Day 30 – The “F” Word

Wednesday, November 19th

Perry, FL to Tallahassee, FL

Dad: “What’s wrong?”
Me: “I think my rear tire is flat.”

This conversation happened three times on the road today.  Luckily, the third time was a false alarm (we hit some cross winds that made it feel like I was sliding on a flat).

Today we planned as an easy day.  We hoped to make it to Quincy so we could visit our friends at Bell & Bates and eat dinner at Divine Grace, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

When we woke up around 6 this morning in Perry it was below freezing – around 27 F, I think.  We had breakfast then waited around, packing and watching TV.  Though it was still cold at 10, we knew we couldn’t wait any longer.  We stopped to get some better gloves for me and, wanting to get on the road, picked up the first pair we found that were moderately insulated and fit approximately.  Three dollars got me these rubberized Work ‘n More gloves:

So now the ensemble is: brown shoes, black socks, magenta tights, white shirt, green bandanna, blue gloves, black neck warmer and blue helmet.  I told Dad my kindergarten teacher would be proud.

We rolled over good roads and didn’t have to fight a constant headwind today (thank goodness!), but we still kept our speed down and took it easy, wanting to give our joints the chance to rest.

At a station just outside of Tallahassee, we met up with Andy from ForsenUSA as he was heading to Orlando.  He showed us some new batteries and we talked business opportunities.  By the time we went our separate ways, we had a little over an hour of daylight remaining.  Once near downtown Tallahassee, instead of pushing through rush hour traffic to exit the city and reach Quincy, we decided to call it a day.  We ate dinner in a strip mall near our motel, passed up the chance to have a cup of joe at Bad Ass Coffee, then joked around in a Big Lots! dreaming of ways to deter cars from driving too close to us.

Today’s Quick Stats:

Bike              Distance (mi)    Average Speed (mph)     Trip Odometer

MiniWini            50.48                   16.8                           1968.5

Sti(ck/g)           50.68                   16.9                              –

Stampedes: 2

Roadside Pees: 2