Day 26

111 miles on Martin Luther King day. Nice to have little traffic and almost no trucks on the road today. Made cycling quite pleasant. Personally I believe I am getting fitter. Maybe my imagination. Again it started off frigid with kick off temp of 31 degrees. Tom Lin’s last day with us and he was sure that he had never biked with temps this low. It warmed up fast and was perfect by midday. Should be getting to the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday. Three more push days to the finish. Alpha Team for MS.

1. Pia and Tom Lin flew back to California today. Both will be missed. Pia will stay connected as she has been handling this blog. Shout out to Pia.

2. After 26 days I must say today we had the best road conditions. Great shoulder and pavement pretty much all the way. Very little trash on the road. Huge shout out to Northern Florida.

3. Hotel breakfast and a very interesting place for lunch. The Lunch Box was a one woman show and the only game in town. The proprietor deserves kudos for working hard and delivering a decent product. I was also impressed with the effort she made to be careful of contaminating her rubber gloves especially as it related to handling money. All too often I experience F/B people either disregarding this concern or constantly changing gloves. Not this gal. Good for her.

4. The town called Ponce De Leon was on our route. I had several questions before I arrived and while I was there. I wondered if my AARP card would work there or would I be too young? Was that a common first name? Did this spiral staircase actually lead somewhere once? And what would Ponce think about Main Street in his namesake town being bordered up except for the Lunch Box? I’m sure I will never get these answers.

5. Tuesday looks like more seasonable weather. Back to bike shorts. Good news.

7. Hilly again today. Nearly 4000 feet of climbing. I would not have expected that in Florida.

8. Great response to my donation plea from yesterday. Thanks to all those who reached down and helped our cause for MS. Means a lot.