Day 27 Florida at Last!

We left the Super 8 in Brunswick, Georgia at about 6:05 and started out on a cool relatively wind-free morning. For some reason the warm-up was slow. We seemed to be moving at the speed of sludge. In part we were tired from yesterday’s 67.5-mile marathon. Eventually we did warm up and get up to a reasonable (for us) speed.

The terrain was very flat and the traffic was very light. The road was good. It turns out that Route 17 through South Carolina and Georgia is designated as an official bicycle route and is marked as (bicycle) 95. We did not learn that until it ended just before the Florida border. We also crossed a lot of water today.

This turned out (will turn out) to be a very cheap food day owning to the fact that there virtually no places to eat on route. Almost everything was over on the interstate which was usually a couple of miles off route. We chose not to do those extra miles. Consequently we made better than usual progress down the road. We pulled of the road after about 20 miles and had cheese sandwiches and split an orange. There were no services but we carry some food for such emergency eating.

Our first stop was in Kingsland, Georgia at the 32.2-mile mark. That is an unusually long way to go without a stop. The place was only a little minimart so we could only get drinks and crackers. Then were off again.

We did not stop again until Yulee in Florida. Again, it was a minimart but at least this place had hot dogs and we were starving. The woman who worked there had good information about the road ahead. We had about 12 miles to the turn-off for the airport.

The roads from route 17 to the airport area in Jacksonville, Fl where we are staying were not fun. There was no shoulder and there was a fair amount of traffic. In addition it had gotten hot. Weather.com said 97 feels like 105. Yes it did. We arrived at the area of the services and immediately popped into a McDonalds for some food, drink, and air conditioning. I (Mel) had pretty much used it up and needed the break.

I called a former colleague who is now a Chairman at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville hoping that we could get together tonight. He was at Cortland for a number of years before retiring to take on this new challenge. At this writing it appears that we will be able to get together for a bit.

It has been a good but tiring day.

Today’s ride: We rode 58.4 miles at an average speed of 9.3 mph. We were on the bike for 6 hours and 16 minutes. We are now in Florida!!! 1186 miles into our trip.

Debbie’s emotionometer: Jubilant! Goal 1 met: We bicycled from New York to Florida. Now for goal 2: Riding to Walt Disney World. Less than 200 miles to go (hopefully - maybe a bit more since we are not on the interstate.)