Lots of Worst Moments

Day 34, May 5, 2011 Lots of Worst Moments.

91 miles averaging 13.6 mph

Route from Steinhatchee, to Rock Crusher RV Park, Crystal River, FL

Best Moment – For about 20 miles today the route was the Nature Coast State Trail – a route dedicated to hikers, horses and bicycles.  There was no one there and I cycled in solitude through some beautiful country.

Worst Moment – There was a lot that went wrong today.  Along the Nature Coast Trail, a bridge was out and I had to backtrack to the equestrian trail – meaning I had to walk through a lot of sand.  (Maybe if I had read the notice at the beginning of the trail I would have known this. Maybe. There was an 11 x 8 ½ notice about something at the beginning of the trail near where there was road construction.)

I picked up some more wire in the rear tire around noon – which created a slow leak that I was able to ride on as long as I kept adding air.  Then the head winds returned and the majority of the route was interstate like. 

Finally, when we tried to put out the awning for Ruby, we found that at sometime it had been bent and doesn’t work now. 

I crossed the Suwannee River of Stephen Foster’s fame.  Of course in the song, he left out the “U” because he feared that it would be mispronounced.  He never saw the Suwannee.  Too bad, because it is beautiful.  What a river!  The Nature Coast Trail is an old railroad trail and uses the RR trellis for the bridge over the Suwannee – pretty cool!  Much of the trail looked like my personal canopy road with an abundance of wildflowers. 

The Sun Coast Highway appears to be a major alternative to I-75.  There are lots of logging trucks and a fair amount of traffic.  The route normally has a good-sized shoulder making for good bicycling

Looks like there used to be some kind of quarry around Crystal River.  The RV Park is even called Rock Crusher.