A Trail of Banana Peels

Day 30, May 1, 2011, A Trail of Banana Peels

62.5 miles, averaging 13.3 mph

Route from DeFuniak Springs to Arrowhead Campground, Mariana, FL

Best Moment – Getting to Ruby early enough for a nap.  I can’t believe how sleepy that I’ve been.  We have cable TV tonight so don’t have to rely on west coast time to watch our programs. 

Worst Moment – First thing this morning I had my 4^th flat tire of the trip.  I hate those little pieces of wire.  They destroy tire tubes.  Every one of my flats has been caused by something like the tiny piece of wire you can see in the white area of the tire tube box, being held by the pliers. A good thing that I changed the tube before I started riding.

At one point in its history DeFuniak Springs was home to a group of actors that formed a Chautauqua Club, putting on plays and building beautiful homes around the city’s round lake.

Today, I began the last section (Section 7) of the Southern Tier Route.  Since I’m headed South along the West coast of Florida, I’ll only be on this section for a couple of days and not use the Southern Tier maps until I go between San Diego and back to Phoenix.  Since I’ve been on Adventure Cycling Route, and there are several other cyclists doing parts of the route, I’ve been following a trail of banana peels left by other riders  - it is surprising that I’ve not met more of them.

I saw my first alligator today – Alligator Creek, that is.

When Lawton Chiles who had been a member of the Florida State Legislature for 12 years decided to run for the United States Senate from Florida, he was concerned that he was not well enough known outside of his home district to win.  He embarked on a 91 day, 1,000 mile walk across Florida which earned him the nickname “Walkin Lawton.”   He won the election, served 8 years and went on to become Florida’s 41^st governor. U.S, Highway 90, which I’ve been riding is dedicated to Walkin Lawton.

While on a lake, Arrowhead Campground isn’t nearly as beautiful as Juniper Lake.  This campground features over 200 campsites while Juniper Lake had only 20.  The campground office here isn’t even open today.