Day 2: Florahome, FL to Alachua, FL

Daily Miles: 64.4 Total Miles: 130.9

Taking a quick rest stop with John

What a day! Dad headed back home today :-( so we all had breakfast together before he headed out. After eating breakfast, getting all packed up, and driving the 15 miles back to Florahome to get started, it was already 9:30am. Little did we know that our late start would lead to a lucky encounter with a local cyclist, John. As I got on Rt. 100 at Florahome, I noticed a great-looking bike trail paralleling the main road. After being passed by an 18-wheeler and blasted in the face with sandy dirt, I decided to head over to the bike trail. Less than two miles in I saw a guy biking in the opposite direction and tried to ask if the trail paralleled Rt. 100 for a while. He didn't hear me, went flying past, and I figured that was that. Then, a few miles later, John pulled up and asked me where I was going. He lived nearby and ended up riding with me all the way to Gainesville (~43 miles). He took me on several really pretty, less traveled trails, off the ACA map, until we met up with the Gainesville-Hawthorne Bike Trail.

Riding along the Gainesville-Hawthorne bike trail

The bike trail was also really nice and having someone to ride with was great. John taught me how to draft (ride behind another cyclist to minimize the effect of the wind) and entertained me with various stories about the area. We got into Gainesville (the home of the University of Florida) around 2pm and all three of us went to a pretty good Cuban restaurant right downtown. Meanwhile, while John and I were on the bike trail, Mary went on to Gainesville to hang out, read and wait for us. She sat right down in the town's main park, Bo Diddly Community Plaza, and little did she know that this park is the main stomping grounds for the tens of homeless people who live nearby. As we biked up to her bench, I thought I had happened upon some sort of Occupy Wall Street encampment, but in actuality, everyone there was living in the park, but not protesting.

Mary's new favorite spot

Needless to say, Mary fit right in, and at lunch told us funny stories about overheard conversations regarding the sordid love lives and drug habits of her new found friends. After a long lunch and a lot of water and iced tea, we bid farewell to John and I headed out on my own for the last 20 miles to Alachua. A serious wind was whipping up, as we learned that a tornado watch was in effect for the area we are in, so I put the pedal to the metal and, thanks to a generous tail wind, hit my all time high of 28.8 MPH. We got in around 5:15, showered and grabbed Subway for dinner and are now taking it easy. The only downside to the whole day was that about 30 miles in, I started feeling a pretty significant knee pain while riding in an upright position. I switched to a lower hand positioning and that helped a lot, but I also thought that my seat was too high, so I moved it lower and the pain got worse.

A pretty little country church

When I got in tonight, I did a little research, and I think that my seat may be too far forward. I'm going to continue on tomorrow, with a now higher seat, and see how it goes. In 3 days we'll be in Tallahassee and I plan on taking my bike in to a shop, explaining my issue and hopefully getting a proper fit. If you're reading this and have any suggestions, please let me know!