Part 2
2022: Texas -> Florida
Recumbent touring.
Absolutely the best way to tour for me. I didn’t think so at first though, I was seriously thinking of trading it in the first days out of San Diego. First excuse is I had only a few rides on it before we left and secondly I didn’t realise how important weight distribution is for…
The Final Stats
Jim has calculated the final stats. There’s Part 1 and Part 2 followed by complete Southern Tier statistics. Part 1. San Diego CA to Del Rio TX, (March 2020) Total miles: 1250 Total riding days: 23 Avg miles/day: 54 AIS: 7129 min = 119 hrs = 4.95 days Longest AIS: 6:42 min. (Ft Hancock -Van…
R and R days…super layover in St Augustine
5/8/22. 5/9/22 5/10/22. 5 miles. 1 drawbridge St Augustine Beach to St Augustine The day we finished it was about 11am. It seems we ate and drank our day away. First we found a New York Pizza joint on the beach. Up until this I hadn’t found pizza that was good. This one was good!…
The finish line!
Day 32. 5/7/22. Palatka to St Augustine FL Just down the road near the bridge to the St John’s river was Florida’s oldest diner. Angel’s Diner. Breakfast for the short, short day to St. Augustine. We were crossing over the bridge on the pedestrian path to a view of a sailing regatta from Palatka to…
So close you can taste it…
Day 31. 5/6/22. 57 mi. AIS 5:02 hrs., 698 elev., 11.3mph Gainesville FL to Palatka FL I swear that everyday in this ride across America (both Part 1 and Part 2) has been Curt’s Traveling Recumbent Road Show and Jim and I are his escorts! I doubt there has not been a day where he…
Hitting our stride!
Day 30. 5/5/22. Cinco de Mayo! 76 miles, AIS 6:37, 1318 elev.., 90 degrees, 11.5 mph White Springs Stephen Foster State Park to Gainesville, FL We had a great ride today. The first 60 miles flew right by. We had planned to stop in Alachua (aah-latch-chew-wah) but it was a little less than 20 more…
Oh Susannah…don’t you cry for me
Day 29. 5/4/22. 49 miles, 4:17 AIS, 879 ft elev., 11.4 mph Madison to White Springs, FL. Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park Our bed snd breakfast host made us a delicious breakfast. Simple and good. She made THEE most delicious banana bread with honey butter spread! So later than usual start but not many…
Easy rider
Day 28. 5/3/22. 53 mi. AIS 4:31, 1397 elev. 11.7 mph Tallahassee to Madison, FL Beth and Joe took such good care of us. They loaned us their extra car to get around Tallahassee and run our errands. It felt weird to be in a car, especially driving, according to Jim. At first he had…
Song, song of the South
Day 27. 5/2/22. Rest day at Beth and Joe’s. Tallahassee, FL Song, song of the south. Sweet potato pie and shut my mouth. (Song by Alabama). I have not found my sweet potato pie yet…but I’m sure it’s nearby somewhere. The expressions in this song lead me to my layover day topic. Southern food and…
Tallahassee and being “hosted”!
Day 26. May 1, 2022. May day! 81 miles. AIS 7:24 hrs. 2791 elev. 10.9 mph. Week stats: 381 miles. 63 miles per day. Total trip mileage (part 2) 1462 miles. The most climbing since April 10…Johnson City to Austin! If anyone tells you Florida is flat…not the panhandle…or “Georgia’s basement”! Today we climbed, dropped,…
Threading the storm needle
Day 25. 4/30/22. 57 miles. AIS 5:02 hrs. 1138 elev. 11.4 mph DeFuniak Springs FL to Marianna FL Putting on damp clothes. We had one morning in Louisiana where our overnight washed bike clothes didn’t dry out. Since we’ve arrived in Florida they are never dry in the morning. Doesn’t matter if they are on…
Whole lot of nothing going on…
Day 24. 4/29/22 52 mi. AIS 5:20. 1216 elev. 10mph Blackwater River State Park to De Funiak Springs, FL. Things that might keep you awake at night. So we always go to bed at about sunset. Reading and/or blogging then it’s dark and goodnight. The State Park had nice campsites with some vegetation barriers between…
Heading inland (bye-bye coastal living)
Day 23. 4/28/22. 58 mi. 5:26 AIS, 1220 elev. 10.7 mph Big Lagoon State Park to Blackwater River State Park. Curtis had an even better viewing of the alligator swamp activity last night. I’ll post his good photos here. The elevation today was not bridges, although we had a couple of them. It was truly,…
Gulf Coast roads to Florida
Day 22. 4/27/22. 63 miles, AIS 5:27 hrs, 580 elev., 11.5 mph Bayou LeBatre, MS to Big Lagoon State Park, Perdido Key, FL It should be noted for the last several days…since Louisiana mostly, any elevation gains in the stats are not climbing hills but up and over bridges. The riding has been very flat.…
Gulf Coast MS to AL
Day 21. 4/26/22. 69 mi. AIS 6:28, 741 elev. 10.6 mph Long Beach MS to Bayou LeBatre AL Such a pleasure riding all morning along the gulf coast. For quite a ways we had a bike path-ish route through Gulfport and Biloxi MS. I will comment yet again on the Mississippi bikeways, roads and clean…
Well deserved day of rest
Day 20. 4/25/22. Long Beach MS. 0 miles. Rest Day The stats for last week (it was our biggest week): 412 miles. Avg miles per day 68.66, 7 days in Louisiana, total trip miles=1081 I should comment on how lucky we’ve been with weather the last 3 weeks. I only recall one very hot over…
Bridges, Bayous, Crawfish or…(The good, the bad and the ugly)
Day 19. 4/24/22. 74mi. AIS7:43. 560 elev. 9.6mph New Orleans, LA to Long Beach, MS My day started horribly wrong. In the wee hours of the morning, I woke up with the feeling I was going to throw up! Yep, in fact, I got to the bathroom and after a minute or so, I was…
New Orleans!
