Knowing that we had a longer day today, we started early at 7am. Unfortunately, our rooms didn’t have coffee (clean, but seedy hotel) so we stopped about five miles down the road at a Dunkin Donuts. It wasn’t too far into the ride when Ray decided that all of the rest of us were going off course. We were not. Ray had the wrong route loaded. To be fair, it had been an option, although not the one we were using. Shortly after that, Sue got the only flat of the ride. Now we were two hours into our ride and had only traveled 11 miles. Hmmm. We were starting to take bets on how long it would take for the whole day. We stopped for lunch in Bushnell again. Then, we started our battle against the wind. It was from the WSW at 12 mph with gusts of 25mph. Those gusts could knock you over. We stopped several times along the road during the last 15 miles to rest because in addition to the wind, we had some hills to traverse as well. Several of the group suggested these 15 miles stretch would be good practice for the Northern Tier. We finally ended the ride at my house and celebrated with a toast of champaign, pizza and an early surprise birthday cake for Sue. Great ride, great friends!! Epilogue: I was just off ten minutes in when I guessed what time we would end today. I guessed 4pm. We ended at 4:10pm.
Early start. That is the moon, not the sun, above the trees.
Photo courtesy of Ray. Notice the moon is still visible.
The sun rays didn’t show up as much as they did live.
Sue, as we waited for Ray,
More of the tradition.
While the wind was still a crosswind and not a tailwind. Linda, Ray and Sue closest to me.
When we made it to the Withlacoochee Trail and made a stop, we saw this passenger set up. As soon as the dog got out of the trailer, he wanted his goggles off.
Sue, during one of our many stops the last 15 miles. It is kind of hard to express how hot, windy and hilly this last stretch was when we were all tired.
Toasting to a great 6 days. Our SAG driver (Rod) and our GPS file maker (Owen), joined in the toast!
Ray and Glen relaxing on my lanai.
Early surprise birthday cake for Sue who will turn 82 in a few weeks.
One last farewell (for now) pose.
Dunkin Donuts for coffee!