It was raining a little when we woke up this morning, but by the time we got ready to leave, it had stopped. Bernice made us a yummy breakfast of pancakes and homemade applesauce (pancakes + applesauce-- very good if you've never tried it, you should!). This morning I submitted our story for a chance to win a cruise through the Princess Cruise line. How amazing would that be if we happened to win a cruise- oh how I loved the cruise we took! Once we were all packed, done taking a few pictures, and had said our goodbyes, we were on the road. We were riding under cloudy skies and it was much cooler than yesterday, which was quite welcome. Still warm enough for shorts and just our jerseys, but not nearly as sunny. We knew the chances of rain today would be high, so we were hoping to get as many miles done as we could before it started. I was a little excited for today's ride because we would be following the same path as we did on our FL trip back in 2010. Originally, I was thinking that riding the same thing again would be a little boring, but the more I thought about it, the neater it sounded. After making our way through downtown Ocala, we were off riding through areas of not much but trees again. We passed through a couple small towns, but nothing real large until we got to Gainesville. There were bits and pieces along that way that we vividly remember, but other parts that didn't strike up any memory at all. Just before Gainesville is the Paynes Prairie State Park Ecopassage, which was something I was looking forward to riding through again. I remembered the little observation "dock" that was about half way through the area and was excited to stop there again to see what wildlife we could see. By that time we were both really hungry, so we snacked on one of our oranges. We didn't see much wildlife, but it was still a nice little break. As our bikes rode into Gainesville for the second time since we've had them, I was starting to remember even more. We rode past the University of Florida (home of the Gators) and passed by a Subway restaurant that I remember eating at on the FL trip. We stopped briefly at McDonalds to refill on water, and check to see where Wal-Mart was since we needed to get a couple things. From what we remembered, it was right on the same road we were on, but luckily we did check. The one that was on our road had been permanently closed and a Super-Walmart was built a few miles away on the other side of town. So, that's where we were off to next. About a half a mile into the ride there, it started to sprinkle, and then eventually started to pour just before we turned into the parking lot. I went in to get our food for lunch, new tooth paste and a couple other things and was happy to see that the rain had lightened up significantly by the time I got back out. Since we were hoping to find a nice spot to have lunch (instead of outside Wal-Mart where everyone stares at you), we hopped on our bikes and headed back towards the road we would follow out of town. We passed by a park, but didn't see any pavilions with tables, so we ended up eating under a church overhang. It worked out perfectly since there was no one there to bother us and we would be dry. I made up some pasta and added some diced tomatoes and cheese and we were ready to eat. By the time the food was ready we were both just SO hungry- after all, it was after 3pm and we had already done 50 miles. We usually don't wait that long to eat, but it just worked out to eat in Gainesville. I was also feeling really tired by the time I was done with lunch, I don't think that the food had quite kicked in yet. There was enough pasta left that we were able to put it in a little baggie and have it later for dinner if we got hungry. That is always really nice when you know you don't have to cook again that day. Once we were about 5 miles from Gainesville, it started to sprinkle, and then rain of course. A while later, it really started to pour. We had thought that if it was raining hard enough we would stop early, but since we were already soaked, it didn't make any sense to stop. Up until we crossed under the I 75, things looked very familiar. We passed by a gas station that had picnic tables/overhangs that we remember taking a break at for a while last time. It really was neat to ride this section again. After riding under the I 75, though, we didn't really remember things, strange how that worked. The rain had died down quite a bit and by the time we made it to High Springs city limit it had stopped. Joey had originally wanted to make it another 25 miles down the road to Lake City, but that was really far, not quite sure what he was thinking on that one. Either way, we decided to stop at a church that had a nice little pavilion with picnic tables. We hadn't quite made it to the center of town yet, but were pretty close. Upon asking the youth pastor, who called the pastor just to make sure, we found out that we had the go ahead to set up under the pavilion for the night. So nice to know we would be relatively dry since we knew some more rain and some thunderstorms would be passing through tonight. The youth pastor said that it was fine if we changed in the bathrooms inside (so much easier than changing in the tent!) but when Joey went to do so, he came back outside with his new change of clothes still in his hand. At first I was very puzzled, but then I found out awesome news- there was a shower in the church and we were welcome to use it!!! What an amazing surprise, that definitely made my day! The lightning and thunder had started before we went to bed, and sure enough the rain came with it. So, like last night, we are staying in a town for a second time while touring. This is the same town that we stayed with Lys in on the last tour. Since then, she had moved to Port Townsend, WA and we were able to stay with her there on this trip! We were her last guests before she moved out of FL and her first guests in WA!! So neat that we have gotten to see a few people from our "touring community" more than once! Another great day on the road. The legs and toosh were a little sore at different parts of the day, but they are much less sore than yesterday. Tomorrow our bodies should be pretty well back in shape for riding again. Our miles totaled 70.41 today.
