10/27/18

Today was the coldest morning of our trip. It was 44 degrees when we started riding the 2.5 miles to McDonalds this morning.

I wore a long sleeved T-Shirt under my jersey as well as my rain coat over that. Then I wore my full fingered work gloves to keep my hands from getting as cold. I kept all this on until we reached our first rest stop.

Today we were fortunate enough to ride on 3 different bike trail sections. The first one was in Gainesville. It was 2 miles long and ended at Rest Stop One and picked up again after Rest Stop one for another half mile.

The second bike trail was the Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail that ran for 15 miles. There was a local charity ride on the trail but it was going in the opposite direction so we just had to watch for on coming traffic. I could tell the difference between cross county riders and local riders. Cross country riders have more confidence on narrow areas. Along this trail we came to an area where the water went across the trail. All three of us rode across without any trouble. Some chose to walk across and get the shoes wet.

At rest stop two we saw a McDonalds about a quarter of a mile down the road so we went to grab a hamburger. While we were eating a gentleman asked if we took donations. Frank responded that we did. The gentleman said his son has MS and he wanted to donate. Frank accepted the donation and we all got our picture taken by the manager at McDonalds.

The third and last bike trail started at Putnam Hall and ran 20 some miles to just outside of Palatka, where we were spending the night in the St Mark’s Episcopal Church.

This was a garden hose shower night and it was the coldest shower I have ever taken. It would actually take your breath away, but after 82 miles it still helped.