Hanna st Park to Seville

We were both up in time in time to take our coffee to the beach and watch the sunrise.

We didn’t have a big day planned so we took our time packing up. I did some maintenance on the bikes. A Park ranger came by and said that hammocks are not allowed in the park. He was real friendly about it and I thanked him for not telling us that until morning. We had got the last campsite available and it was paved. Sleeping on pavement even with my air mattress is not very comfortable.

We headed out around 10. It was a very enjoyable ride along the beach. It been perfect weather. Mid 70s and sunny. Being so close to the ocean we could not resist the temptation of stopping frequently and jumping in. It was always refreshing. 5 minutes is all the longer it would take until I cold and shivering. Then it was back on the bikes to work up a swear again.

We have been stopping at grocery stores once a day. Usually pretty close to wherever we are going to camp. We get something for dinner and enough to last until the next afternoon. We each contribute $10. Even though it has to feed 2 people it seems like $20 a day buys so much more. Today we bought chicken breast an onion and salad mix . The chicken was on sale buy one get one. So we had a total of 6 breast. We had two apiece for dinner, then cooked the other two for chicken salad the following day. I had a box of cous cous that’s got more miles on it then some people’s cars. It had been in my food bag since New Hampshire. We had cous cous, chicken and onions for dinner.

We had a pretty tough day planned and wanted an early start. We were on the road by 8. We stopped and bought oranges coffee drinks and water when we reached route 1.

Our days ride was around 50 miles to Lake George. There was a WS host that had yurts set up right on the waters edge. We wanted to get there in time to do laundry. It quickly turned into a tough day. A pretty strong headwind picked up mid morning. We would each take turns being up front so we could draft each other. Drafting is when you ride about one foot behind the person in front of you. The leader blocks the wind and the person following rides in the draft they create. It makes a huge difference, especially on fully loaded bikes. Often times you hear the other guy coasting when you’re struggling just to maintain a decent speed. The downside is your front tire is as close as possible to the leaders rear wheel and you can’t really look around at your surroundings.

Florida has been truly awesome. Very bike friendly and beautiful. Google has done pretty good at taking us down good roads. Though today it took us down a sand road that turned tapered off into a power line right of way that had a gate acrossed it. We wanted to eat our lunch there but the mosquitos were terrible. We think they bribe Google maps into sending cyclist down that road so they can get a fresh meal.

We made it back to the main road and decided to skip lunch. We only had around 20 miles to go. In Seville we stopped to buy groceries. The options were limited at the only store around. We got eggs cheese and tortillas. We still had the chicken and salad too.

We got to the yurts around 3. It was an epic day. We had a great dinner of chicken salad wraps as the sun was setting.