Beautiful countryside and Chattahoochee too

Sunshine, green fields, spring flowers and a great ride

      Today I bicycled from Marianna to Quincy FL, a total of 54 miles with lunch at the end in Quincy in a Subway store run by black people and frequented by both black and white people, which is a rare occurrence in Boulder CO but quite normal in the Florida Panhandle.
      I was drinking some water from my waterbottle after getting to the top of a steep hill when a young black man, about 20 I'd say, stopped beside me on his mountain bike and asked me what I was doing. So I told him I was bicycling across the country - not sure he believed me! - and pointed back to the other riders at the bottom of the hill. He pointed to my odometer and asked me what it was. I said it showed how many miles I'd ridden and he should get one for his bike. He nodded. He was wearing a T-Shirt that said "Vote for Lawson" so I asked if Lawson was a Democrat and he said yes, and pointed out that it said "for the Democrats" underneath. He said he rode his bike around all day - "That's what I do." I said that was why he was in such good shape. He nodded and rode off. Bicycles make friends of us all. The Reddoch Road neighborhood which I was riding through had mostly black people sitting outside in the yard or talking together, or bicycling, or driving cars. This is Florida not Colorado, with its palm trees, green grass and spring green leaves opening on the tall Spanish moss-hung trees.
        We went through Sneads, a small town, and then went over a big curving bridge that replaced the bridge that stopped halfway across the river, which I thought was the Chattahoochee but apparently was not though it was in the town of Chattahoochee - great name - and it was called the Victory Bridge. This correction comes courtesy of Dolly who actually rides back doing extra miles to check her facts - I love it.
       At the next Sag stop, I had to change my watch and move it forward an hour because we are  now on Eastern Daylight Savings Time and two hours ahead of Colorado, and three hours ahead of Portland, Oregon, the two places I keep in touch with regularly.
      It was a perfect sunny blue sky 70 degree day with a light wind to keep me cool and rolling hills and dales along roads edged with fields and gardens and houses and trees casting shadows over the roads which were mostly smooth and wonderful to ride. There was very little traffic though I accidently video taped my stop on the bridge and there is the sight and sounds of two huge trucks going by, which I am so used to now I hardly noticed them. I don't know how to transfer them to Facebook or my blog but I'll try later.
     I rode through the quiet town of Gretna, which had preserved a rambling old building with two steep staircases up the front to the second floor, with a sign announcing: "First Gretna School House." I could just imagine the rows of boys on the left and girls on the right going up and down the stairs each day as they went to their classrooms. There were some other older buildings and newer houses and the town had an interesting feeling of history preserved and not forgotten.
     As I came into Quincy, I remembered I had to eat lunch because the Holiday Inn Express was way outside the shopping area. I saw some bikes outside the Subway and decided to eat there, and not join the Burger King group who wanted icecream. I had a great sandwich and cookie with Linda S. and Ann, and we gossiped about the way things were going and what we were going to do next with our riding and what we liked to eat. We talk about food A Lot because we are hungry because we are doing so much exercise. Then we rode together into Quincy, with Linda S. in front, me in the middle and Ann bringing up the rear, which was a big honor for me because these are two of the Hotshot Wild Wolves Zippedeedoodah Speedy Gonzales Riders, and I could keep up with them for the 2.5 miles to the hotel. Wow! I loved it as we swung across the highway to take the left turn on to Spooner Road and into the Holiday Inn Express.
     The Inn provides nice rooms, an excellent pool where I swam and sunbathed, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies every now and then and constant hot coffee. We had a great Linda dinner picnic outside of pasta, salmon and salad in the parking lot, got our Cue Sheets for tomorrow, and are now ready for another day of riding to Crawfordville, where we'll have a day off.
Schedule: Saturday & Sunday in Crawfordville, Monday to Perry, Tuesday to High Springs, Wednesday to Palatka. On Thursday we have our procession with a police escort into St. Augustine for the Final Picnic at a park at 11 a.m. AND in the evening we have our Final Banquet.
Friday: Our bikes go to Jacksonville FL to be shipped home, and it's all over. Amazing to realize that and to think of going home, after such an extraordinary adventure to celebrate my 75th birthday year.