One Month Down

Day 29, April 30, 2011, One Month Down (only Five More to Go)

88.9 miles averaging 13.2 mph

Route from Pensacola to Juniper Lake RV Park, DeFuniak Springs, FL

Best Moment - On the Blackwater Trail I met a guy at a stop sign (there were a lot of them) who looked a little worn out.  I asked him how he was doing and he said that this was his first day on a bicycle ever.  I asked more about it and his doctor told him that for his health he had to start bicycling – he was!  The benefits of cycling are amazing.

Worst Moment – We got to Juniper Lake Campground and met Bill and Donna, the owners.  They are very outgoing friendly people and their RV Park is astoundingly beautiful.  Sadly, Bill was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and starts treatments this week in Pensacola.

The route went through some extraordinary countryside.  Again there were pine forests and wildflowers.  Most of the time the roads were completely deserted.  I saw some remarkable scenes from the coastal waterways to the bayou swamps.

Part of the route was a dedicated bicycle / equestrian path called the Blackwater Trail.  This is where a railroad bed had been turned into a bike path.  I think that I saw the most bicyclists on it than any other time since leaving Phoenix.  It’s a great mostly flat trail and a wonderful place to cycle.

There was a Louisiana Pacific lumber mill not too far from DeFuniak Springs and the railroad cars were filled with newly cut boards.  Quite a sight to see railroad car after railroad car all filled with lumber.

I got to Juniper Lake RV Park around 3:00.  Ruby was here, but Neita wasn’t.  I was taking care of the bike and she called me.  She was down on the deck overlooking the lake.  Juniper Lake had been a cypress swamp that was dammed up and turned into a lake.  It is filled with spring water and is so tranquilly and beautiful.  Neita wants to stay here for a week at least.

Just finished listening to an interesting novel about seven generations of a Black family in the South that had been co-written by two sisters over 7 or 8 years.   It was about how life and music in the South had changed from slavery to the Viet Nam War.  I found Some Sing, Some Cry, very long and sometimes boring.  The one good thing about this audio book is that the woman who read the book did an astonishing job of singing.

In case you are interested in making a donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation so they can help people like the RV Park owner, here is my link: http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197