San Diego to St. Augustine (Southern Tier bike ride) Completed ✅

 

My rear tire in the Pacific Ocean - Departing San Diego, California on September 19

My front tire in the Atlantic Ocean - St. Augustine Florida on  November 16

A few numbers:

• 59 Days
• 3052 Miles of riding 
• 1 Country traversed
• 8 States traversed - California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama & Florida 
• Longest ride day - 114 miles
• Average miles per day - 52 miles
• Longest week - 525 miles 
• Rims broken - 2
• Flats fixed 16
• Rest days 7 plus 1 day building a new wheel (NOT A REST DAY)
• Camping nights - 8
• Haircuts - 1
• Riding days with rain - 2 (unbelievably lucky)
• Coldest morning - 37f
• Hottest day - 105f 
• Number of acts of kindness received - far more than I can count 
• Drivers who went out of their way to avoid me - countless thousands 
• Drivers who went out of there way to intimidate or scare me - 2
• Goals accomplished - 1

I am glad my goals are not easy and equally glad that I have a spectacular wife who supports them. I am still processing the trip and what it means.  Today I am tired and looking forward to being home with my wife.

I am blessed

A friend of Marie & Lee’s playing in St. Augustine 

BBQ Club Sandwich 

• Celebrate 🎉 

Old Spanish Trail Zero marker - St. Augustine to San Diego 

My final mileage 

The bike path from today 

Madison to High Springs to Palatka, FL - two long days

Sunday we biked from Madison Florida to High Springs, a total of 90 miles.  We stopped at a hotel at the 40 mile mark, but it was 10:30 and we felt good.  Also the hotel was near a McDonalds and a gas station and had no other food options.  The next city with a hotel was High Springs, another 50 miles down the road so w moved on.  Just as we started riding again, I saw two large dogs running towards us (60-70 lb).  Most dogs bark and yap and give chase for fun but are mostly harmless, yes we have been chased by wiener dogs.  These dogs were silent and fast.  I went from my normal 12mph touring speed to almost 20mph and the dogs were still gaining.  I swerved and hit one with my rear panniers several times.  I heard snarling and felt a tug, but found no teeth marks on my panniers.  Thankfully they tired out faster then I did and dropped back after a few hundred years.  We made it safely to High Springs a few hours before dark and found a good motel with a neat diner across the street - The Pink Flamingo.  Good food -  Jambalaya and a huge bread pudding, just what I needed after 90 miles of riding. We talked to the owner at a fire pit near the outdoor seating. Found out he is one of the cofounders of Beyond Meat.

Monday we started in High Springs and headed to Palaka, again the problem of a hotel early (30 miles in Gainesville) and nothing else for another 50 (Palaka).  We started early and cold (39 degrees) on a road heading southeast. About 3 miles in the road turned east into the sun.  We were blinded and so were the drivers, so we pulled off the road for a bit.  We found a McDonald’s nearby and grabbed a coffee and let the sun come up.  The rest of the day was good riding with over 30 miles on bike paths.  We are staying at the Comfort Inn on the river in Palaka Florida.  Dinner was at the oldest diner in Florida (Angel’s dining car).  The Club sandwich was good and the milkshake great.  

We are at 3020 miles for the trip with less than 50 miles to the Atlantic Ocean in St. Augustine. If all goes well we will be done tomorrow!

The view from my room in Palaka

Palaka

High Springs Country Inn

Oldest diner in Florida 

Sunday - Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/2lfJwgrGdlb

  

Monday- Check out my ride on Strava.

https://strava.app.link/lA3rMjFGdlb

Chipley to Midway to Madison, FL - long days

 Yesterday was an 85 mile day and today was 77 miles.  This is not based on grit, it’s based in the distance to the next hotel.  Lots of restaurants and stores along the way, but few hotels.  The riding has been good, not too much traffic, good pavement and bike lanes most of the way.

