Day 50 - DeFuniak Springs to Marianna, FL

It rained off and on last night, so those who opted to sleep under the stars ended up on the floor of the Group building where we cooked and ate last night, and had breakfast this morning. The building had a toaster, which Rhodri promptly put to use this morning. He demonstrated the proper way to eat Marmite, a sticky, salty yeast extract popular with Brits (see photos). You toast bread, add butter, them smear Marmite liberally. Rhodri offered me a taste. I understand now why the food's marketing slogan is, "Love it or hate it." I'm glad we made Rhodri's day!
Rain was today's theme. It started drizzling again when we were just four miles from camp, and rained intermittently all morning and into the afternoon. At one point a large semi roared past, thoroughly drenching us. We just laughed! Couldn't get any wetter. Fortunately temps were moderate. After several raincoat changes, half of us just opted to just get wet. My Gore-tex rain jacket is excellent keeping me dry, but is hot to wear here.
Adventure Cycling routed us in a semi-circle around Lake DeFuniak, instead of keeping us on U.S. 90 straight through the town of DeFuniak. Why? So we would see fine turn-of-the-century houses. They included wooden one-story wrap-around porch "Cracker Houses" (this per Jerry, our resident Florida historian).
DeFuniak has an interesting history. It was founded to link two railroads and as a Southern Chautauqua. The emphasis on learning led to several colleges and the Florida Education Association being founded here. The town also has the state's oldest extant library, the Walton County Library.
As mentioned yesterday, Florida has hills. Riding into DeFuniak and past it to the town of Ponce de Leon, we went up and down respectable rollers. Rhodri remarked that he was told to expect flat land, sunshine, oranges and alligators in Florida. So far he has seen hills, rain, no orange trees and one alligator. That was (appropriately) in the Alligator Creek we crossed today.
Occasionally while we are riding, a surreal event occurs. Today as were were rolling along U.S. 90, we were passed by a recumbent trike enclosed in a bright yellow aerodynamic shell. It happened so fast I couldn't get a photo; the guy was doing 25+ mph. The rider said he was doing the Southern Tier. Bob Pedersen said the back tire looked like a 700 size, and the two front tires 20 inchers. He must have had mountain bike gearing to climb the Rockies.
Andre, Bob G, Ken and Linda stopped in Chipley at a nicely restored train depot. It was closed, but they enjoyed ice cream from a nearby store.
We rode 70 miles today, ending at a Comfort Inn outside Marianna by Interstate 10. The shower and pool were great!
Nine of us piled into the van late afternoon, for a cave tour at Florida Caverns State Park just north of Marianna. The tour took about 45 minutes, during which we walked a half mile. Interesting, standard cave formations (see the photos). The rule of thumb is it takes 100 years for one cubic inch of stalactite or stalagmite growth. So the cave has been in the making for millions of years. This cave was discovered in 1937, when a tree blew over, exposing an access hole. The park has 34 caves, and a nice collection of ferns and area trees. (None of the caves can be SCUBA dived; the famous underwater dive caves are elsewhere in Florida.)
Tomorrow we ride about 70 miles to Tallahassee, where we have a layover day. Our tents are still wet, so need to dry them and clean the bikes, which have sand and grit from the road. Forecast is for rain tomorrow.
Bruce