Day 19. 4/23/22. 66mi. AIS 6:33 hrs. 419 elev. 10mph. Poche Plantation Convent , LA to New Orleans This is coming a day late because we had an evening off and we’re in New Orleans! Blog posts can wait a day! New Orleans is experiencing their annual (but not in 2 yrs) French Quarter Festival.…
Earth Day and Plantations
Day 18. 4/30/22 50 mi. 5:10 AIS. 249 ft. 9.6mph Leaving Baton Rouge around sunrise. The route took us on a very short bike path on the levee. Then we rode through the Athletic Complex area of LSU. Near the enormous Tiger Football stadium, past the Baseball and Soccer stadiums too. Very quickly we were…
Bridges, levees and happy dogs
Day 17. 77mi. AIS 7:37, 619 elev., 10 mph Simmesport to Baton Rouge Out of Simmesport bright and early. Going to be a long, long day and we have to get into downtown Baton Rouge. As I’ve said before cities are exhausting with bad pavement, stop and go and traffic. Starts with a quick stop…
Some days are tougher than others
Day 17. 4/20/22. 68 mi. 10.5 mph AIS 6:42 hrs. ,530 ft elev. Ville Platte to Simmesport Boy today was not my favorite day. It had its good moments and some interesting little towns but the wind…..! It can be relentless and you just have to push through it. Especially when the last 20 miles…
Oh the people you meet
Day 16. 4/19/22. 78 mi. 7:08 hrs. 806 ft. elev. 11mph DeRidder to Ville Platte Long day! DeRidder layover was our introduction to Louisiana Cajun food. It’s a new experience for all of us. We went to Steamboat Bills and Izzy (Isabelle) was our delightful server. We peppered her with questions about food, local crops,…
Be Safe…OR…Be Defensive
Day 15. 4/17/22. REST day. DeRidder, LA The usual rest day activities. Bicycle lube and maintenance. It’s chilly and windy today. So, of course, today we decided to send back some of the extra “warm” clothes we’ve packed. Curtis is off to the post office. Hope we don’t regret this decision. Keeping the down puffy…
Miles and Miles
My image of Texas is completely changed. My old image was like what you see in an old Western movie – dry, dusty, thorn bushes and cacti on endless flat land. Now I know that as we entered the Hill Country from then on it was different. First a lot of big steep hills with…
Goodbye Texas, Hello Louisiana
Day 14, 4/17/22, Easter Sunday, 73 mi. 751 ft elev. AIS 5:36 hrs, 13.1 mph Silsbee TX to DeRidder, LA Longest mileage and fastest speed yet! We got an early start, 7:30am, hoping to finish before the expected rain today. Btw…no rain. Cycling in the early morning on any Sunday is good, but Easter Sunday…
Rapidly descending to the Gulf Coast
Day 13. Shepherd to Silsbee TX. 60.5 mi. 5:12 hrs. 564 ft elev. 11.6 mph. April 16, 2022. Silsbee TX elev 36 ft above sea level. We are in the western gulf coastal plain country now. Also the Bible Belt. This is a totally different Texas from everywhere else we’ve been to this point. We…
Texan Double Six Shooter = 66!!
