Day Two - Crawfordville to Lamont, FL - 56 miles, 1670 feet ascent

Day two of the Gulf to Goat charity ride was an adventure. We had good weather and began a gradual ascent to the northeast past Tallahassee. The finish line was a Days Inn just off I-10 between Monticello and Lamont, FL. This was our last full day in Florida.

Quote of the Day: “I feel like I’m wearing tap shoes and a diaper!” — anonymous, but it could have been any of us.

Without the police escort, we were free to ride at our own pace and the 13 of us spread out into smaller groups of two, three or four spaced out over a mile of so. In the lead most of the time was 47-year old Michael Donnelly, USNA ‘00, with his dad Jay, Carl June and Jeff Simons close behind. At one point today while riding through a tree tunnel of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, a very large branch fell and landed no more than three feet behind Carl June and just ahead of Jeff Simons. Jeff managed to swerve and avoid the debris. Carl’s first words were “Glad I’m wearing a helmet!” With or without a helmet, a half second slower and he would have been crushed.

Two of our group, Dave Frost and Tom Brubaker get extra credit for riding 71 miles today. They missed a couple of turns and took a scenic detour through Tallahassee that included a dirt road, broken glass and a roadside repair for a chain derailment. We all have the day’s route programmed into our cycling computers which provide turn by turn directions but they can be misleading at times. Frosty knew something was amiss when he kept passing the same gas station multiple times that had a sign in front saying “Cold beer, 99 cents” and each time asking “Can we stop?”

Eventually we all ended up at the hotel where the BIKEternity crew had chocolate milk, pickles and cold beer waiting for us. (It’s a cycling thing.) Dinner tonight was Mexican food. Tonight we’ll recharge batteries and get ready to enter Georgia tomorrow for a 63-mile ride with 1100 feet of climb.