Tallahassee FL to Live Oak FL

 Friday Apr 29th







Long ride today, part way through, John Corey fell on the top tube of his Carbon Fiber bike and the top tube cracked and partially shattered.  He happened to be next to an Ace Hardware so proceeded to go shopping.  Bought a few pieces of bar stock, epoxy and gorilla tape.  An hour later he has a presentable frame that rides ok.  A creative Doc thats for sure.  Rode successfully the final 30 miles and declared his repair a success. He will continue to ride this bike to St Augustine Beach on Monday  

My start to the ride today was slow and legs were not happy.  The prior day riding into Tallahassee was extremely difficult for the last 15 miles.  It demonstrates the importance of an occasional rest day.  So today I would say that I wasn't feeling comfortable until 20 miles into the ride. At noon time, with 50 miles behind me, I arrived in Madison, and stopped at a Mexican Restaurant and dined outside next to my bike.  Didn't see any Coasters anywheres in that little community. We can get very spread out quickly on long ride days.  

Energized by food, I ground out the last 27 miles and arrived at the Suwannee County Fairgrounds, Live Oak FL.  We are staying in an Exhibition Hall with good A/C.  At the same time they were setting up for a weekend Rodeo geared around kids.  The monster pickup trucks pulling monster horse/RV trailers were filling up all open parking spots around the horse arena. Talking to some attendees we determined that it was a Florida State event.  After dinner we watched some of the ropers. Pretty interesting but they stay up later than we do.  Ann our Chef is wrapping up her commitment to us and will depart the tour tomorrow morning after breakfast. 

Total mileage today was 77.3 miles at an average speed of 13.6, climbing 1,636 feet and burned 2,695 calories.  I took my time to save energy for the next few days. 

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