these geese (ducks?) into coming over to where I was. It didn't take them long to discover my chicanery, and they turned around and left. I think they were insulted that I threw a leaf into the water.  

 Rozmo bundled up at the Rose Garden in Thomasville, Georgia.

I felt obligated to take pictures of..... roses..... at the Rose Garden in the City of Roses. Besides, the more pictures I took, the longer I could delay getting back on the bike.

Our trusty tandem resting at the gazebo in the Rose Garden.

The view from our RV camping spot at the 4-H camp. I would love to go back there in warm weather. They had a high dive into the lake and a wonderful swimming area.

I love how it's hard to tell where the real trees end and the reflections begin. Doesn't this look warm? It wasn't.

I never get tired of seeing Spanish moss. I know it's just a fungus or something, but I think it looks beautiful hanging from the trees.

The sun coming up over the lake, shining through the tree branches and the Spanish moss.

Florida has more springs than any other region in the world. I know of at least three different ones named Blue Springs. They're all blue. Duh.

The water was so clear it was hard to get a good picture of it. At this part of the park, there were steps that led directly down into the water. I didn't test the temperature. I was afraid it might be warm and I would jump in. If it had been, I would still be there.

The reflection makes it hard to see just how beautiful the water really was.

Katydid and Rozmo taking pictures of the trees and the interesting root systems. I know it appears that Rozmo is peering into that trash can, but I'm pretty sure she wasn't.

Our home for the weekend. The propane furnace in the RV works GREAT, and for that I am truly, truly grateful.

This was the only other RV at the bike ride this weekend. This one made me feel like we have the "poor people" version of an RV. I wanted him to leave first today so I could see how he negotiated the sharp turn out of the gate, but Rozmo and Katydid guided me through. I didn't even have to back up.

Rozmo's bike and her "Life is Good" flag. There's a reason the flower has a dot in the middle of it. It has to do with our team name, Team Chi-Chis. She's going to write each team member's name in a petal.

The Tandemonium, loaded up and ready to head home. This will probably be our last organized ride until the spring.

This precious dog showed up at camp right before we got ready to leave. She had the most gorgeous fur. She had a similar color pattern to beagles, but her hair was long. She was so sweet, and she chased the ball. Then when I turned to go back to the RV, she jumped up and put her paws on my back. "I'm not finished here!" she seemed to say.

North Florida Tour Day 2.......

I would love to tell you that today was much better than yesterday as far as cycling goes.

I would love to, but I can't.

However, I'm also not going to go on and on whining about how MIS. ER. A. BLE. I was. ALL. DAY. LONG.

I'm just going to whine a little bit.

It was 36 degrees when we got up this morning. "It won't be so bad," I thought, "as long as the wind doesn't blow."

It did blow.

I guesstimated that yesterday's winds were around 15 mph. Today's had to be 20 mph. We did a loop ride, and I swear with my hand up that the winds were ALWAYS in our faces.

We left around 10:00. We made up our own route for the first part because the SHORT option for today was 68 miles. There was also the option of doing a century.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I would have been happy (well not HAPPY, but you know what I mean) to do around 30 miles, but I didn't want to seem like a wimp, so I said a 50-mile route would be fine with me.

We set out down Florida highway 53 to Madison, and it was an awesome route. I can't say for sure if there was a lot of traffic on that road, because there was so much pavement OUTSIDE the white line that it felt like we had our own bike lane. We stopped in Madison at a convenience store that is hands-down the neatest store I've ever been in. They had a "bee" theme for the whole store. There was a warning in the restroom that employees who didn't wash their hands would be "stung and _______" (I can't remember the second word). They had a separate little room that was the beer cooler, called the "beer hive." The lady behind the counter was super nice and even took a picture of the three of us.

We had packed sack lunches before we left this morning, and the ride organizer, Margaret, brought them to Blue Springs to a state park where there are springs and the water is ...... you guessed it, blue. I will try to post pictures in the next day or so, when I'm not dependent upon a cantankerous internet connect card. (My new definition of "roughing it": not having wifi.) We stayed at the lunch stop for over an hour because I simply could not face getting back on that bike.

The last town we went through was Pinetta, Florida, where all the street names start with "P": Petunia, Pennyroyal, Primrose, Poplar.

I try my best to remain upbeat and remind myself that no one held a gun to my head and MADE me go ride a bike in this weather, but sometimes my sour attitude wins the battle. It got so bad today that I started yelling at dogs. To the German Shepherd-looking dog that barked from his pen in his backyard, I yelled, "SHUT UP!" When a boxer-looking dog barked and charged at us from his yard, I pointed my finger at him and shouted, "YOU DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH ME TODAY!" Later when Rozmo was riding alongside us (that didn't happen a lot today), another dog barked from the confines of a fence, and once again I yelled, "SHUT UP!" Unfortunately Rozmo neither heard nor saw the dog, and when I yelled it almost startled her off her bike.

Just as all good things must end, even the miserable ones drag themselves to a merciful death eventually. We limped back into camp around 4:20. Our total mileage for the day was 59 miles and change, and when Rozmo asked if we wanted to ride a loop around the lake to get 60, I almost took her head off. That loop around the lake was actually about 4 miles, and I'm not sure I would have survived it.

Dinner was wonderful, and the wine and music are still going at the pavilion next door to the RV. Katydid left first, then I sneaked away from the dancing, and Rozmo is still going strong. I have a sneaky suspicion the wine has a lot to do with it.

I won't say I will NEVER do this ride again, because we tend to have short memories when it comes to cycling. We always THINK we had a good time. And it has been a good time with Rozmo and Katydid, and laughing with the other folks on the ride. But I don't think I will pre-register for this ride in the future. I will wait until the Monday before it and see what the weather forecast says.

If it's going to be 80 degrees with no wind in North Florida the first weekend in November, count me there. Otherwise you will find me home with Hubby and Gus, watching football and eating nachos.

45 + 15 + 64 = 1...........

45 degrees + 15 mph winds + 64 miles = 1 miserable day on a bicycle

If we hadn't already pre-registered for this ride, I swear I wouldn't have come.

I had on way more clothes than I like to bike in, and it wasn't quite enough. I wore tights, snow ski socks, my enclosed cycling shoes that look like kayaks on my feet, a long-sleeve t-shirt, a cycling jersey, a jacket, ear warmers, a neck warmer, and two pairs of gloves.

By the end of the day I was able to shed one pair of gloves, the neck warmer, and the ear warmers.

The wind NEVER relented, and it was ALWAYS a head wind. Today's route was different from most that we have done. We usually do a loop ride, but this time it was from one town in South Georgia to another town, then back by the same route.

It may have been a blessing in disguise that the computer on the front of the tandem wasn't working. (The GPS is on the back so Katydid can keep up with our mileage too.) I had no idea how far we had gone, and I told Katydid not to tell me. Of course when we got to the turn-around point and had lunch, I knew we had 32 miles to go back. I also knew when we got to Boston (who knew there was a Boston, Georgia?) that we had 18 miles left. After leaving there and riding for a while, I had convinced myself that the church should be right around the next corner when Katydid slipped up and said, "I don't think my feet can stand another 6 miles."

I almost burst into tears.

On a positive note (because I insist there must be one somewhere), the route was very rural and we didn't have to contend with traffic much at all. 

But it was cold. And windy. And long.

I would love to post pictures, but my connect card internet keeps kicking me off. I'm too tired to fight with it.

If you'll excuse me now, I'm going to suck my thumb.