Day 3: Alachua, FL to Live Oak, FL

Daily Miles: 57.2 Total Miles: 188.1

Crossing the Santa Fe River

Well. Today was what some might describe as a character building experience. I would probably be more likely to call it a nervous breakdown inducing experience. All day long I battled three of a cyclist's worst enemies: wind, hills, and dogs. I set out this morning a little before 8am, and pretty early on I noticed a significant wind kicking up. I crossed the Santa Fe River and enjoyed a nice view, but then everything went downhill. After an hour and a half on my bike I had only covered ~15 miles and stopped to take a break. Two cyclists carrying big loads passed me looking mighty happy. I should have known that this didn't bode well for me. As I continued on the winds got worse and worse and the hills never ended. Upon checking the elevation change on my bike computer, I realized that I was going up a long very gradual climb with intermittent brief downhills. Unfortunately, because the wind was so bad, I was unable to build up any speed whatsoever on the short downhills, so I was forced to slowly trudge up the uphills. Very slowly. As in, at one point I was going 3.4 MPH.

The only windless moment I had for picture-taking 

The wind was so strong it even blew me off the road into the grass several times, but fortunately I was always able to keep control and never wrecked. In addition to the wind and hills, I also had close encounters with four different dogs. The first two were together and fortunately had short little stubby legs, so I only had to kick it in high gear for about a minute to outrun them. The second dog I didn't even see or hear until it was barking and nipping at my tire. I think it was either asleep in the grass and I startled it or the wind was blowing so loud I didn't hear him coming. Either way, I nearly had a heart attack when I saw him right beside me and screamed like a 5 year old girl. Somehow my scream stopped him right in his tracks and he didn't even try to follow me. The last dog was also fairly easy to outbike, but I think my heart is still beating fast from dog #3. I met up with Mom around mile 32, and was exhausted and frustrated. I kinda thought she might tell me we could just drive on to Live Oak (about 25 miles further on) and return tomorrow, but instead she really motivated me to keep going. She reminded me that I was over half-way there and she told me that we knew this wasn't going to be easy, if it were easy then everyone would do it.

Thumbs up for making it to Live Oak

I was still tired and freezing (the high just barely hit 60 as I was finishing, but with 20+MPH winds, it felt much much colder), but I felt jump-started and ready to continue on. After reading the blog of another cross country cycling group, I decided to veer off of the ACA course and take US 90 in to Live Oak. Mom met me at the turn-off for 90 with a 5-pack of hot wings. It was just what I needed to finish off those last 11 miles. US 90 was a fine route and I would recommend it to other cyclists riding the Southern Tier. I think it knocks around 12 miles off the ACA route and, although it has a 55MPH speed limit, it has a nice wide shoulder and doesn't have too much traffic. And let me tell you what, I needed all the help I could get. A fierce head wind (the worst of the day) greeted me to Live Oak, and I really wasn't sure I was going to make those last 3 miles. But I did and ended up finishing the 57.2 mile day in about 6 hours and 10 minutes on the bike, around 40 minutes more than each of the previous two days when I went over 63 miles. It really was a rough one. Now Mom and I are relaxing, doing laundry, tending to my extreme windburn, and getting ready to go out for a steak dinner at the Dixie Grill, the only restaurant in town.

My friend the wind. 20+MPH in my face