Day 11 – Screams and Stings
Friday, October 31st
Milton, FL to Marianna, FL
Our motel in Milton rents rooms by the day, week or month, so it has some semi-permanent guests who are more like tenants. The manager is apparently very fond of Halloween, so she has the whole lounge decorated and is holding a costume contest for the long-term guests. While checking out this morning around 8:30, a woman who was curious about our bikes came up to talk to us. Dressed as a crazy old lady – curlers, robe, slippers, facial masque, newspaper, cane, false teeth – she really knew how to play the part. She walked by and stopped to look at the bikes, then left to go to her room, got about 15 steps away and came back to say some more, then headed to the lounge, then came back and talked to us again, then headed for her room, made it about 9 steps, whirled around to come back to tell us something else, left for her room again, came back again, went to the lounge, etc. This went on for a solid five minutes and we found out a little more about her each time. She was pretty excited about the contest and was determined to win because there was a $20 prize. We wished her luck and left before she could come back again.
Another beautiful morning greeted us as we made our way out of Milton. We tried to take the Blackwater Heritage Trail which is a paved path meant for hikers, bikers, skaters, etc., but the trail cut right through several city streets and gave right-of-way to each one. For the first nine blocks or so, we had a stop sign at each block. Since we were averaging well under 10 mph this way, we exited the trail and took the Munson Hwy for some time. Munson Hwy was nice, but when we turned off on Indian Ford Rd, the traffic dropped to nothing, leaving us with the trees. What a beautiful ride! With no cars around, we came very close to several vultures – some scavenging and others riding air currents in the area. They’re such huge, interesting birds up close! When Indian Ford turned into Bob Pitts Rd, the scenery only got prettier, but we soon turned off onto Bryant Bridge Rd, which took us over an odd bridge of metal grate with inset railroad ties running the length of the bridge. This took us to Johns Rd which we rode into Holt. Needing to pee, we pulled off at a Chevron station and found out that the catfish lunch special was almost ready.
My knees were hurting again today, so I had been using the motor a lot. While waiting on the catfish, we charged the batteries and I sat at a picnic table to check our route. The gas station was surprisingly busy for being one of two stations in such a small town. People pulled up to refuel or get lunch, and asked us about the bikes in the meanwhile. Around 11am, two guys in a truck rolled into the station. One, dressed as a skeleton filled the tank as the other, dressed as the Joker went in and came out with a 24-pack of beer. Floridians must be pretty serious about Halloween because they sure get an early start. I almost asked the guy dressed as the Joker to take a picture with my tiny plastic Joker, but wasn’t quick enough. Once they had their beer and their gas, they were gone.
We took Hwy 90 out of Holt and were amazed at what a nice road it was. This is the first long stretch of 90 we’ve seen in good shape. Though the road was wonderful, we still had to fight a headwind and several long hills (one took me six minutes to climb WITH the help of the motor). While doing this, we noticed that on today’s ride we passed more police cars than usual. We started counting after this struck us, and counted 13 cars, 8 of which were state patrol cars, 3 county sheriff cars and 2 local police cars.90 runs alongside the train tracks, so when a train came our way we gestured and were elated he blew the train horn for us. We had a lot of loud noises thrown at us, but this was the first one we asked for. We had more people yell at us yesterday and today than the whole rest of the trip:
Turning onto the Gulf Coast Hwy, a guy in a truck yelled at me, then scooted up to Dad and yelled the same thing at him. We think he said “Get off the road!” but with no sidewalk or shoulder there was no where to go. While we were in Pace, a lady getting ready to merge from the chicken lane yelled “Be careful!” at us. Then, coming into Milton, a young guy in a blue SVU who was waiting to turn saw us and yelled for me to pop a wheelie.
Today, in one of the small towns, a man in a truck exclaimed “What the F—?!”, a high school boy in the back of his friend’s car gave us a “Yeeeeeeeee!” and a pedestrian lady, as we passed asked “You like that?!” In the town before Marianna, we passed a group of four girls who pointed and screamed when they saw Dad, then pointed and screamed again as I rode up after him.
On one of the long stretches between towns, I was singing showtunes (from Oliver! for those of you who are wondering) to keep myself awake when I noticed Dad, up ahead, waving one arm, then the other, looking crazy. It took me a minute to realize we had rolled over 1,000 miles for the trip! I revved the motor and pedalled hard to catch him, congratulated him and celebrated with some arm waving of my own. My official odometer reading for the trip, as of tonight: 1048.2!
Needing another stop, we pulled into a gas station to stretch and pee and decided to recharge the batteries again. As I got off the bike, I felt a sting just under my glove on my ringer finger. I thought it was a fire ant, so I squished it, dusted off the debris and went on my way. But as the pain grew much worse than an ant bite, I took a closer look and noticed my finger swelling around a tiny red stinger. Dad got a pair of tweezers so I could pull it out, but my finger continued to swell and the tendons in my hand began to hurt. The gas station had Benadryl, but with another 35 miles to go before we reached our destination for the night, I didn’t want to take something that would put me to sleep on the bike. I cleaned the area, took half a Reeses Whips bar, two peanut butter crackers and some Dr, Pepper, then after the batteries had a chance to recharge, rode on.
We made it to our motel in Marianna as the sun was setting, settled into our room, then walked to the local grocery store to get stuff for dinner. We passed a church that was having a big fall celebration, but that was all the evidence we saw of Halloween.
Today’s Quick Stats:
Bike Distance (mi) Average Speed (mph)
MiniWini 118.97 17.6
Sti(ck/g) 118.79 17.5
Stampedes: 2
Roadside Pees: 1