April 9, Day 40

Like I said yesterday things could come up that would keep us from finishing on Sunday.  This morning Kevin woke up to a rear flat tire - which in itself isn't that big of a deal, but the flat was caused by his rim liner wearing out.  So, we tried to patch it back together and he got another flat in less than 1/2 mile.  So, we took it apart and replaced the rim liner with two layers of electrical tape which seemed to have done the trick as he didn't have any trouble with it the rest of the day.  Then at lunch we stopped at a local bakery and deli and ordered some cold meat sandwiches, 55 minutes later we got them.  So, these two delays slowed our day by nearly 2.5 hours, but we were still able to get 100 miles in today ending up in Melrose, Florida.  We thought we'd end up just shy of 100 today, but we ended up with 100.2 miles - squeaking in one last century ride. 

Today was very warm again - high of 91 and lots of great Florida sunshine.  I know warm Florida sunshine must sound wonderful to those of you in colder climates right now (and it is), but we were sure glad to exchange it for some great Florida shade for a large portion of the afternoon.  We went down tree covered roads and a 16 mile bike path that really helped keep the heat from becoming an issue today (that plus frequent icees, popsicles and shakes have helped us through the heat and keeps our bellies growing nicely as well).     



We saw what I believe to be a gopher tortoise on a bike trail this afternoon.  And guess where we saw it - adjacent to a nature preserve of course that is protecting the habitat for this indicator species withing the heart of Gainesville.  We have run across many nature preserves on our trip - it's always nice to see our partners' successes all across the country.   

We have about 75 miles left until we run out of roads heading east.  It's very possible that tomorrow we will dip our tires in the Atlantic and complete this bike ride.  It hasn't fully hit us yet that this trip is nearly over.  Our routine for the past 40 days has been to hop on the bikes and head east for as long as we can - it's what we do.  Kevin and I were talking this afternoon that it seems like we should be tired or at least tired of riding the bike, but neither is the case.  We paced ourselves very well which has made the trip very enjoyable mentally and physically. 

Our helmets have big vent holes in them that bugs tend to fly into and get stuck - I just let them crawl around until the next time we stop, but yesterday a bee flew in there and stung me.  That was the third bee sting I've gotten on this trip.  I don't mind getting stung if it's my fault - if I step on a yellow jacket nest, it seems quite fair that i should get stung for destroying their nest.  But all three stings on this trip weren't really my fault, but I guess the bees didn't know that.

We ran across two more ACRES signs today

We encounter many smells during our bike rides.  Today was dominated by the smell of honeysuckle and pine trees - very nice. 

We're hoping for an un-eventful and efficient day tomorrow that will allow us to reach the Atlantic to celebrate the end of a wonderful journey - we'll let you know tomorrow night!