It's Getting Real...Challenging

After leaving Ichetucknee Springs, we cycled for several miles of what we call cycling Nirvana~ beautiful countryside, little traffic, gently rolling terrain. We knew we had a big day ahead of us, 80+ miles, but we were feeling strong and confident.

But of course, all good things come to an end. We haven’t talked about the heat in Florida because everyone knows it’s hot... intensely hot. Today was no different. What we weren’t necessarily prepared for was how hilly parts of Florida are (the parts we’re cycling through), and how much traffic there is!  The other Adventure Cycling routes we’ve used have routed us on lightly traveled roads predominantly. We have never cycled in so much  traffic~hostile traffic. 

So this was the bulk of our day, hot, hilly, lots of traffic. Thank goodness we came upon the Suwannee River State Park. We were able to rest and have a snack while enjoying the peaceful, serenely river scene, a stark contrast to the past several miles.

I almost forgot- we had our first rain today. A big black cloud was bearing down on us, and the temperature dropped significantly, so we stopped and quickly put on our rain gear. Shoe covers, jacket, rain pants. This took about 15 minutes, but we beat the rain, and off we went. The rain was coming down for about 10 minutes, then it was back to hot and steamy. Another several minutes were spent taking all the gear off and putting it away. 

We didn’t reach our destination, Greenville until 9:30pm. Our B and B host convinced us to upgrade to the “Honeymoon Suite” which had a hot tub.

Well, it had a tub. It was neither hot, nor did it even hold water enough to run the jets. 

The best part of cycling in the dark was watching a distant storm roll in with lightening illuminating the dark clouds.

Total cycling miles:  87

Total hiking miles:  4