Amelia Island

-
We got off to a good start with free breakfast at the hotel. It made a welcome change from our usual breakfast of oats, raisins, and bananas. We also had 0 flats this morning, another welcome change.

Riding north out of St Augustine took us through some sleepy beach towns and past a lot of fancy houses, which were being serviced by various tradespeople. There were a lot of lawn care trucks around. We took our first boat of the trip across the St. Johns River from Mayport to Fort George Island. There were a few dolphins playing in the river as the ferry took us across.

We met a fellow bike tourer this morning at a grocery store and leapfrogged each other as we all headed north. He was off to Tallahassee via Jacksonville.

Instead of lunch today we had giant smoothies. Like, the size of the average human stomach. They were delicious and I only regretted it very briefly. Mike had a strawberry yoghurt d-lite (there was nothing "lite" about it). I had a berry smoothie and needed a rest afterwards.

Tonight we're camping on the beach at Peter Point Park on Amelia Island. It's one of those beaches that people are allowed to drive on. The price is right ($0) and, if you don't mind a little sand in your dinner, it's a very nice place to spend the night. The local deputy told us not to put the tent too near the water. We're a fair ways back but here's hoping there will be no soggy surprises in the middle of the night.

On the $1 ferry

Goodbye, Mayport

Little Talbot Island State Park

Mike on a bike

Camp for the evening

Comments

  1. CheriMay 5, 2018 at 3:19 PM

    What a campsite! We all seem to be enjoying the ocean - albeit on different coasts. Your Dad and I had a lovely drive through Pendleton on the way to Katie's. But even though Casa Katie is quite hospitable, you win hands down for last night's lodging.

    Cheri

    ReplyDelete
  2. the Old GuyMay 5, 2018 at 3:36 PM

    Rach looks like she is having way too much fun.

    Finally got all chairs (Heywood-Wakefield, Adirondack) to KK's yesterday and attached seat cushions. Set up a LED torch light in the backyard. Fixed a porch light, brought her some glassware from Grandma Corinne. She took us to dinner at Guelaguetza. Joe and I tried the 4 mole sampler. Now Joe is hooked on mole. Katie had a Mexican pizza, I forget what its called.
    By the way, she now has those dang fruit flies that you guys had in Ireland. We set out a "beer trap" and got a bunch overnight.

    Went to Yorkshire today to water. Way hot in So. Cal. today. Car thermometer said it was 100 F. (37.7778 C for Rach) in places. The Tangerine in Chief says there is no global warming. When it's 100 F on the 5th of May, I beg to disagree.

    I think you two should swim at least part of the trip just to prove how tough you really are. Maybe a hundred miles or so. Think about it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One More Day

-
Image
It was intensely windy as we woke up at the Leo Carrillo campground in Malibu. My Dad's tent nearly blew away as he was taking it down. As we pushed our first few pedal strokes back on Pacific Coast Highway the breeze blew up clouds of dust and grit that made it hard to see. Thankfully it was worst at the start and eased off as the miles rolled by. Then, on to familiar sights: Topanga Canyon, the Getty Villa, the Santa Monica Pier and the beach bike path. After a lunch time break of a few pizza slices we rode over to the marina to check on the boat. All is well. A little dirty but it looks largely the same as we left it and ready to be restored to its former glory, or even better. We had a few more miles to go so we waved goodbye to the boat and hopped back on the bike path toward Hermosa Beach. My Aunt Kellie, Uncle Randy, and cousin Will live there and were very gracious to host us for Halloween. We ate an incredible home-cooked dinner of chili and corn bread and Caesar salad. ...
Read more

San Francisco

-
Image
Thankfully the rascally raccoons of Olema didn't get quite every bit of food and we still managed to put together a decent breakfast on Friday before our ride into San Francisco. As we approached the city the roads became busier, the neighborhoods more dense, and the turns more frequent. The turns initially made a welcome change from spending 50 miles a day on highway 1 but then grew tiresome. There was much checking of directions as we wound through Marin County and it slowed us down considerably. Thankfully one of our hosts for the weekend, Joven, rode out to meet us as a grocery store and he took the lead towards the Golden Gate bridge. We stopped for some obligatory photos along with 1000 other people. The ride over the bridge was windy but fun. Joven, his wife Katelyn, son Tino, and dog Artie generously put us up for a couple of nights as we had a rest day to give us time to catch up with each other. As a bonus, Blake (whom we stayed with in New York) was also in town. The r...
Read more

It's The People

-
Image
The last few days have been all about friendly faces. We began riding down a sunny stretch of coastal highway when a dark grey fog bank loomed ahead. It felt like we would enter the mist and ride 100 years back in time. More realistically, we rode to a town called Davenport and got pastries and a coffee for my Dad. Next major milestone was riding through Santa Cruz, Aptos, and finally through rolling apple orchards to Watsonville. My childhood friend Mike Haney and his girlfriend Amanda were kind enough to drive down from Mountain View to join us for a Mexican food dinner. They had just taken a weekend away on the northern California coast. They stayed near Gualala in a lodge with Russian architecture - we took photos of it for the blog only a few days prior. We told tales about the trip, and then moved on to Yogurtland to swap more stories over dessert. It was great to see them and especially nice of them to drive to meet our route. With all the socializing we didn't even turn...
Read more