cross country ride Marianna to Quincy, FL

Pleasant country riding early in the morning ahead of the heat and bugs

the hydro electric dam on Lake Seminole at the Chattahoochee River on the staate line with Georgia

the old highway bridge over the Chattahoochee River in Florida




How our bikes and our bodies are beginning to feel

Our start today, scheduled at 7:45 to give us a bit more recovery time after yesterday’s long, hot and humid ride, was delayed by a heavy fog caused by the humidity equaling the dew point. By 8:30 it had cleared enough that we could finally get on the road. As we rode through the back roads to get back on route 90 briefly, we passed several Baptist Churches with pithy sayings. These included; “God is real. You are not God”, and “ironing out problems without Jesus Christ puts wrinkles on your face. We also passed a restaurant called “Loaves and Fishes, a Christian family restaurant.” You know you’re in the Bible Belt when…..

The ride was a lovely meander along two lane country roads, through large areas of mixed hardwood and pine forests, and past large farms with a variety of crops including a grass or hay crop that had just been cut, and fields plowed and ready to plant with potatoes, tomatoes, some tobacco and some cotton. One of the guys we talked to at the gas station mentioned that Florida actually grew more potatoes than Florida. That was a revelation.

Along parts of the road, the trees had actually grown up and met overhead, which made for some cool and shady riding on the first part of the day. Later on, as the day grew hotter, we were wishing for more of those lovely tree allees.
Like New Mexico, Georgia actually cuts into the top part of Florida west of Tallahassee, so we came very close to the Georgia border as we crossed over the Chattahoochee river as it came over the dam to Lake Seminole. From the new highway bridge you could see the old two lane highway on an old iron span bridge on one side and an equally old looking spillway/dam on the other. The new highway bridge was followed by yet another climb, who knew Florida had so many hills?, into the town of Chattahoochee. We stopped at a little eatery called :the Old Station: located on the main street in a defunct gas station. It was hosted by a tall and extremely gracious black lady who seemed a bit bemused when we asked her if she had root beer or coca cola floats. We found some canned Pepsi in the cooler and bought a couple of scoops of ice cream and built our own in cups that she supplied while she watched fascinated. In between times a lot of customers, all black, came in and mostly stared although they were all too polite to comment on the two white women in the corner sipping pepsi and slurping ice cream. When I said “thank you ma’am “ as I left, she replied “child it has been my pleasure: in a slow and melodious drawl.

Towards the end of the ride we passed through the town of Norway and started joking about having misread the cue sheet again . Shortly after that there was actually a lot of confusion about what the cue sheet said as opposed to what it actually meant. We turned right when we should have gone straight and ended up doing a bit of extra credit miles before we got back on track to the Quincy town square.

The town square was built on the traditional style with the imposing Victorian county courthouse sitting in the middle of a park like grass area with a shop lined road encircling it. We spotted bikes outside of a southern all you can eat grill called “Divine Grace” and outside of an espresso and art café called “Miss Helen’s” so we stuck our heads into each to talk to fellow bikers and find out what each one had to offer, and then settled on “Miss Helen’s” for chicken salad sandwiches and lattes. By the time we got outside it was dead heat of the day and so we churned out the last few miles to the hotel and have been huddling in the ac ever since.

For the last few days, my rear tire has been rubbing unevenly against the brakes and annoying me. As I was out cleaning and lubing my bike in the hot sun prior to checking in and taking it upstairs, I mentioned the problem to Janet. Unfazed, she whipped out her little park tool kit, located the rub spot, tightened two spokes and loosened two spokes and brought the wheel back to almost true. As she worked, she carefully explained what she was doing and why and what the logic was to which spokes to tighten and which to loosen so now I feel fairly confident that I could do it myself at least to a “safe to get me home to a bike shop” stage on my own. I don’t really want to be a bike mechanic for other people’s bikes, but I do enjoy being able to adjust and tweak my own bike, which is something we have all become fairly conversant with on this trip.

Today’s Stats
Distance 55 miles
Ride time 4:25
Speed 12.8 mph