April 2: St. Augustine, FL

  
      Although we dipped our wheels in the Atlantic in Jacksonville, we hung up the helmets (temporarily!) in St. Augustine. We spent a day exploring the oldest city in America. We visited the Castillo De San Marco, an old Spanish Fort build in 1672, and watched reenactors load and fire a cannon (minus the cannonball) across the bay. We tried to imagine what life must have been like when the entire population of St. Augustine (sometimes up to 1500 people + livestock!) crammed into the Castillo, or "Castle" during times of siege.
     We walked through the historical district and saw massive poured-concrete hotels built in the late 1800's to attract the rich and famous. St. Augustine has long been a city driven by tourists.We sat alongside the Atlantic Ocean and watched sailboats pass under the Bridge of Lions. Already our adventure seems a lifetime ago... But already, I find myself thinking: Where to next?

March 31 - April 1: Jacksonville, FL

    
     My wheel troubles and the persistently stormy Florida weather caused us to re-think our round-about initial route to the Atlantic Ocean by way of Gainesville and St. Augustine. We choose, instead, to take the opportunity to visit family in Jacksonville, and decided that we would end our journey via a more direct route at Jacksonville Beach.
     Our last official day of riding was gorgeous: temperatures in the 70's, sunny blue skies and a cool breeze. We rode carefully through busy Beach Blvd. traffic. We dragged our bikes between sun-bathers, around walkers and across the loose beach sand into the Atlantic Ocean and let the waves lap the tires. Then we looked at each other: Now What?
   Fortunately, we didn't think about that question for long. We planned to meet our parents in St. Augustine, and still had a 28 mile ride down coastal highway A1A ahead of us. Our ride down A1A was pure pleasure, along richly-landscaped coastal mansions and estuarine preserves. The reality of our accomplishment slowly set in.

March 30: Uh-oh...

     Only 130 miles or so to the coast... and disaster strikes! As we biked east out of the tiny town of Lee, FL, I heard odd sounds coming from my rear wheel. Terrible rubbing noises, grinding sounds, and bumps. I hopped off my bike. Andy and I spun the rear wheel and watched it wobble in a wide arc. We took the wheel apart right there on the shoulder of Route 90 and pulled out flattened half-bearings and shards of steel (that were, at one time, also bearings). We tried putting the wheel back together using the remaining good bearings, but it continued to wobble and grind. My bike was un-ridable!
     The nearest bike shop was thirty miles North in Valdosta, GA. The good thing about Valdosta being due North was that we neither gained, nor lost, miles in our East-West journey. We'd been wanting to visit Georgia anyway. We called a mini-van cab from Valdosta, big enough to carry both of us and two fully-loaded bikes to town.
     The next morning we rode yet another mini-van cab to Valdosta's only bike shop... only to find that a new rear wheel was in order, and that new rear wheels to fit an early-1980's era bike are rather elusive things. The Valdosta Bike Center couldn't help me... but Western Auto (yes, Western AUTO) saved the day.
     Despite being called Western Auto, Western Auto sells bikes (along with lawn mowers and refrigerators). Somewhere in the dark recesses of the back room they found an old, dusty 27" x 11/4" rim. They replaced it, and (after procrastinating in the store for a couple of hours while it poured rain, thundered, and lightninged) we were back on our way. I still feel a special bond with my old wheel (after all, it carried me over 3,000 miles!), and decided to haul it with me in hopes that it can someday be rehabilitated.
  Our troubles were not quite yet over. Andy took a spill on a set of wet railroad tracks crossing the highway. He fortunately had only minor road rash, a ripped rain coat, and two squished bananas to show for it!

  

March 27 - 30: DeFuniak Springs - Monticello, FL

 

  The Florida panhandle: rolling hills, pine forests, rolling hills, pine forests, rolling hills, pine forests... paralleling freight tracks along Route 90. We crossed into the Eastern time zone at the Apalachicola River near Chattahoochee, FL - another big landmark behind us!
     Fresh fruits and vegetables are coming into season here in Florida... things like strawberries, tomatoes and peas. We have no trouble finding tasty (and healthy!) things to eat at roadside stands.
     The humidity is rising, and a grey overcast is hanging in the sky. Rain may catch us on this ride yet...

