Can you say, "Flat?" In 62 miles we only climbed 308 feet, but more on that later. Today's road was also straight, as in over 30 miles of straight road. Today's route: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/18784420
Straight.
Straight.
Early in the day, we went through a state forest preserve that had us turning and twisting for a while. I didn't realize that Johann Wolfgang had gotten to the New World.
One thing we have noticed when traveling through flat areas is that it can be difficult to visually determine whether you are climbing or descending. We first ran into this when we were doing the Big Ride Across America in 2011. We were riding in Montana, and couldn't understand why the bike just would not go; brakes weren't dragging, tires were fully inflated. Finally, a fellow rider with a GPS came by and informed us we were climbing a 2% grade for the last 20 miles. After that we determined that if the bike was going unusually fast, we were going down hill, if unusually slowly, then we were climbing.
Today we ran into a similar situation. The road looked pretty flat, there was no head wind to speak of, yet we could not get the bike speed out of the 10's. After three or four miles of this, Margaret thought she heard something funny. We had a flat tire on the trailer! We have climbed what we have called 'railroad hills', or 'highway hills', or even 'river hills' for overpasses that brought us over those obstacles. Now we have to add a new category, a 'flat tire hill.'
What you don't see here is the occasional traffic roaring by, 8 feet away at 65 mph.
Florida countryside is beautiful, but different from Michigan.
Sand Hill cranes in a farmer's field.
Looks like Michigan, but a palm tree?
At about mile 40, we got onto a rail trail which was...
Straight.
But Margaret's quick eyes spotted a tortoise next to the trail. We were told that Gopher tortoises we common around these parts, so we assume that is what it was.
Margaret even got a selfie.
As if that were not enough, we got to admire and cross the Suwanee River. You all know the song, but how many of you have seen it?
Tomorrow (today) we ride to Perry, FL.
1 comment:
This nice ride you share .
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