Day Forty Two | April 10, 2021

Madison to High Springs, FL

We began the day excited that we only have three more days! We were delighted to start riding without rain, but were not so delighted to have a full day of 14+mph headwinds. Riding against the wind makes the ride feel uphill. Fortunately, we had few real hills.
We love getting on the bike in the morning.

Today we saw our second railway repair operation. There must have been ten specialized machines for removing spikes, old ties and then replacing the ties and hammering new spikes in.

Yesterday and today, the roadside flowers have been bright pink – from coral to fuchsia. I think they are phlox.

We beat the thunderstorm to High Springs by 5 minutes! Greeting us there were Jeanna and Kerry Smith with whom we rode around northern Florida in 2019!! They are starting their 6,000-mile, 5-month journey by coming to St. Augustine with our group. You can follow them at www.cycleblaze.com/journals/twofar2021.

The thunderstorm caused a power outage at the motel, so we went and had a fabulous dinner at The Great Outdoors (the dinners compensate for the 1-star motels!) with Jeanna and Kerry joining us and Sue and Neil (friends of Dennis’ who rode the Southern Tier with him three years ago).

Power was back on when we returned from dinner!