Nailed It

Do you ever have a day when things actually happen the way you want them to? I’m not talking about unexpected nice surprises. I’m talking about making a plan and it working exactly how you thought it would. That was today.

After driving to Tallahassee (actually just south of it) yesterday afternoon, I was actually able to see a nice portion of the trail I would be riding on today. I figured I’d get up early, beat the heat, and then clean up and head to Atlanta.

After almost 72 hours off the bike, my body felt rested and ready. There were two major factors working in my favor today. First, I left all my packs in the hotel room so that was about 40 lbs or so I didn’t have to lug around. Second, it was Florida. The highest point in the state is only 345’. There is more uphill in the last 0.2 miles going to my house in Washington than there was in nearly 56 miles today. Pancake flat.

About half my ride was on the historic (?) Tallahassee-St. Mark‘s Trail. The other half was on roads with nice clean, wide bike lanes or zero traffic. Not an exaggeration. Zero. As in, set my bike down in the road, walk to the edge of the road (no way I was going into the woods) and pee. I actually passed more people jogging - about 10 - and riding on the trail than the previous 3 weeks combined. I guess that’s the difference between the Florida beaches and the backwoods of Missouri. People appear to care about their health. The other thing I had going was the music. I hit a perfect sweet spot in my playlist - sing along, pump my fist tunes, some that I even repeated.

Don’t Get Me Wrong - The Pretenders to Dust in the Wind - Kansas.

Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, Pink Floyd, Foreigner, Annie Lennox, James Taylor, The Animals, Aretha Franklin, Elton John again, Boston, The Beatles, Alan Jackson, The Police, Dua Lipa, Queen, Darius Rucker, the Refreshments, Brett Eldredge, Simple Minds, Eagles, CCR, Tom Petty, The Band, Allison Krauss, The Refreshments again, Bruce, more Annie Lennox, more Aretha, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Gary Wright, Heart, Dobie Gray, Eric Church, Lee Brice, The Wild Frontiers, The Cars, more Bruce, Train, John Hiatt, Eddie Rabbit, more Train, more Aretha, Jason Aldean, Eli Young, Dierks Bentley, Lucinda Williams, John Mayall, The Band again, more Aerosmith and finally Kansas.

That‘s a pretty good cross-section of what I listen to.

All in all, 55.6 miles and done before checkout time at the hotel. After about a 5-hour drive, I got to Atlanta and spent a fun evening staying with our old friends, the Hannans and their herd of dogs.

Finally found a good local spot for dinner on Saturday night

Trailhead for the bike path portion of the ride

Yikes! Who knows what is in the bottom of that swamp? If there was a missing person report in the Tallahassee area, this might be the first place I’d look.