Day 37 - Sunday, December 28

Description: Finished the 74 mile ride today in Quincy Florida. Tomorrow will be a similar distance ride to Monticello which is a small place.

I woke up at 5:45 to get an early start and get on the road before the predicted rain hits. Nobody likes to start riding in rain. The Holiday Inn Express had a great breakfast and I enjoyed scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy, OJ, and coffee. For desert, I had a hot cinnamon swirl which my grandmother would have loved. Everyone else pounded the breakfast bar as well. Then we saw Santa in the lobby and had to have a group picture. I asked him to hold off on the rain today which he did but forgot to ask him to have a talk with the wind gods as we fought the winds once again. After breakfast, we dispatched Sherpa Kevin to our targeted lunch destination of Chattahoochee which was 50 miles out. The rest of us shoved off around 7:30 with major rain clouds just over our back. It had rained earlier and we decided to tuck in behind the cloud and draft it across the State. The plan worked as we did not get a drop all day. We followed rt 90 again for most of the day which has an awesome shoulder. We rode through Cottondale and then Marianna which had a really cool downtown with big beautiful homes and city buildings. Coming out of Cottondale, Theresa picked up some road debris and flatted out - crap. Once fixed, we rode through Blue Springs which is known for cave diving in their clear springs. We thought of Ron and Tracy when we rode past those wacky dive signs. Shortly after the springs, Kevin caught up with us after riding 20 miles back from Chattahoochee. Theresa and I had a very aggressive pace all morning and were ready to back down some so that Kevin could keep up. In the mean time, Carl was enjoying the day and doing some mushroom hunting. He rode a few miles behind us but never let us get out too far. He is a much stronger rider than he claims to be and he is not fooling us with his laid back style. Just after passing the sign for Two Egg Florida (can you believe there is a town called this?), we stopped for a quick bio break in Grand Ridge. While in the gas station, an older good ole boy local asked me where I have ridden from. I said San Diego and he just chuckled. Then he quickly snapped back that there was a mental institution just down the road for me. We all laughed and enjoyed the conversation with this crusty guy who moves houses for a living. Back on the bikes again, we breezed the final 11 miles into Chattahoochee for lunch and were punished with a major 7+ percent climb into town. This place was a real disappointment and we decided to load Theresa's bike on the van, bag lunch, and finish our final 25 miles to Quincy. Just out of town, we passed a sign for Norway. Wow did we make a bad turn again! First Bagdad and now Norway. We were getting tired (at least kevin was) so we put our heads down and hammered home. At one point, we almost got taken out by 2 nasty dogs - yikes! I had never seen Kevin move so fast. Carl finished a half hour behind us and has some awesome mushroom pictures from his ride. He was pumped. Another observation that I have is that every final destination has been guarded by big hills and strong head winds. I think they are trying to keep biker gangs out! At the hotel, we snacked, cleaned up and then went to a Wal-Mart for some microwave chow, salad, cream horns, and ice cream. We ate in Kevin and Theresa's room and watched TV. Everyone was real tired, except for Theresa and me so it was an early lights out.

Weather: The forecast had a good chance of rain and thunder storms all day. We got behind one wave of showers that hit just before breakfast and drafted them all day. Not a drop of rain today as a second line of clouds never caught us. The temps were pleasant and the humidity was not that bad. The overcast skies with some sun was perfect for riding.

Performance Metrics:

Miles: 74 Trip: 2,663
Total travel time: 7:30 Trip: 277:00
Bike Riding time: 6:18 Trip: 215:38
Avg speed: 14.80 Trip: 12.82
Max speed: 29.54 Trip: 41.87
Total ascent (ft): 1,582 Trip: 59,367
Avg pedal RPMs: 89 Trip: 86
Avg heart rate: 100 Trip: 109
Max heart rate: 144 Trip: 195
Calories burned: 5,221 Trip: 160,156

Weather Statistics:

High temp: 74 Trip: 77
Low temp: 62 Trip: 27
Hours of rain: 0 Trip: 13:30
Hours of snow: 0 Trip: 0
Total days of rain/snow: 3
Wind factor: hurt - in the face most of day
Total good wind days: 11
Total bad wind days: 25

Misc. Stats:

Flat tires: 0 Trip: 11 (Theresa had a flat today)
Mechanical failures: 0
Hotel or camping today: hotel - Parkway Inn
Total hotel nights: 35
Total camping nights: 2
Cups of coffee: 2 Trip: 144
Pints: 3 Trip: 71

Mood rating (1-10): 10 - I beat the rain today and had a great ride. I am bearing down on my Friday completion. Only 5 days of riding left :-(

OK ESN:0-7458562

This is Steve and I am checking in to let everyone know that I have finished my ride for the day safe and sound.
ESN:0-7458562
Latitude:30.5357
Longitude:-84.5955
Nearest Location: Pat Thomas Pkwy, , FL, US
Distance: 0 km(s)
Time:12/28/2008 12:07:38 (US/Pacific)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=30.5357,-84.5955&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Just 2 miles to a good omlette.

Breakfast in Chipley with Santa

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