After breakfast I asked Jerry and Michele to take some time in Palatka so I could see some of the murals around town. I couldn't resist taking a picture of Rev. Billy Graham, but my favorite was the mural of USS Columbine.
The Columbine was a Union gunboat that was captured by Confederate Calvary (Yup, Calvary) and returned to service for the south. It was later scuttled and thought lost until 2006 when it was found in the St. Johns River in Palatka.
There are many other murals here, but I didn't want to hold us up too long.
Our route today took us on mostly deserted back roads finishing on route 207 into town. After a while on 207 we noticed a new, parallel bike path so we hopped on that not knowing where it would end up. It peeled away from 207 after a bit, but we figured worst case it would end at a road and we could then find our way into town.
Wrong. The path ended suddenly in the middle of nowhere forcing us to retrace our route back for a mile or so. A "no outlet" sign, or something similar would have been nice. We were in good spirits and cheerfully turned around, cursing our carelessness and rejoined 207.
Once in town we made our way across the intracoastal waterway to Vilano Beach. The only reason we chose this beach was because it was near the UPS Store, but it was perfect. The hard packed sand made it easy for us to push the bikes out to the surf.
We started by touching our wheels to the Pacific and ended by touching wheels to the Atlantic. Just as envisioned eight weeks ago.
The gals at the UPS Store were extremely helpful, they managed to get all of our gear into one box, saving us about $150 ($100, just for me). They looked at us a little warily at first, but they were soon helping us enthusiastically.
We even found a DQ for our traditional end of day root beer float. I think I'll send DQ a note letting them know how much we enjoyed seeing their little redas we entered small towns hot, tired and thirsty.
After that we checked into our motel, cleaned up, had beers with Dean and Lori, did some sight seeing and went out for a celebration dinner. All in all, a busy day. Jerry and Michele even found a Brazilian Cafe, I'll swing by in the morning to see if I can get an acai bowl and some pao de queijo.
We probably could have just tacked today's 30 miles on to yesterday and arrived last night, but it was nice to arrive fresh and to take care of our errands before settling in.
Jerry commented that it's hard to reflect on events until some time has passed, and I think he's right, but we received help from a lot if really nice folks, had some good luck with the weather (except we never really did get a tail wind for any length if time) and had a great time. I was especially surprised by the courteousness of the drivers along the entire route, we never had a single problem.
I'm already thinking about doing the northern tier, but tomorrow I sleep in!
Congratulations Steve
ReplyDeleteG