Day #3 - 3/15/2011 - Tallahassee to Fountain, FL - 81 miles

It was 81 rural miles from the decrepit Prince Murat Motel in Tallahassee to our comfortable horse barn in Fountain, Florida.

Day #3 and falling behind already trying to blog.  (Too much time spent biking!)  About 60 brutal miles yesterday from Perry to Tallahassee, made so by the series of rolling hills that lead into the state capitol, then amplified by all the damned hills in the city itself.

How bad were the hills?  Well, having expressed himself so well about his feelings regarding snakes on his plane, imagine Samuel L. Jackson expressing himself similarly about the hills.

Thank goodness the way out of Tallahassee was largely downhill.  But, before sailed out of Tallahassee, we found ourselves entering the Florida State University campus.  I could tell you that FSU is one of the flagship university programs in the state university system, that it  is home to Florida's only National Laboratory – the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or other impressive stuff.  I could.

And, suddenly, we found ourselves in the Belly of the Beast, Where the Sun Does not Shine, within The Heart of Darkness, Where The Eye Does Not See.  I whipped out my tripod

We did our Gator Chomp and sang the stories of Gator greats, like Meyer and Donovan and reveled in the recent victories of the Gator Baseball Team against FSU, yodeling the name of Tim Tebow until someone shouted "WTF...its 6effing am!"

And then, after desecrating the FSU campus, we moved on.

Go Gators 

As early as 6:30am, there was a steady stream of traffic heading towards Tallahassee from the West.  The landscape quickly became rural with miles of relative nothing with an occasional mobile home.  

There were many towns with odd names.  Named after William D. Bloxham (1835-1911), a former FL governor with family ties to George Washington.

From a bicycle, you get a view of things that you simply cannot get from a car at 60mph.  Driving over one bridge, the swamp land looked primordial.  Stopping the bike and hopping off, there was a 6' gator in clear view.  I've seen plenty of gators at Paynes Prairie (that's a link there), but there was something extra-cool seeing one here...I let out a "whoop" and it jumped into the water before I could get a picture of it.  It was still a great scene.

Much of the landscape was primal.  When I first got off my bike to look around, there was a 6' gator on the ground...I spooked it before I could photograph it.

There were many bridges, some small, some pretty big, including this one over the  Apalachicola River with its generous bike lane:

Crossing the Apalachicola Bridge.

Do you know that the area around the Apalachicola River, besides containing some incredibly scenic landscape, is home to the Tupelo trees that produce the best Tupelo Honey?  Did you?  Did you!!  No...I guess you didn't.  Well, we found some more of it here at a road side produce stand in Bristol, FL.  Not one to turn down Tupelo honey and feeling like my bike needed an extra pound, I bought another bottle. 

Road side produce stand in Bristol, FL.  Lani bought a few potatoes for later use and a basket of strawberries.  I picked up another jar of Tupelo honey, this one even better than the last and a few dollars less.

This bottle of Tupelo was even better than the last, while being a few dollars less.  For those of you interested in a high quality monofloral honey , Mr. Duggar will ship you a gallon for $60.  Call him first....I have.

J. M. Dugar

Bristol, FL 32321

(850) 643-5137

A little down the road from the food stand, we pulled over to the grassy area around the local state health clinic, ate our PB&J and strawberries and then moved.

A little while later, Lani's rear tire went flat.  We pulled over and Lani replaced the tube.

Lani replaces a flat tube.  She found the sliver of glass that penetrated the tire and tube, setting us back by another 30 minutes.  The consummate environmentalist, Lani recycled the sliver.

The day wore on and, after mile 60, we were just looking for somewhere to stay...but there was nothing for another 20+ miles according to the database in our Garmin and with an iPhone Google search (neat little tools.)  The closest thing we could find was the Pine Lakes RV Park, about 20 miles away.  What was even more demoralizing was that it was 7 miles off our route, meaning an additional 30 minutes of extra biking the following day to return to the route. 

We finally reached the intersection to turn to the RV park.   I thought I spotted a Knights Inn logo on a distant sign.  Lani set out to investigate:

Lani returns after checking out the area for a possible motel.

Alas, we were all deceived, leaving us to turn Eastward for the final 7 miles to our evening's destination.

Fortunately, we were rewarded for our efforts.  Maria and Robert, owners and operators of the Pine Lakes RV Park were waiting for us.  We had reserved a small "cabin".  Actually, it turned out not to be a cabin, but what looked like a horse barn converted into a room, secured by a sliding door:

Our "room" was clean, comfortable and rustic.

The room was comfortable, rustic and nicely furnished.  Both of us would have enjoyed hanging out there for a few days.  The park itself was on some very nice land.  The bonus for the evening was that after crossing paths with Bob and their daughter, America, and he heard of our biking adventure, we were invited to join him and his family for dinner.  Maria made sandiwiches, heated up some instant pizza and cooked hot dogs which, after biking for 10 hours, was just about what Lani and I needed.

Bob was retired Air Force Special Forces and piloted an MC-130 E/H Combat Talon which carried the 10-ton MOAB (Mother of All Bombs).   He followed his military career with 3 years in the State Department, stationed in Columbia, which is where he met Maria.  They were hospital and great company.  Foolishly, I forgot to take their photo; I asked him to send me a family shot to include in the blog.


We thanked them profusely for their hospitality and then returned to our horse barn, grateful that the Prince Murat Motel was far behind us.