We slept in to about 7 this morning and ate our left over cereal and milk from yesterday for breakfast. Luckily we were underneath the pavilion at the fire hall, because it started to rain while we were eating/ packing up. It was about 8:30 before we got on the road this morning, and thankfully the rain had stopped by that time. As we were riding this morning, we kept our eyes peeled for a couple other cyclists that someone said they saw in Eastport, heading east, yesterday about 3 pm. We aren't sure if there were really other cyclists or if the people at the church that said they saw them, really saw us. Either way, since they told us last night about seeing them, we've been wondering if we were going to get to see anyone today! We rode for about 26 miles under cloudy skies before it started to pour. It really started when we were stopped at a grocery store picking up some stuff to make lunch. When we came out, the cloudy sky had finally opened up and it was coming down. We were able to find a place to get out of the rain for lunch about a half a mile down the road. A little tiny pavilion in the middle of a mineral pool park. We had lunch today around noon and had the same thing as dinner last night since it tasted so good yesterday. Amazingly, there was open internet in this little tiny park, so we were able to check the weather radar and see how long this storm was supposed to last. So much for the weather saying that it was going to be sunny all week long. It was not looking good that it would stop raining any time soon. Since we really didn't want to get soaked and ride in the rain and lightning, we decided to just stay put for a while and wait it out. It really isn't all that fun riding in the rain, and when the opportunity arises to be in a dry place for a little while, we figured that we might as well take it. I am just glad that we got the first 26 miles done before it started to rain! After lunch, there was a short little break in the storm, so we ran across the street to the Welcome Center, which is where the WiFi was coming from. I still can't believe this new tablet picks up WiFi so much better than the old one. This one usually shows 7-8 networks in reach when the other would only show 2-3, and the overall signal strength is just so much better. We got a little wet riding across to the Welcome Center, but it was well worth it. We put our bikes under the building (which was on stilts). We had a place to relax in that was warm, out of the wind and was dry, with chairs, a table, and a bathroom . The lady that was working there was super nice and seemed glad to have some company for a while. While we were there, we continued to check the radar on the internet to see what the outlook looked like. It still didn't look all that great, but the forecast still said that it was supposed to clear up by late afternoon. Since we aren't really in a huge hurry, we decided to just relax and see if it would clear up. I worked on typing some blogs for a while, and Joey looked at the map, made some travel calculations and also talked to John in WV about the Free Wheelchair Mission and what he is setting up for us when we get there. We are getting pretty excited because John himself is excited for us to get there. He has talked to a few schools and we are pretty sure that he has us all set up to talk about our trip to a couple of the schools amongst other things. It's going to be a very nice way to bring the trip to a close when the time comes. I still can't believe that we are already a week into February. I think that it's going to be a real shock come the first of March. Then it's really going to set in how close to being done with the trip we will be. I'm still not ready to be finished, but that might change when we get closer to home (but I doubt I will ever be ready to be done). While we were sitting there relaxing, the lady at the visitor center gave us each a can of Coca- Cola! A nice little treat to cheer us up from the bad weather. Even with the rain, it wasn't all that bad because we had a nice dry place to be, and I was able to be productive. The only one who thought it was bad was Joey because he really wanted to get riding again, but still didn't want to ride in the rain either. At almost the perfect timing, the rain stopped and the sun tried to peak out. Right around 4pm, we were able to venture outside and were happy to not be getting rained on. Before we left, the lady working there gave us each a snack sized bag of pretzels to go, another great little treat! She definitely spoiled us a little! We got re-packed and were back on the road by ten after. The visitor center closed at 4:30, so the storm was right on time. I couldn't believe that there was sunshine for a while! About 5 miles down the road, there was a little bit more rain, but it didn't last long and wasn't nearly as heavy as the rain earlier today. We were able to hide under an overhang for a couple minutes until that little cloud passed by. Almost from then on, it was clear and there was no more rain. Since there weren't going to be any "big" towns for a while, we decided to go to Crawfordville, which was about 5 miles off of the road that we were following (98). In the end though, it won't end up being out of the way because there are connecting roads to meet up with 98 again that we can take tomorrow. Our first stop in town was McDonalds so that we could check out the map and see where things were. We refilled on water and then headed over to the Winn Dixie to get some cereal and milk for the morning since the grocery store is a bit further than we would have like it to be from the road we need to turn on in the morning and from where the main area of town is. We headed over to the Methodist church and sat under their huge overhang for a while. There was a lot going on at the church- two different meetings- one for Relay for Life and the other a church youth group band practicing. It really is amazing how much more the churches down here seem to be used. Almost every night lately, we've been happy to find people at the churches. We ate some mac and cheese with cheddarwurst sausage for dinner there under the overhang, just in case it were to start raining again. We were able to wash our dishes with a hose, too! After eating, we decided that since there were so many people, they all looked super busy, and it wasn't easy for us to distinguish "who was in charge," we would look around town to see if there was someplace else with cars that we could ask to set up the tent. Almost right across the street was the First Baptist Church. There were a whole bunch of cars here too, but everyone looked like they were there for one thing. This church had a really great overhang/ patio that would be perfect to get out of the weather if it happened to rain some more or thunder and lightning! There were even tables and chairs, a security light so we didn't have to be in the dark, and the patio was surrounded by a cute little garden. There was a whole room full of ladies having some kind of dinner meeting. We peaked our heads inside and asked if we could set up our tent. They all said it was ok, and even offered for us to have some pulled pork if we wanted. But since we had just eaten, we didn't really need too much extra food. But- they did have cheesecake, which we couldn't pass up! So, we got our tent all set up, and I even had a place to plug in my dying tablet so that I could do some more typing. I made a few more of our little make shift business cards since we had already run out of them since the last time that I made them. I typed for a while at table and chairs outside of the tent. That really makes a big difference because then I am relatively comfortable and not trying to "sit up" while laying in the tent typing. That usually just ends up putting me to sleep. It was only supposed to get to around 51 degrees out tonight! This is just wonderful! It is going to be hard to get re-acclimated to the cold once we start heading north again! Even still, I sat wrapped up in my sleeping bag to type, I still like to be in a little bundle out of the wind. We didn't make it too far today because of the rain, but I'm still so glad to be dry right now and am glad we didn't have to have an unpleasant day of riding in the pouring rain/ thunder storm. We only made it 40.19 miles today before getting into Crowfordville.