Day 47 and 48, Moving through north Florida

April 22, Wednesday  Dave and Loren 85 miles
Our route continues to be on 90 with nice shoulders. The surprise was how hilly it became during the afternoon. Tallahassee was especially hilly. Bubba routed us through the city on a zigzag path to avoid the worst of the traffic. The busy roads that we did have to take had bike paths. Now that the weather has cleared up it gets quite hot in the afternoon; it was 86. I found myself getting a little woozy and I realized that I had not been drinking enough. I forced myself to drink a full bottle of water and a Gatorade and that got me to the motel. It was great to just step into the shower rather than having to walk over to a shower house and try to keep clean cLothes dry and dirty clothes together while trying to dry off and get dressed standing on one leg. Why? Invariably there isn't a chair or bench to put clothes on and the water jets out into the changing area (if there is one)which leaves the floor all wet. That's problematic when trying to put pants on. Ah, but I'll miss it when it's done...

April 23, Thursday, Dave and Loren 48 miles.
Today was nice and short. We stopped in Greenville which is Ray Charles birthplace. It has a nice bronze statue of him so we all had our pictures taken there. Our destination town has a nice community college where we are overnighting in the gym. Bubba had a woman who knew Ray Charles come and talk about his early life, but also how she put herself through college and got a Master's degree while raising 5 children. Determination. She advised us to use the same determination to get up the hills!
Tomorrow a 77 mile route to High Springs and then a rest day at O'Leno Sate Park. We only have three more biking days left!

A welcoming sign at a bakery rest stop.

A cypress swamp at Lake Miccosukee.

We stopped at the Madison Post Office which has original woodwork. One patron stopped to talk to us and said the mural was somewhat controversial but they left it because it is historical.

The Florida and have been so friendly and talkative, maybe more than any other state we've been through. They all say "stay safe".

Even the fast guys get sleepy. "Rocket man" Jeff.

Lots of big old live oak trees and Spanish moss. The little town of Monticello.

Our last night in a tent!

We had a singer and Karaoke night Last night under the stars. Nice to listen to music outdoors. The rainy weather has finally moved away.
Our ride today was again on U.S.90. The road is smooth with great shoulders. The nice surface doesn't make for an interesting blog but it sure makes great riding. At lunch today in the little town of Chipley I saw a couple of DOT workers and told them how much I liked the road especially compared to the same road in Texas. Later we drove by the DOT offices. I suppose they would have thought me weird if I had gone in and told them how much I like the smooth shoulder but it would be nice to tell the decision makers how much we appreciate the added expenses that these type of roads take. The Florida drivers seem mostly respectful although the other day I had a twenty-something move in on me until I shouted at her. Dave said that he could see that she was texting.
Another rider posted his GPS reading that we have done 2600 miles. I figure I may have missed about 600 miles nursing my leg. I haven't figured it out exactly and my odometer seems to be overstating our miles each day but we've probably both ridden 2000 miles.
We've had better luck with dogs recently. No riders have had close encounters like we did in LA and AL. I have started wearing a whistle around my neck. My close encounter with a dog happened while I was leaving the RV park this morning. A woman had a schnauzer on a retractable leash which ran at me. She cooed to him "oh come here sweetie" while the thing was snarling at my ankles and she didn't use the stop button on the leash to keep him close to her. But I outran it and didn't look back to see if she was pulled off her feet by him. I have never met a schnauzer that was pleasant even though I usually think there are no bad dogs, just bad owners.
We rode through a couple of areas with overflowing rivers. Luckily a high pressure system has come in, lessening the humidity dramatically. Unfortunately it has led to snow at home but we sure appreciate it. It was actually chilly last night and we both pulled out our down sleeping bags.
Well, heading to bed. Tomorrow we lose an hour about halfway through the route to Tallahassee. We will be on Eastern time again. We have been in the Central time zone since Van Horn TX.

The oldest continuously operating library in FL in Defuniak Springs.

The rivers are overflowing.

US 90 is named after a former legislator who campaigned by walking from Key West to Pensacola.