Day 12. 45 mi. 4:20 hrs. 1308 elev. 10.4 mph. April 15 Today would be a very good day to have a good day! (Cue Michael Franti😊). It’s my 66th birthday today. I was 63 when I started this ride in 2020 and here I am now 3 years older. I was looking to have…
We are family
Day 11. 68 mi. AIS 6:52 hrs. 2332 ft climb 10.3 mph Somerville Lake to Cagle Recreation area in the Sam Houston National Forest. Lake Conroe Today my nephew Joseph Pappalardo joined us for part of the ride. He lives in the Dallas /Ft Worth area, so he had a 3.5 hr drive to meet…
First long day
Day 10. 69 mi. 6:13 AIS, 2253 elev. 12.8 mph (woohoo!!) Buescher State Park to Somerville Lake Marina Campground Today started out fast and cruising, favorable winds, overcast and felt good. There was a chance of rain but it never materialized. It was definitely our longest ride yet. We took several nice breaks about every…
Dogs, AirPods and hills
Day 9. 55mi 1991 elev. AIS 5:28. 10.0 mph We were out of Austin early today, 7:40am. Overcast but warm morning , 85% humidity. As I stated earlier, Austin’s bike trails and bike paths along major roads is impressive. We scooted right along and we’re out of the metro area within an hour. Passed a…
What’s in a day?
Day 8. Rest day in Austin In the daily stats column “AIS” (ass in seat) refers to actual time riding the bike. Doesn’t include snack stops, photo stops, lunch, etc. Elevation climb is overall amount of climbing in the total ride. Typically we are waking up about 6:30am. There’s packing up inside the tent and…
Significant rollers
Day 7. 51.5 mi. 5:15 hrs. 2932 elev climb. 9.8 mph Where do I begin? It seems my day really started at sunset last night. You’d think someday when I set up camp I would pay closer attention to where the yard lights are? Last night soon after sunset the yard light comes on at…
Johnson to Johnson country ride
Day 6. 44 mi. 4:06 hrs. 1948 elev. 10.8 mph! We left Fredericksburg Lady Bird Johnson Park and rode back country roads to Johnson City. Childhood home of LBJ. For a change we had our first tailwinds, except the last 2 miles. I’ll forget about those 2 miles. Angry issues: 1. When we left camp…
Texas flags and Lonestars
Day 5. 39 mi 4:08 hr. 1587 climb 9.5 avg speed. Ingram to Fredericksburg, Tx We had a fabulous ride today. Short and easy. The morning started a wee bit cold. Spent the early hours of the morning searching for more layers inside the sleeping bag! Our campsite was “primitive” which means the toilets/showers were…
Interval Training
Day 4. Texas Hill Country. 43 mi 9.1 mph. AIS 4:43 hrs. 2000 elev climb Lost Maples to Ingram TX The most beautiful day today. Started with a very steep hill (walk) right out of camp. To those that know..think climb out of Elkhorn Hot Springs but straight up, no curves! Anyway, once we were…
Some wind, some walking, some HILLS. Texas Hill Country
Day 3. 41 mi. 5:42 AIS 3244 elev gain. 3 BIG climbs 7.2 mph avg. Camp Wood to Lost Maple Natural Area Out of camp by 8am (usually we’re closer to 9). Expecting red flag winds today. 20mph with gusts to 40! And it sure felt like it right out of our camp. The first…
Crushing hot…need water!
Day 2. 51 mi. Ais (ass in saddle) 4:47 Bracketville to Camp Wood Today started out glorious! We were on a back country (ranch) road. About the only vehicles were TDOT. We had 30 great miles with no traffic, slight tailwind and decent asphalt surface. We stopped every 10 miles to catch some shade and…
Back in the saddle. Day 1
30 miles. 3:05 hrs. Del Rio to Bracketville TX Started about noon after driving to Del Rio (2 hrs). Some assembly of bikes required. While getting ready to ride two separate groups of cross country riders went past. One group all women tour (not sure of the name) and the other mixed group (35 riders)…
On the road again..
(Cue Willie Nelson) going places that I’ve never been Stuffed all the bags in the backseat First day we drove to Colorado City CO. South of Pueblo. Arrived about 11pm. Tired of sitting. Made it to San Antonio. 12 hr drive from Colorado City CO to San Antonio. Long day. Cruised through San Antonio at…
All prepped and ready to go
Just 2 more days before we hit the road (by vehicle) to hit the road by bicycle! The last two weeks have been busy getting all the gear together, checking the lists, trial packs of the panniers, trial rides with all the gear and last minute details of gears and derailleurs. We are definitely all…
Redux. Southern Tier Part II
March 22, 2022 Suzy, Jim and Curt are returning to the asphalt highways of the southernmost states of the USA. We have half of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida remaining to ride. (1700 mi) Little did we know when we stopped our cross country adventure in March of 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic shutdown…
cinnicrew 