Long Haul - Day 43 (9/28/21) Palm Coast to Titusville, FL 79.4 miles.
One of the beauties of this trip is that in the morning we have a plan but you just never know how the day will unfold. Today was a good day but sometimes you just don't know what a day will bring.
We left as soon as we could which was a little later as the days are getting shorter. Out first 25 miles and the last 5 were on a path or sidewalk. It was a great way to begin and end the day. I had picked an ending destination which was 79 miles away but I figured out how to cut off about 10 miles. I was feeling like a champ. We arrived at the motel feeling good about arriving in good time only to see a sign that the office was closed till 4:00. Of course we didn’t know if they had a room or if they were all taken. So I checked out the map and saw there was a low rated motel about 4 miles ahead and the next would be an additional 7 miles. I asked Dana what she wanted to do and she said let’s go, we can do it. I told you she is a bad ass. So we did. We ended up finishing at 79 miles and I was really glad I had shaved off the extra miles or we would be toasted bread about right now.
Several hours after leaving this morning we found a coffee/donut shop so we pulled in for iced mochas and breakfast sandwiches. The mochas were so so but the sandwiches were awesome. We sat at a table outside and began a conversation with a man at the next table. His name is Jason and he was chatty and we talked about our trip and found out he was an author and a quite interesting character. We got his name and he wanted to know about our coffee and coffee house. He said he would order some online. He had a small scooter next to his table and said that in 6 months he had put in 1000 miles with it. I told him our mayor in Goshen has a scooter he uses for local transportation and it is quite interesting to see him scooting along dressed to the nines in his deep blue business suit. He seemed quite taken with the idea and asked where we were from. When we arrived at our motel I found him on facebook and he had posted about this interesting couple he met earlier and tagged the mayor‘s pic from Goshen‘s webpage. I will attach his post. Crazy how easy it is to connect with people when we are on bikes and they are on scooters.
Shortly after we came up behind a cyclist at a light. He had two side bags in the back and you could tell he was traveling. I asked where he was headed. He is also heading to the keyes. He started in Virginia so he only had a week or so into the trip. I told him we would look for him when we arrived. Before too long he had out paced us and we couldn’t see him anymore. I consoled myself with the facts that he was 15+ years younger than us and was “only” doing a part of what we were doing. I mean really! We stopped for some shade and rehydrating and we saw him tooling past us. We haven’t seen him since. Who knows, we might see him when we arrive in Key West.
Another good day. The coast is beautiful but we rode in full sun most of the day. That is probably the hardest thing about these days.
https://www.treesforgoshen.org/biking-for-bucks-expand-goshens-tree-canopy/
Today’s Ride Ratings
Weather 8 (comfortable temps but the sun is pretty intense)
Temperature 66 at start and 82 at finish
Scenery 8
Riding Surface 10
Terrain 10
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