Bob Plant unveiled a different riding shirt today, with a U.S. Navy logo (see photo). I asked if we needed to salute when he passed?
Melinda, Pat, Fairlie and a fourth person, our Gainesville Cycling Club hosts, rolled in at 7:30am to lead us through town. They have been very gracious; we all appreciated their hospitality. They led us through parts of the University of Florida campus, including a double helix bike path bridge by the School of Medicine (see photo). This was a homecoming of sorts for me, as I developed software for the University of Florida Libraries in the 1980's. The state of Florida made very good use of the software, creating a state-wide group to administer the code for UF, FSU, and other state universities and community colleges. In this vein I made several business trips to Gainesville, so it was fun to be back.
At the southeast corner of Gainesville, we picked up the 16-mile Gainesville-Hawthorn State Trail, a biking / walking / jogging path. Partly rail-to-trail, the path is excellent, with good surface and wide enough to comfortably handle traffic in both directions. It was fun to wind around after days of riding straight roads.
Part way into the Trail, out hosts took us on a detour to see alligators. Fairlie is a docent at the Lochloosa Wildlife Management Area. It contains a lake with BIG alligators and (today) a great blue heron (see photo).
At last night's map meeting, Mitch and Julianne held another quiz. Carol won a small alligator pet for an answer, so it now rides on her trunk bag (see photo). I won a yo-yo; not quite the same cachet!
We left the trail at Hawthorn, and rode north to Melrose. There we stopped at Chiappini's. It's a gas station with an attendant, a bar, a grocery store, a bait shop, ... you get the idea. We enjoyed sitting in the sun on the picnic tables out back. Yes, the sun! It finally made an appearance, with high fluffy clouds and blue sky. Thanks to the bicycling gods for making our last full day of riding a delight. Passing a field of flowers, you just had to stop and take in the view (see photo).
Ken, Linda, Rhodri and Flynn stopped at the Tangled Oaks Vineyard and Winery in Grandin. They had a festival of local crafts, with booths set up by the road. Rhodri chatted up the owners and bought a bottle to sample later.
As I was riding along route 100, a man with a snappy blue Mustang was standing by the side of the road. He asked me if I was riding the Southern Tier. Now you aren't asked that very often. So I stopped and said yes. Turns out Ron, the Mustang owner, worked with Terry at Dow, has been following the blog, and was watching for Terry to ride by. Indeed, a few minutes later Terry did ride by! See the photo of Ron and Terry at the motel.
We are at a Quality Inn right on the St. John's River in Palatka. The view from our rooms is great (see photo). Tonight is our end-of-trip dinner. Jerry lined up a restaurant that should be fun. I'll post this now. Tomorrow is a short day (40 miles?) to St. Augustine. Jerry and I did a separate blog post regarding the time and place of the ceremonial front tire dip.
Bruce
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