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Well, after a wonderful 11 days off from the saddle and getting to see the family, we're back on the road. We woke up around 6:30 and I took one last shower at the hotel before we all headed down to the lobby for our last hotel breakfast. Breakfast went out with a bang today since not only did they have their usual items, but they also had the big huge waffles. I unfortunately didn't have one because I had a bad headache and wasn't feeling all that good this morning. I woke up around 3 last night and felt the same way. I was hoping that after a little cereal and a few miles on the bike that I would feel better, and that is exactly what happened. After breakfast, we headed to the room and got our last few items all packed away, rechecked our bikes to see if there was anything else we could send home with the family so we wouldn't have to carry it, and got my sunscreen on. It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone since it felt like we just got to see them. But- we only have a little over a month left, so we will be seeing EVERYONE very shortly! We can't wait. Although we are still excited about the last part of the trip, I think we are starting to prepare ourselves for going back into normal life and at the same time getting a little excited about it. With a couple more hugs for the road, we were off and had started the last leg of the trip. I still can't believe what point in the trip we are already at. I remember a year ago when I was doing things to prepare for the trip and was at that time wondering how we would be feeling by that time next year. SO weird that it's almost over. For most of the day we stayed along route 441. At one point we passed by an Orange Grove and it really made me crave an orange. As we were riding, I noticed that my crank was a little loose and I noticed a lot of movement as I was pedaling. That worried me because we had just had so much time off and if there was something seriously wrong with it, we could have already had it fixed. Luckily, we stumbled across a bike shop and we found out that all it needed was to be tightened. Thank goodness!! We chatted with the people in the shop and were even given a bunch of packets of "butt cream" and electrolite tablets to add to our water bottles. How cool is that! By the time we left the bike shop, I was feeling really hungry, especially since we had already done 40 miles. A ways down the road, we found a Wal-Mart in the city of Leesburg and stopped there to get some food. There were tables outside and a little overhang to sit under so we were able to get out of the sun. Boy was it a hot day! The sun was beating down strong and the temperature was at a record high of 89 today! Luckily we had a nice tail wind for part of the morning to help us get some miles under our belt. After that, the wind changed to a side wind and the only good it served was to keep us a little cooler. Thank goodness there was a breeze, otherwise it would have been even worse. After lunch, there were a few stretches of road that weren't very fun to ride on. There was construction going on, so not only were there cones and cement barriers all over, there just wasn't any room for us to ride except for in a lane. The only good thing about the construction is that the traffic tends to go a little slower and for the most part, people would slow down and give us a lane. Towards the later part of the day, it became a little more cloudy, but yet it was still pretty hot. We were pretty excited about getting to Ocala, because not only did we go there on our last tour, but tonight we were going to get to stay with Mike and Bernice, who we also stayed with on our last tour! SO neat! Once we got a pretty close to their house, we had some back roads to go down. The whole area we were going through was full of houses and all of the street names were something to the effect of "Juniper Ln.... Juniper Pl.. Juniper circle Ln... Juniper Run... etc." When we started seeing that, we were a little worried that we would never find the road we were looking or, which was Juniper Circle. Now it would have been really easy to find their house had we come in from the same direction as on the last trip, but that wasn't the case. Somehow, as we were riding along, we were back to the road we had turned off of; we had gone in a big "c." I was pretty sure that we had somehow passed the road about a half a mile to a mile before we actually stopped, but we kept going anyways, just in case it was still up there. Long story short, we found our way again and when we found the road we were supposed to take, we found out that it wasn't our fault at all that we had missed our turn. The street sign and the road name on Google maps are completely different. Even though we were looking for "Juniper Circle," the road name was SW 79th street- yes completely different. That was a little frustrating, but after that minor little speed bump, we were off in the right direction. We didn't have any trouble finding where they lived after that. I knew it was the right house when I saw it because I had remembered that it was blue. We had a great time chatting and catching up with Mike and Bernice, while having a nice hot shower too. It worked our perfect that we got to see them again. Bernice made this incredible meal for us too. After an amazing soup, she had roasted some vegetables and a salad to go with it and also had some Farro, which is kind of like rice/ quinoa (and actually looks like golden puffs cereal) that is really good for you and is really tasty. We were joined for dinner by Mike and Bernice's son and their daughter in law. I twas nice to get to meet a little more of their family. A wonderful evening, that's for sure!! We each got to enjoy a piece of Bernice's homemade pound cake, too. When we went to bed, we were pretty excited that we were going to get to sleep in a bed yet again! Our miles totaled 70.27 today. I don't know what way we went on our FL trip to get from Altamonte Springs to Ocala, but on that trip, we had 80 or so miles by the time we got there! Glad we went a different way this time!
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