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| Country Mouse, BagLady, and Shadow |
And I set my first steps on the Florida Trail near the northern terminus. Someday I'm sure I'll hike it! When I'm older:)
These are a few of the amazing (and not so amazing) campspots I was able to find these last couple of weeks along a very busy road I had to cycle. It's easy to wild camp! I camped in fields, on beaches, on an Air Force Base...actually 2, the driveway to gravel pits (don't do that again!), and on the sides of bike paths.
A Gulf storm was forecasted for one weekend and I decided to get a motel room for two nights. I arrived Saturday afternoon and no bad weather came that day, that night, nor the next morning. By 2 PM the following afternoon I decided to bike to the nearby laundromat. Halfway there the skies opened up and I got drenched on my way back to the motel. 10 minutes later the sun comes out and the weather is good again :-) That figures! The only other rain there was was that evening another 10 minutes of rain. Oh well! If I had not gotten the motel room, the storm would have gotten me. It went above me and below on the weather map.
Folks I met along the way:
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| Henry on his first tour came across the US |
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| Diane and Dave Draper from Laguna Beach and Wisconsin...thanks for taking me in for the night! |
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| Isn't her tike cute?!? |
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| My next bike??? |
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| Chris from England and Ties from Holland/Morroco |
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| Leslie from Scotland...they've done some serious touring, too! |
And this is just a sampling of all the incredible people I met along the way. Each with their own special story, that now would make this post too long if I narrated every one. Suffice to say some I only had a passing conversation with, some I biked for a few hours with, and some took me in for a shower, dinner, and to spend the night. And to all I gave a big THANK YOU for sharing yourselves with me and enriching my journey.
I'm now in Tampa visiting a hiker friend, Rainbow (I'll be sure to get a photo of us together before I leave...we just took one to insert!),
that I met at a hiker gathering a few years ago. I also saw her earlier in 2016 in Albuquerque after she came off the New Mexico section of the Continental Divide Trail and I cycled there from San Diego. We drove over to near Orlando to spend a couple of days with other hikers at Billy Goat Day, honoring a trail legend, Billy Goat, on his 78th birthday. This guy has hiked over 10,000 miles on the PCT and many other trails. It was such fun to reconnect with Chuck and Tigger, Maw-ee and Paw-ee, and Billy Goat...and then make tons of new hiking friends. There were several Triple Triple hikers amongst us. That's having hiked the 3 long trails (AT, PCT, CDT) 3 times! Hats off to them: Lint and One Gallon. There was also a guy, Jupiter, that just set the Florida Trail (1400 miles) speed record of 28 days, 10 hours...having done this at the end of his hike of the Eastern Continental Trail which he started July 1 up in Quebec, Canada. There were some serious hikers in the group! I felt privileged to be amongst them.
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| Billy Goat, BagLady, and Karen (BG's new girlfriend) |
And I also got to spend a couple of nights with a woman I met in Steamboat Springs earlier last year, Pat Murray, who has a home in Clearwater. Was great to reconnect with her too!
Over the next month I'm planning on continuing across Florida to Fort Lauderdale, then flying to Cuba for a month. There's definitely some research to be done for that little trek. Where to go...what to do...how to get back in... But I'm sure it will all work out. My next big adventure! That should take me out of my comfort zone...since I speak barely a word of Spanish:))
I'm going to upload some odds and ends...and even try a video. Keep your fingers crossed!