We are now on Eastern Standard Time and down to a few hundred miles to go.  My odometer is at 2844.

Madison, FL

Theodore Roosevelt statue in Madison 

Neat looking schoolhouse along the route

Our lunch stop today, the shepherds pie was good

My dinner stop, the meal was fine, the chocolate cake was great!

Franklin Roosevelt’s four freedoms 

Well worth reading 

The monument that should replace all of the Jim Crow monuments

My Gurber Dime, used many times to remove wire and glass from my tires.  

The four freedoms statute 

Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/aIV60Owialb

Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/QFQ70QAialb

Crestview to Chipley FL - 68 miles of rain

So far we have been blessed with good weather on our journey.  Today was our first real rain day, it rained overnight and intermittently all day today.  Never hard, just light rain on and off all day.  The good thing was it was 75 degrees and once we reached “saturation” we could not get any wetter and we were not cold. My panniers did their job and kept everything I was not wearing dry.  We were going to do a short day because of the rain, but once wet and rolling we saw no reason to stop. If we stopped we would be stuck in a hotel.  We did see a few cool things along the way.

DeFuniak Springs has a 68 degree hot spring that we biked around (about a mile) and saw Boy Scouts setting up for the Veterans Day parade.

Ponce De Leon -  We passed through and thought about the Fountain of Youth.  I think biking 3000 miles across the USA is as close to a Fountain of Youth as I will ever get.

The route was mostly on Florida 90 and good most of the way with low traffic.

Hall of Brotherhood - DeFuniak Springs, Florida 

Hiding from the rain

FUMC DeFuniak Springs, Florida 

Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/vwQTAZQa7kb

Dauphin to Big Lagoon State Park to Crestview

We arrived in Alabama and stayed one night.  Nice hotel motel in Dauphin, AL.  Dinner was a Reds shrimp boil with 🥔 and 🌽, good but not enough to cover the miles so I added a subway sandwich on the way back to the motel.  It’s off season in Dauphin so not much was open.  We headed out early (7am) and picked up breakfast at a gas station (only thing open), good coffee and yogurt, not much else. We then headed to the ferry and took the 8am across the Mobile Bay $6 for pedestrians and the bike was free.  The ride was smooth and had good views, lots of birds and oil rigs.  On shore we rode along the coast and at the Florida-Alabama boarder stopped at Flor-Bama, a bar/grill on the boarder.  We then did the required photo at the Welcome to Florida sign.  We then looked at the map and found Big Lagoon State Park was a good stopping place but lacked a restaurant.  I stopped at a grocery and picked up dinner (2 Bagels, 1/2lb turkey slices, carrots and a slice of cake) and breakfast.  Both were enough but nothing extra.  The park was nice with good sites and clean bathrooms.  It was dark before 6pm and the bugs were out, I was in my tent catching up on email, listening to a book and asleep by 8:30. Dew in the morning slowed our start a bit.  

We did a longer ride today (77miles) because they are predicting rain tomorrow.  The ride was mostly uneventful, but whoever designed FL-90 as a “Bike route” must not ride a bike.  At times the bike lane was12 inches wide and at one point ended in the middle of a bridge. Thankfully today the drivers were good!  Sunset was 4:50 so we need to plan on being done by 2:30 so we have some buffer for emergencies (flats etc…)

Today we crossed 2600 miles with about 430 miles remaining.

Loading the bikes on the ferry

The ferry docks

A bar on the Florida-Alabama boarder.  We had lunch here

View from the ferry 

After 24 hours in Alabama we crossed into Florida 

Our bikes on the ferry 

Deep water oil platforms everywhere in the golf.  Windmills look better and don’t kill marine life - we need to transition 

Accumulated miles when we arrived in Big Lagoon State Park 

Accumulated miles when we arrived into Crestview 

Our Hilton in Crestview, FL

Yet another flat…

Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/iGpBpPIs5kb

Check out my ride on Strava.
https://strava.app.link/29qLSSRs5kb