Dec. 1, Tallahassee, Florida
After a good night’s sleep in Chipley, I got an early start for a two day ride into Tallahassee. Generally, I try to ride 60 miles when I bike, but that would have left me with less than 30 miles for the final day. In other words, as long as I got in at least 40 miles, I could stop whenever I felt like it. That proved to be the town of Chattahoochee. I’ve been following a cycle route suggested by Adventure Cycling–formerly known as “Bike Centennial.” They still print paper maps and list things like campgrounds. The map for this section said that there were two different campgrounds in Chattahoochee, so I decided to spend the night there. The campground I chose is located along the east bank of the Apalachicola River and is quite nice: showers, bathrooms and electricity in the tent sites. If there was a charge for staying there, I never figured out how to pay it.
A view from the bridge crossing the Apalachicola River. I camped in the trees on the other side.
I am still amazed how hilly and forestry northern Florida is! Once you get off the main roads, it is really quite sparsely populated.
Forests occasionally giving way to farmland.
I only had 35 miles to get into Tallahassee and got on the road at about 8:30 AM. But this ride seemed to take forever. It rained on and off the entire day and I spent a lot of time stopping to put on/take off a rain coat. In general, I try to stay dry, to beat down the cumulative effects of multiple days of rain. In this case, however, I should have just let myself get soaked, since I was planning to stay with some friends in Tallahassee.
When I arrived into town, my new Friend, Fred Dietrich rode out to meet me and ride the last few miles with me to his house.
Fred Dietrich
I met Fred and his wife Patti, briefly at a train station in Passau, Germany while receiving a pound of Ozo’s coffee from a different friend, Paul Caldwell (See the post from Sept. 16th). I am going to stay a few days with Fred and Patti while I figure out what to do. Fred, by the way, is the world’s expert at catching and banding humming birds for scientific purposes. Yes–he really puts a leg tag on humming birds! I helped him fish for birds today (I didn’t catch any). Fred says that they have actually monitored hummingbirds migrating to Florida from Alaska!
Fishing for hummingbirds (fishing, not catching).
I want to thank all of you for your outpouring of support after my previous post. Sometimes, you just have to say what you are feeling. Incidentally, I should add that I am leaning quite heavily towards taking the New Zealand option, followed by a possible Australia trek after it cools off a bit. It just makes the most sense. But I will let you know in a few days. And, don’t forget Cuba towards the end of March! You are all invited to do that ride with me. Cuba will not be a fully loaded tour, and we will stay in Hotels or Air BNB’s.
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Pat and Fred are the BEST! So glad you enjoyed some much needed R & R with them.
Wow! It sounds like you have a good plan! I do pray that God will continue us to bless you with kind people along the way, as well as a riding partner. Love you!