Madison to High Springs April 28 2012

Some of the roadside flowers

A 1955 Buick

A view down the roadside

Not all of them are in Teaxs

The ant invasion scared most of  the campers off last night and it was pretty gruesome. There were only 15 people at camp and about 9 of them had elected to move in side.  Then at rider meeting when the route sheet was handed out and it was apparent that there errors on the route sheet I thought there was going a revolt.  Lets just say it got nasty. 

This morning when I got up I was feeling more than a little nauseous. My hands and arms were swollen from all of the ant bites and my tongue was feeling swollen. I took a few Benadril capsules and jumped on my bike. For the next 45 minutes I was feeling light headed, but I could tell it was getting better.

There was an early morning fog and although there was reduced visibility. Riding though the fog was great as it was nice and cool. So when I got to the first sag I rolled right though it as I wanted maximize the cool weather.  By time I got to Live Oak the route sheet was off  by 12%. It was too early to stop for lunch so I kept rolling. The second sag was at the most important turn of the day so even though the route sheet is totally nonsense by this point it didn’t matter as Chandler had apparently marked the last part of the ride.

The wild flowers were out and putting on a real show.  There were lots of yellows purples and whites. There were whole fields of beautiful flowers. This made it a very beautiful ride.

A squirrel ran across the road in front of me when I was approximately 75 feet away and then stopped about 2 feet into the ditch. There was a very large tree about 15 feet form the squirrel.  When I was about 20 feet from the squirrel I started to bark. The squirrel was totally surprised and ran for the tree. When he was about 8 feet from the tree he made a huge jump for the tree but missed. The squirrel landed chin first and when head over heels. The squirrel did a couple of barrel rolls before he got it under control and shot up the tree. I laughed for 5 miles.

After I got in to camp I found out that three of the riders have left the ride as they have had it. They are going to take a room in town tonight and then ride on the last two days tomorrow. Then Bubba had a major fight with a fourth rider. I don’t know how it turned out. I saw the rider and I have to agree with the rider. I would seem to me that the customer is right and Bubba has no right giving a rider a hard time over her opinion on the quality of accommodations on the trip.

Two days left and less than 120 miles to go.  

Terry