Day 34 – Fog and the big City

This could be the title for a children’s book. These were my challenges for the day. The first 2 hours visibility ranged from a quarter to a tenth of a mile. US 90 had a decent shoulder so the challenge was to see the road signs as I was no longer following the map and the garmin 800 had no course programmed. The big city was Tallahassee, the road signs were few and far between, but I just stayed on the widest road. After passing Florida State University, I checked the smartphone and it indicated I was on the right road.

Speaking of US 90, it has a split personality, most of the day it was actually hilly. Long 5% grades, some 8% right by Chattahoochee! 3000 ft of climbing over 130 miles. The nicer side of 90 was the last 20 miles – fairly level so I could maintain a good steady pace.

At Chattahoochee, I stopped for some juice and was interviewed by a local newspaper reporter (retired reporter?) For longer than I wanted. I think it was for Jackson county. And I found this link to the article (still active as of 2-23-19) .

JCFloridian Article

I also stopped and talked to 3 college age men who started in Austin in April. They were fixing a flat but did not need help.

I had an impromptu race with a 4 wheeler. They rode onto the shoulder, saw me and shifted to the grass, race was on, I won going uphill. My knees still hurt, I must not be so competitive in the future.

I made it to Madison FL only to find that town no longer had lodging. My next town was 30 miles away but due to the time change it was already 6pm and that was too far with waning light. The mapping function on my phone showed that 6 miles off route to the south by the freeway was where the lodging had gone. The check in guy told me about a shortcut that will get me back on track in a few less miles than backtracking.

Final day tomorrow, looks like the weather will hold out.