Well, rain was predicted, and I was not disappointed. It had rained a bit last night after I had arrived back from dinner, which I went to early, so avoided it. But as I reviewed the forecast for today and tomorrow, it did not look promising! Well, it's hard to make a tour without some rain, but in this case, severe thunderstorms were expected for a good part of the day, although I know how that goes. Often steady rain with unexpected outbursts . . . hopefully preceded by thunder so I have fair warning.
I decided to pass on the free breakfast at the hotel (except I grabbed some orange juice) and made my way across the highway to the Cypress Inn Restaurant, a throwback probably as old as the Putnam Lodge. The sky was not clear!
The Cypress Inn Restaurant in the distance, under threatening skies.
It started raining during breakfast, at times hard. In fact, I got a bit wet on the way back, enough to warrant drying my shorts out over the floor vent . . . at least enough to make them dry enough to pack. I had eaten early, so took my time packing, waiting for the rain to abate. Eventually it did, so I made my move! Timing is everything!
As you see above, US-98 has a passable shoulder. It's not great, but it will do. And as I have found on most roads of this sort, traffic really does switch lanes to pass you. Not all do, but most do, especially the tractor trailers and most people ("civvies") pulling trailers. The tractor trailers do so because of their intimidating size and drag effect. Ordinary people pulling trailers are also a menace because most of them don't seem to know the width of their load, and they also tend to swerve more.
So I did my best to be seen at a distance today. I wore my bright yellow rain jacket and mounted my helmet light with the rear-facing red taillight on flash. But I was only on US-98 for about two miles before turning off onto a very nice secondary road that sort of runs parallel to US-98 for about nine miles. It adds a bit to the distance, but not much. Plus, it's well paved, well drained, and has no traffic to speak of . . . two cars total passed me (as opposed to the dozens that would have passed me on US-98). And the rain was still holding off (mostly). There were moments of spitting rain, but I hardly recall it.
My entry point to CR-358 (County Road, not Country Road).
It didn't take long before I was riding pretty much where I wanted to ride, so I could avoid the puddles I did find. It was almost like being on a parkway with no traffic.
So back to US-98 for 32 miles, ugh. Well, besides being boring (long straightaways and curves on equally long tangents) and the threat of rain, you also have to deal with the road narrowing at bridges. And for some reason, Florida feels the need to add their version of a rumble strip to the shoulder, presumably to alert inattentive drivers.
Florida's version of a rumble strip. These seem to have been worked on, as there are two lines of reflectors in the pavement (one removed behind the new ones installed). Plus, there is something embedded in the white line, creating more bumps for your riding pleasure. I either went right to avoid them completely or was able to weave between the reflectors . . . your call.
By now, I could see a darkness coming at me, and when I started hearing thunder and felt the rain pick up, I decided to look for shelter. Shelter? There is none! Absolutely nothing so far . . . and then, lo and behold, Salem, FL. They even have a post office (looked closed) and several abandoned businesses along the way, including a convenience store/gas station with a large canopy. Under I went. Just in time too because it really opened up big time. I was quickly joined by several motorcyclists!
The life of a cyclist. How lucky can I be? All those miles of nothing, and then shelter when I need it! If I had left 20 minutes earlier or later this morning, I would have missed it!
OK, you can’t trust the weather forecast. Looking ahead on the radar, it did seem to be clearing, but in retrospect, that was wishful thinking. After about 20 minutes, it let up enough to move on. I was a little shy of 20 miles to my hotel in Perry. The couple was headed for Panama City, and the “cyclist” was headed for Pensacola. Good luck to both. I knuckled down and headed north. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) for me, the rain persisted and created enough vision problems that I couldn’t read my Garmin. So I just put the hammer down and just kept going. Not being able to read the Garmin kept my mind off the distance, so when I saw a sign that said "Hurdles in six miles," I knew I was about there. I stopped two miles further at the first convenience store I saw for Gatorade and some snacks. At that point I was 3.3 miles away. Good going!
I checked in close to 2:00 PM (fortunately my room was ready) and watched as it really opened up again. It pretty much rained like this till about 5:00 PM. That’s OK, get it out of your system while I clean up! By the time I was ready for dinner, it had stopped. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better!
