We were happy to be under the pavilion last night as it rained quite a bit more. Luckily though, it was not raining when we woke up! After we were all packed up, we headed into the main part of town in High Springs. For some reason, it didn't look as familiar to either of us as Gainesville had. The only part that I had memory of was Lys's house where we stayed on our last trip, the bike shop with the big mural along the outside wall, and one of the little cafes where we went out for hot chocolate when we were here last. The part of town we rode through though didn't ring any bells. I guess we've just been through too many towns to remember them all. We found the Winn Dixie grocery store and got our cereal and milk for the morning. Across the street from the store was a church that had a long overhang and benches. Since we were a little worried that it might rain, we headed over there to eat our breakfast. Still no rain! We made it about 20 miles before it really started to rain. Like usual, it wasn't very hard at first, so we didn't get too wet. But, a few miles later it started to really come down. Since the heavy rain didn't look like it would last too long, we took refuge under an overhang to wait for it to pass. The overhang was part of the funeral home and not 20 seconds after we got under the overhang with our bikes, the door opened and the two gentleman that were working there came out to talk to us. They asked the usual questions and invited us in to take a rest while we waited for the rain to pass. We had a nice time talking with them, which helped the time pass a little bit. They, like the youth pastor at the church last night, mentioned to us about how they heard of the couple that was on a world tour getting hit and killed. It really is just so sad, and we have reminders of how dangerous the road is around us every day, and just hope and pray that every driver is paying attention to the road. As sad as it is that the cyclists were killed, it is still pretty sad that the world had never heard of them until they were killed. The news really does tell only the bad news. After about 15-20 minutes, the down-pouring rain had eased up and we were able to get back on the bikes without getting completely drenched. Not that it was THAT big of a deal to not get wet, but it was still early in the day, so the longer that we stayed dry the better. We had a quick internet stop at McDonald's and a run to the grocery store in Lake City before heading out of town. Our goal was to make it another 12 miles down the road before stopping to eat our lunch. So, that's what we did. We passed under the I-10 for the last time on the trip. I don't even know how many times we've crossed it on the trip, but it was quite a few. Lots of miles of just trees today, like so many of the stretches between towns usually are. Right after rolling into White Springs, we found a nice little park that had a pavilion and picnic tables. A perfect spot for lunch on a rainy day. We ate our favorite meal- a Voila frozen pasta, veggie and chicken dinner and an orange each. It rained lightly off and on for almost the whole time we were having lunch. By the time we had our dishes all washed (which was very easy since there was a water spigot right there on the post of the pavilion), it was raining even harder. Since we only had 40 miles, we decided to keep going. We had stayed dry for the majority of the day, so we were happy about that. A few miles out of town though, it really started to downpour. We were totally soaked in a matter of minutes. Even still, there was no point to turn back now, we were already wet. We road for about 25 miles in the pouring rain. The only bad problem was that even though I didn't put any sunscreen on today since it was going to be a cloudy, rainy day, there was still sunscreen in my bandana and my helmet from days before. The rain, like usual made it so the little bit of sunscreen that was there got in my eyes anyways. I always have a problem with that. That is the only reason that I don't like riding in the rain, boy does it sting! Eventually, despite the rain not letting up at all and a few clashes of thunder here and there, we made it to Jasper. Originally we planned on riding another 12 miles to the town of Jennings, but with the rain, we decided to stop. There was a Subway in the store and since we were already really hungry, we decided to split a sub. Our next stop was to find a place to set up our tent for the night. Since we knew it was going to rain for most of the night again, we were looking for some kind of an overhang. We passed by a church that had an overhang and a few cars in the driveway. We stopped in and asked and one of the lady's called the pastor just to be sure it would be ok. The pastor said sure and we were set for the night. Then we met one of the few ladies that was there setting up for a 100th birthday party. Her name was Kitty Morgan. She said that we were more than welcome to sleep in her screened in porch, but that she "might be able to do something better for us". She contacted one of her friends that lives alone and loves to have company. When she called her friend Linda, we found out that we were set with a place to sleep indoors! As if it couldn't get any better!! Kitty drove us down the road and around the corner to Linda's so that we could meet her and know the way to get there when we rode over on our bikes. We had fun chit chatting with Kitty, Linda and Tasha (a lady who comes to help Linda out around the house). It had pretty much stopped raining by the time we headed back to the church, so we didn't have to get even more soaked for the ride over to Linda's! We made a quick stop at the grocery store again to get some cereal and milk for the morning and then headed off down the road to Linda's. It is still amazing just how kindhearted people are. We couldn't believe that we were going to be inside tonight. That is always the best surprise at the end of the day, especially when there is inclement weather. We got our bikes put in the screened in porch at Linda's and then both got to take a nice hot shower. Later on we watched Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and our favorite show- AFV! Linda made some "hoe cakes" with homemade pear butter (SOOOO good!!) and eggs for dinner and later on we all enjoyed a little bluebell ice cream with chocolate syrup. A great night indeed! Our miles totaled 61.54 today.
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