March 25: Pensacola, FL

We've officially arrived in Florida, "The Sunshine State"! True to its name, Florida was sunny today... and windy, terribly windy! We struggled against a steady headwind along the beautiful Florida Gulf Coast, hardly noticing the bleached-white sands and turquoise-blue waters...

March 24: Alabama!

Here we are in state number seven: Alabama (snacking on boiled peanuts - a fast food staple down here, given to us by a kind roadside vendor).We cycled down to Dauphin Island ("The birdiest city in Coastal America"), and camped the night at the Dauphin Island Campground. We took advantage of the opportunity to swim in the (very warm!) Gulf of Mexico - to a backdrop of off-shore oil rigs. We failed to see any Pelicans, the state bird of Louisiana, in Louisiana... but saw plenty along the Alabama Coast! We took another Ferry, this time across Mobile Bay... past off-shore natural gas platforms, seagulls, and pelicans, to Fort Morgan. Only a short ride from here to Florida!

March 23: Mississippi!

We've officially entered our sixth state: the state of Mississippi! We rode along the Gulf Coast out of New Orleans. The houses lining the coast fascinated us: they are regular houses built up on stilts! Why do you think that people living along the Gulf of Mexico might build houses that look like this?

We experienced a bit of "road magic" today: something out-of-the-ordinary that happens while traveling on a bicycle. A car pulled off the road ahead of us, a man got out... and offered us two ice-cold Coca-Colas! We toasted him from a gravel-and-crushed-up-seashell pull-off overlooking Lake Pontchartrain and the distant city of new Orleans.

    

March 21: New Orleans, LA

Hello from NOLA!

Andy and I followed Route 51 south from Amite, along the west shore of Lake Pontchartrain, to just outside the city of New Orleans. We passed many, many folks craw-fishin' in pools along the highway. We found a  bike path that took us along the top of a levee into New Orleans. The levee keeps the Mississippi from flooding New Orleans when it overflows it's banks. We rode through oil refineries: under conveyors and over pipelines, and watched tankers lining up to dock and unload their valuable cargo.
   We spent an entire day exploring the city of New Orleans and tasting regional cuisine. The seafood gumbo was good, and the the po-boys were tasty, but the culinary highlight werebeignets - a kind of French doughnut covered in powdered sugar (traditionally eaten with a cup of cafe au lait - dark roast coffee with lots of milk).

     We also enjoyed the spontaneous street music happening all around the city. Our favorite group of musicians kept rhythm with a washboard and washtub bass (you can see them behind the guitar and banjo players in the photo). Parades of migrating musicians were not an uncommon sight in New Orleans!

March 20: The Louisiana Hill Country

I thought we'd left the hill country behind us in Texas! Louisiana has a lot of swampland, but it has pine-forested hills, too! We climbed up and coasted down for the better part of a day. Andy found a lunch of exciting local delicacies at the Norwood gas station - including a battered, fried ear of corn!
     We camped on a sand bar alongside the crystal-clear, gravel-bottomed Tangipahoa River, just outside the town of Amite (pronounced A-Mitt), LA. We stayed up late (for us!) listening to the gurgling river and humming insects and chirping peepers and watching a near-full moon rise in the east.

  

March 19: Simmesport - St. Francisville, LA

We've begun to see huge, old plantation houses since crossing the Atchafalaya River (affectionately known as the "Falaya") east of Simmesport. This particular house sits near the river itself, and was a cannon-target for Union gunboats running the Falaya during the Civil War. Seven cannonballs were removed from the walls!
     In addition to notable houses, we've found notable food in the lowlands between the Falaya and Mississippi Rivers: bread pudding with pecan praline sauce being a favorite!
     We crossed the mighty Mississippi River on a ferry. What a wide, wide river! It took about ten minutes to get from the town of New Roads,on the west bank, to the town of St. Francisville, on the east.

