I made another long ride into the state of Florida May 23, 2015. My wife +Sylvia Wormley wanted to visit the Wakulla Springs State Park. We play this game where she picks out a destination that she wants to visit, and i ride my bike there and then we hang out and relax. As usual I could not stop and take all of the pictures that I wanted to, but here are the photos from the ride.
Tractor on GA HWY 37
I like riding my bike down roads where there are farms. When I get a chance to stop and take a picture of a tractor I do it. I have never seen a tractor of this type. I will have to research it to see what it is used for.
Pastoral barn on River Road
My friend Richard Thompson recommended that I take this road on my next trip to Florida on my bike. River road is really nice, lots of farms and low traffic. If you look closely at this image in the sky on the right you can see a crop duster. I am glad that I did not have to cross paths with this crop duster on this ride.
New county for my bike travels
This route was remote and it did not take me through any small towns that had gas stations or stores. I pass a lot of churches as this is the Bible Belt, so I started stopping at churches to get water. I use tablets to add electrolytes to my water. I started playing another game on this trip, see how far I can ride without paying for water. I am happy to report that I rode 131 miles and did not pay for water.
I have passed many corn fields on my bike. I have also watch large combines harvesting corn for bulk use. I have never witnessed the harvesting of corn by hand for consumer packaging. Earlier on my trip I was a plant that was taking tree farm pine logs and transforming them into the wire wooden crates that are being used for this corn.
The truck is being pulled by the tractor.
Farm hands picking and packaging corn
I have always wanted to visit Bainbridge
Prefect weather and slight cross winds
This would be my fastest average pace for the day
Downtown Bainbridge, GA
Bainbridge State College
After leaving Bainbridge I vered off course and got on US HWY 84 instead of staying on US HWY 27. I guess I wanted to do some hill training with strong headwinds. I was starting to get discouraged riding on this busy highway, but my spirits picked up when I reached the town of Climax.
Old store front in climax, GA
Climax, GA Memorial to locals who paid the ultimate price in WW II
I took my phone out and got my bearings. I decided to trust my garmin which was offering a updated route.
Finally got to florida
After meandering though some back county roads I got back to US HWY 27. I decided to stay on US HWY 27 until I got to Tallahassee.
After crossing into florida I saw this huge Confederate Flag. I decided to add it to my trip photos.
I really like the style of this sign
It was getting really hot at this point. I started playing another game. I wanted to take a picture of my Garmin display when my milage was the same as the air temperature. I got pretty close before giving up and focusing on getting to my destination.
98 miles 98 degrees
100 miles 101 degrees. temperature jumped up before I could get my phone out
I wanted to capture some of the information on the Internet written about my bike, a custom 1999 Serotta Rapid Tour (SRT). I have about 10,000 miles on this bike. This year alone I have 2,500 miles on it. I have 1,000 miles so fare in April on this bike. I have can only remember one major tune up done on this bike. Here is an interesting discussion that I found about my bike on the Pace Line Forum . Here is a quote about the bike that I own and love "Rapid Tour was Serotta's version of a bike that would fit reasonably sized tires with fenders, and could carry light luggage for credit card touring. In a word, "sensible" and not just a fair weather toy for let's play racer. There's nothing "low end" about that." ~ palincss 05-01-2010 03:33 PM I think that I have upgraded my components from what was on the stock SRT. My SRT has Shimano Ultegra derailleur and the stock SRT has a Shimano 105 derailleur. Here a photo of a stock SRT.
Cycle Thunder II I am recovering from a near death experience that happened on March 17, 2014. I was hit from behind on my way to work and could have died, but I did not. I could make up all sorts of excuses of why I should never get on a bike again, but that is not who I am. Cycle Thunder I was sitting in my living room this past week in front of the TV and my wife was napping beside me. Out of nowhere I starting sobbing and tears flowed freely from my eyes. Was I mourning the lost of a bicycle? I went to work for two days this week and I carried my bike in the back of my truck. I have not had the heart to take it out since getting it from the Dougerty Police Department. I guess I am having a hard time of letting it go. Before I had this accident I had already made up in my mind that this 1999 Serotta Rapid Tour was the last bicycle that I would ever buy. I had already decided that I would only ride just so fast and that I would never be able to keep up with
I did not set up the segment. I did not want to participate in the segment. I found myself looking at my results and wondering who was number on on the segment leader board list and then I was hooked. There are not too many hills in here in SW Georgia, but one of them is near my job. This segment is on the final approach to the ASU campus. The grade is a measly .7% to 1.4% (54M to 64M) over a distance of about 2 KM. The record was held by Edward Picolo at 4 minutes and 3 seconds. When I started bike commuting in September 2012 I was generally tired at this point of my commute. When I started using Strava in January 2013 I discovered the segment and I was a bit stronger in my endurance and I was always making an effort to finish strong up this hill. Only 5 riders appear on the leader board since 2012. I have been competing against my best efforts for a few months until yesterday when I decided that I was going to beat 4:03 on the segment. I finished at 3:48 and I was am
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