Tallahassee is Hilly!

Day 31, May 2, 2011, Tallahassee is Hilly!

75.9 miles averaging 12.8 mph

Route from Mariana to Tallahassee RV Park, Tallahassee, FL

Best Moment – This morning I had notification that I had received two more donations to the Lance Armstrong Foundation on behalf of my ride.  What a great feeling to start the day with!  Thank you!

Worst Moment – I really do not like urban traffic.  And while there are probably other routes that I could have taken to the RV Park, I don’t know what they are so I was on US Hwy 90 from the west side to the east side of Tallahassee.  There is a lot of traffic since I was going right through the center of the city.  Past Florida State University, Florida A& M University and Tallahassee Community College.  However with all of the hills and traffic, there wasn’t a good place to catch a photo of any of it – disappointing.  

For all of my DeVry friends I wore the DeVry jersey in honor of Week One.  This is the first start of session that I’ve missed in 12 years.  Good luck, I’ve been thinking of you all.

  

Not only is Tallahassee hilly, but so is most of this part of Florida.  There are some amazing vistas around the Three River Parks. Much of this part of the state is agricultural and pine forested with lots of river crossings.  It seemed that I was climbing a lot - sort of like the Texas Hill Country.

 

 One of the towns I had to gear down to get to 

It is difficult to tell how rolling the country side is, but this was the top of one climb.

Like many Americans I woke to the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed.  I, as I’m sure many didn’t really know what to feel.  Just because he was killed, is the world a safer place?  I don’t think so. If he had really been hiding there (as one report said in plain sight) for so many years, why did it take so long to find him? 

Tomorrow is a rest day.  YEAH!  Then I head south with a bit of nervous anticipation.  I won’t have the Adventure Cycling Route maps with their very precise directions and minimized number of turns, and will be relying on AAA road maps and Google Maps for bicycles to stay on course.  If you’ve been reading the blog since I started, you may remember that the Google Maps for bikes is what I used for my very challenging ride from Scottsdale to Eloy, AZ in February.  The time when I couldn’t and didn’t find the RV park until after dark.