Our first century ride

September 8, 2016

No, we didn't ride 100 miles today. Are you crazy? But this was our 100th day on this ride, so we are centurions.

September is definitely more comfortable for riding than August, at least in the deep south. Today was another beautiful morning for riding. We forced ourselves to keep to our standard 7:30 start time, even though that means getting up in the dark in our new time zone. I thought this was supposed to be a vacation...

We had 3 variations on today's route to choose from, ranging from about 55 miles to a bit over 70. We went with a route somewhere in the middle that would take us to Wakulla Springs state park and take in a short bike trail to St Marks.

There's a manatee in this picture, she just happens to be relaxing under water at this moment.

We were not sure if the rail trail to St Marks would be ridable or not. St Marks is where the hurricane made landfall last week and the trail goes through a forest. There must be a very active group of volunteers supporting the trail. The few trees that had fallen on the trail had been cleared with chainsaws, and many many smaller branches had been removed. Even the twigs and leaves had been cleared and the path was in great shape. Thanks, whoever did this work, your efforts are much appreciated.

St Marks historic railroad state trail. We were amazed it had been cleaned up so quickly.

End of the trail. St Marks itself seemed to have little damage.

September may be more comfortable than August, but this is still Florida. The afternoon started to heat up. After spending the morning sightseeing at Wakulla Springs and enjoying the bike trail, we still had about 40 miles to cover on US 98.

We made a new friend at a convenience store on US 98.

We are back on Florida roads where I would normally never stop to take a picture. Nobody thinks to take a picture of their own backyard, but since we have been taking pictures of other people's backyards for the last 3 months, I took a few pictures along US 98.

It was warm enough for the cows to seek out shade.

If you look closely you can tell these are Florida cows.

First Florida citrus trees we have seen. We'll see plenty more orange trees before we get home.

We must be staying at a high class hotel in Perry. They are serving free snacks, beer and wine. That means I need to wrap this up now!

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0