    

March 16: De Ridder, LA

Louisiana, ho! Flooded rice field, lazy meandering rivers, and lush, lime-green new-growth spring leaves. Wild flowers blooming, and wild edibles  (dock and cleavers) showing up along roadsides. A glorious place to be...

March 12 - 15: East Texas Pine Country

A lot of people think of flat, open range land when they think of Texas. They don't realize that logging is also an important industry in certain parts of Texas! We rode through dense forests of Loblolly Pine and were passed (on narrow two-land roads with no shoulder!) by log truck after log truck headed East. Semi-loads of Plywood passed us, headed West. When we reached the plywood mill in Bon Weir it all made sense...
   Spring is arriving here in Texas. Most prominent of all roadside flowers are the Redbuds (which are actually purple!).

   Andy's memorable moment came at the American Legion in Burton, TX, where he happened upon a most exciting, traditional "chicken-fried steak" buffet-style lunch. We were also told by locals that we had to try "Blue Bell" ice cream while in Texas. We happily obliged.

March 11: Austin, TX

Andy and I took a day off in Austin, "live music capital of the world", TX. We watched live music, of course... everything from Jazz to Flamenco guitar, to blues, to Indie rock. We ate Texas-style barbeque (read: beef brisket) at every opportunity, and in between toured the state capital building, walked the shores of Lady Bird Lake and shopped for groceries at Whole Foods' flagship store. We watched a colony of Mexican Freetail bats roosting beneath the Congress Avenue bridge head out for an evening of bug-hunting.
     Austin a a very bike-friendly city: so much so that Whole Foods grocery store had a bicycle tune-up station! People frequent "pedal-cabs"(bicycle-driven rickshaws) instead of taxis.
      Austin is a pretty big city, so there is always a lot going on... but we happened upon it during the lead-up to a big music/film/technology festival called South by Southwest. Hotel rooms were less than easy to come by with so many extra folks in town...

Feb. 24 - Mar.8: The Curse of Texas...

Texas is a beautiful state, but a land full of bike problems... Flat tires (from glass, wire, rocks, and burrs)... we've now had at least 12 between us. Broken chains... we're up to 4. Broken rear derailleur cable... only one of those to date. Broken brake cable? 1. And rear derauiller fallen completely to pieces? Fortunately that only happened once, but once was enough. Let's hope that the curse of Texas ends on the Louisiana state line

!

March 6 - 8: Del Rio - Comfort, TX

The Texas Hill Country... but don't be fooled, these are no little hills! The climbs are short, but steep! We've also entered armadillo land, and see them regularly scratching in the dusty soil along the roads, looking for food. Did you know that armadillos were, at one time, a commercial crop?

March 2: Marathon, TX

We stayed at a hostel in Marathon called "La Loma Del Chivo", unique in that all of the buildings are made using "alternative," or "eco-friendly" building techniques. Some of the structures, like the kiva (a circular partially-underground chamber), were built of cob (clay + straw + manure). Others, like the main guest house, are made of papercrete (shredded recycled paper with water and cement addded). Bicyclists sometimes come to "La Loma" and decide to stay for a while. In turn, they contribute something to the "La Loma" community - for example, giving an old car a new paint job.

March 1: McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, TX

Welcome to one of the darkest places in the lower forty-eight... the McDonald Observatory! Because it is so dark here, high up (at around 6,000 feet) and remote, it is an excellent spot to observe the night sky. The observatory houses three telescopes: one with a reflecting surface 107" across, built in the late 1960's (the solid, tan telescope), a smaller one with a reflecting surface of 82", built in the 1930's (the open-framework telescope), and a gigantic one with a reflecting surface 10 meters in diameter! Scientists can learn all kinds of things using these telescope, like whether there are other earth-like planets and sun-like stars in outer space, and how far away they are.

Feb. 26 -27: El Paso - Kent, TX

Not many options for lunch here in Western Texas (although, in a pinch, closed interstate rest areas can work!). There are fields growing pecans and cotton lining the road,and the views across the Rio Grande into Mexico are striking. The free-ranging cattle seem quite content with their lot...