Tallahassee to Madison FL April 26 2012

Ken and I clowning with Ray Charles

Wooden bridge over beautiful Bayou

would up sleeping in this morning which really put me behind the eight ball. I didn’t set my alarm as I had thought that I would wake up in plenty of time. Normally it would not have been a big deal as it was only 66 miles. 

The reason that today was a problem is that we were going to ride through Tallahassee in a group. So I threw my gear into the bag and hurried off to get on my bike. In my haste I never put my route sheet on my bike, never filled my water bottles, and forgot to reset my odometer.  As a result I was in a fog as to where we were going and where I was all day. I knew that we were just riding down state highway 90 until the very end when we turned off to head up to our camp ground. 

The group ride was a total shambles as nobody told anyone the rules of the ride. Riders were passing each other on both sides and not staying in groups of two. The pace vehicle would speed up and slow down. The chase vehicle was not riding the center line but riding the curb so vehicles in the outside lane would crowd the white line. Some riders were braking while going down hill and thereby spreading out the group. Luckily no one had a flat. The group ride was 14 miles and when it was over we broke up an headed off down the road.

We rode through Greensville which was the birthplace of Ray Charles. There was a sag stop there so we all stopped and took pictures of the Ray Charles statue. There was a lady who grew up with him in Greensville sitting in the park. I did not talk to her as there were a lot of other riders talking to her.

I was going to ride down to our camp with Don and Liam but they got out in front of me and they were not going to let me catch them. I was riding as hard as I could but they held me off until we got down to Madison, where we hit some hills and I was able to ride them down on the hills. We all went in and had lunch in a local diner which was very nice.

Tonight we are staying in some sort of church retreat which is several miles out in the country. We were going to be inside but as there is no room inside we are in our tents for two more days. The women’s toilet is not working and only one men’s toilet so Bubba has brought in two porta potties. There is no shade, no internet, no beer as it is church property, and nothing to do. At least the tents are spread out. It looks like 60-70% of the riders have elected to find a hotel room. Tomorrow is our last day off.  Bubba has arranged some sort of canoe/kayak trip for tomorrow. Details are some what sparse. 

Terry