Slide Show of Trip

St. Augustine Beach

Atlantic ocean! Trip over... Relief!
Much to reflect upon.
Dad and Shell are due in town any time. It will be wonderful to see them.
I'm still too frazzled to add much...
Managed to get this picture to load.

The Lord is still with me ( evidenced in picture ) in spite of my foulness the past few days.

Thank you all for your prayers, blessings and kind words of encouragement.

St. Augustine Beach, Florida

107 miles today... 3078 miles total
I'm Done!
2 flats
Man, I was animal and machine! I wanted to finish... I took a couple of sticky short-cuts... But it was worth it... I feel exhausted and elated...
Passed thru gainsville and other towns...
One encounter with a hostile motorist that I may share later... Right now, i'm enjoying a guinness and waiting for a med rare steak....
Many, many pictures to share... Will upload pix and stories in next few weeks after I decompress.
i'm pretty rung-out after fighting cars and traffic for road space...
God Bless Us All!

Greenville to high springs florida

92 miles
I didn't think I had it in me to go this far today. I traversed a lot of park property and the suwahnee river... Quite honestly, I wasn't into the scenery. It was warmer today... More comfortable for riding today.
About 120 miles to go...

P.s. Pj, thanks for tuning in... ( how do I know you?)

Quincy to greenville florida

85 miles
Went through tallahassee... Very busy town...
LOts of hills.. I thought fla was supposed to be flat...
Very cold last two mornings... Upper 30's - uncomfortable for biking. Hard to steer when shivering. No hotels nearby - so camped behind a little church outside of town.
Generally, I like biking when little towns crop up every 10-20 miles.
About 225 miles to finish. Very anxious to be done. I hope it warms up a little. I'm pretty cozy in my tent, but getting out of sleeping bag in a.m. when it's cold is difficult.
I've been pushing myself a bit... feeling tired and cranky... Getting pretty good at 1000 yard stare when I take breaks.
Hopefully done in 3 more days... We'll see!

Caryville to quincy, fla

85 miles
Crossed the final time zone for trip... I'm now on eastern time...
Nice terrain... Sunny but cold... temp in 40-50's.
dad and shelley are going to be in st.augustine sun evening. I told them I may not be there until mon or tues.
Two flats today... Could have gone further...
Checked into another flea bag motel... Got dark and too cold to camp...
Goodnite!

Jeff Brauer memorial fractured elbow ride

Ride for the cure (for non-displaced, non-cominuted, radial head fractures )...
Let's stamp out elbow fractures in our lifetime!

I'd like to dedicate the hundred miles that i've ridden from pensacola to caryville florida to my brother in law jeff's fractured radius.

Money can be donated to a trust in his elbow's honor. Call (719) 481-0494 and give generously.
Proceeds will go towards paying for Jeff's rehab. Without rehab to learn to eat one handed, Jeff can only eat by bobbing for food like a chicken.
(i hope jeff isn't following my blog )

Great riding conditions today... Cool and overcast...
400 miles to go....

Dauphin Island Alabama to Milton Florida

80 awesome miles
Started with a ferry ride to costal highway. Spent all day riding along gulf coast in sunshine. Found my way into pensacola fla... And out in time for rush hour.
Rode twenty more miles to milton.
Hope to make it past defuniak springs tomorrow. If i'm lucky, i'll be done next mon.

Nowhere MS to Dauphin island Ala

75 miles today...
I chronicled the horrible drivers in backwood country mississippi and alabama with my last post. Once I got to Bayou la batre, things got much better.
The ride from there to dauphin island was a joy.
I am camped at a campground on the island which is very nice. I walked to the gulf shore nearby and watched the sunset... Very nice...
Tomorrow I take a ferry to the interconnected gulf islands that take me through pensacola fla. The roads are supposed to be very good with good shoulders and better traffic from here on out...
...according to the map sources anyway...
Yee-ha! It's nice to be back in civilization!

Southern Mississippi and Alabama

This section has some of the creepiest places i've seen on this trip. The scariest white people in the country...
None of the backroads in mississippi were marked. Fortunately, my maps were good. The route zig-zagged through some very isolated ''cool hand Luke'' paved backroads. The roads were lined with evergreens, swamps and occaisional trailers. Most of the cars/trucks were vintage primer-gray fords and chevys belching black oily smoke. Many had confederate flag decals or flags on the antennae. I passed many random trash heaps as well.
Because the roads weren't marked, at several intersections I had to ask passersby if this was the road to such and such... Most seemed put-out by a stranger asking them questions.
One primer gray truck with three rough looking guys stopped at an intersection for me. The driver had a bandana on his head and a tee-shirt with a silllohette of a pole dancer that said, '' support single mothers.''
He verified the road that I was on. His buddy on the passenger side looked just like charles manson. He hollered at the driver in a slurred voice, ''where's the pecker trying to go?'' the driver shot back, ''shut the fuck up you tool!''
There were no campgrounds or other options, so I road back an old logging trail and found the most discrete place I could find to set up camp... I was a bit uneasy...
No hassles in camping, except I woke up and my rear tire was flat. I fixed the flat and got going well enough...
It was sunday morning and I was astonished at the number of people who honked and harrassed me to get off the road... the most intolerant drivers i've encountered... Especially on the border with southern alabama.
Of note was a church bus that came up on my rear honked it's horn continuously until it pulled along side and the fat old fart driver with high and tight grey hair and horned rmmed glasses wagged his finger at me and mouthed, ''get off the road!''
There were six passengers. The slightest among them tipped the scales at 250. All were in their starchiest sunday best. All six peered their moon faces at me and stared at me as if I were the strangest thing that they had ever seen. they stared with preposterously large black eyes, magnified by coke bottle lenses in their black horn-rimmed glasses. Their lipless vacuole-like mouths dialated and constricted rapidly with every breath they took. They looked at me as if I was racing them to church so that I could steal their money and rape their women.
Sensing the threat that I posed, the driver sped off, driving God's chosen off to heaven.
Alas, I was left behind...

Bugalusa LA to Nowhere MS

82 miles...
Frustrating to navigate because mississippi does not like to put up signs marking secondary roads. Every turn was an uncertainty.
One of the roads with a bridge across the biloxi river was closed, so I had to find an alternate. Joy! Not one road was labeled..,
Tonight, i'm camped off of some logging trail. Tomorrow I should make it to alabama and the gulf... Should be more interesting...
Goodnight!

Room mate at Budget Inn

I decided to treat myself to a motel this evening. There is a dearth of possibilities for the next 100 miles or so.
The Budget Inn in Bugalusa la is right on the border with mississippi.
I rode 61 easy miles today from clinton la to bugalusa la ... and knocked off early. I checked into this here Budget inn, bought a couple beers and soaked in a nice hot bathtub.
While soaking and sipping blissfully, my little room mate showed up.... Cute little guy...
I may be in cell phone silence as I traverse mississippi toward alabama and the gulf...
That's all til now... I have to tell my room mate to turn his music down...

Morganza to clinton la

78 miles
Another day of nice weather. Passed some beautiful bayou country along mississippi. Took a ferry across mississippi river to st. Francisville. La. Nice old historic town north of baton rouge. Nice rolling country roads through forested country.
Travelled further east past cotton fields - endind today in clinton. passing thru many small sleepy towns with few or no sErvices.
Down to my last ten bucks... Still have some food. Tomorrow is payday, will probably check into botel in next day or two to clean up and restock. Getting rather smelly...