Rosemary & Time

Sitting here tonight, relaxing in a very nice rental condo in Rosemary Beach, showered and fed with a home cooked interpretation of Penne alla Campagnola, it’s hard to recall the challenges faced during yesterday’s cycle from Tallahassee to Port St Joseph let alone the 62-mile journey we’ve just completed from Port St Joe. Nonetheless, we feel compelled to tell you more about yesterday’s 115-mile endeavour and, of course, today’s short hop into paradise.

It was 8pm on Tuesday, 5 January 2010 when we started on the slippery slope to near death by exhaustion! Seated in the very cool Shula’s Grill 347, on the ground floor of Hotel Duval, and named in honor of the Hall of Fame Coach Don Shula, the most successful Coach in NFL history with 347 career victories, we were waited on by Seth who insisted on telling us about his past adventures playing soccer in England. He was especially animated when recalling his time spent partying in Newcastle; anyone who has partied in Newcastle would know it’s a place one would recall with fond memories! Riding the crest of Seth’s enthusiasm for life, we decided to join the party and ordered two pre-dinner Dirty Martinis. Now firmly embraced in the party spirit, we ordered a bottle of wine, a superb accompaniment to dinner followed by, quote: “that’s the best dessert I have ever tasted”. Kat now blissfully unaware of the 6am early start was easily convinced by Anthony that a quick visit to the rooftop bar for a little nightcap would be a good idea... 30 minutes and another glass of Martini later… we were in bed at midnight holding our heads, feeling sick and asking Whhhhyyy!

With a lot of effort we managed to get out of bed at 6:30am, spent 2 hours ineffectively packing our pannier bags in a hung over state and eventually had our wheels rolling at 8:45am (1 hour 15 minutes behind schedule). The rest is old news apart from (i) meeting a great man called Paul who donated $20 and (ii) Anthony’s spoke broke AGAIN at 99.95 miles, which meant we had to limp the remaining 15 miles into Port St Joe with the last 5 miles in the pitch black. Unfortunately, we didn’t have Riddick’s (Vin Diesel) surgically-enhanced silver eyes and therefore found cycling through cemeteries and forests riddled with Bears quite a frightening thing to do. But we’re still here, so obviously we got to Port Inn (our hotel) without being hunted by the Living Dead or flesh eating Black Bears.

After a great night’s sleep at Port Inn, we got up and had breakfast with like-minded adventurers, who preferred boats to bikes. Rachel, the daughter of The Adams Family, has already posted a blog comment …thanks Rachel. Fed and watered, feeling less hung-over, and with all four layers on (only quickly to remove a layer due to the relatively hot weather - 13°C) and extremely relaxed (despite the fact that Anthony’s rear wheel was broken and it was 40 miles to the next bike shop in Panama City), we set off for today’s ride. We reached Panama City along a beautifully planned route, where Dallas of Bay Cycle and Fitness quickly fixed Anthony’s wheel. Back on the road, with only 20 miles to go and a rear wheel that no longer wobbled like jelly on a plate, all in the world seemed good. However, when we were just 7 miles from paradise (Rosemary Beach), Kat experienced two successive punctures. Anthony, now proficient in the art of puncture repairs, got Kat back on the road with not much time to spare; the sun had nearly set and we still hadn’t visited Winn Dixie Supermarket for the compulsory wine and foodstuff needed for self catering rental condos. Weighing up the pros and cons of a night with wine & food vs. cycling again in the pitch black along a busy US Hwy, the wine and food option won the day. Quickly stopping off at Winn Dixie to buy said food items we then rode off into the darkness with bottles of wine stuffed into every free space of our panniers.

We’re now at Rosemary Beach feeling content and looking forward to two rest days. Rosemary Beach has some special memories for us because this is where our friends Dave and Fran got married in 2007. It was a wonderful ceremony, they both looked gorgeous, the backdrop was breathtaking, and we had the BEST time. We promised ourselves that we would return one day, but never really knew if we would. And now we’re here…yay! Big toast to the Andrews-Cooks.

Us x

OMG…115 miles!

Today was a very good day. You’re not going to believe it but we completed 115 miles from Tallahassee to Port St Joseph (hi Little Fella) in 8h41m. Starting quite late at 8:45am (too many Dirty Martinis last night) with ice on the road and multi directional freezing wind, we rode for two hours precariously through rush hour traffic before reaching Apalachicola National Forest. For the next 50 miles as we cycled through this beautiful wooded expanse (also passing through Tates Hell State Forest.), only 5 cars passed us. We were ecstatic, as well as being toasty warm in our new winter weather gear (photos to come later). Things got even better as we exited the forest and spent the next 45 miles cycling along the Gulf Coast with breathtaking views.

Sorry for the short blog but we are beside ourselves with tiredness. We will fill you in on tomorrow’s blog.

Us x

A break from the wind!

Today was a typical rest day, with pretty much all the features that we have come to expect. We slept like babies and had a great lie in; we talked about what we needed to do during our rest day; we talked some more about the route and accommodation over the next few days, and generally chilled out. Then we suddenly realised that it was mid-afternoon and we had better start actually doing all of the things that we thought we had loads of time to do. Unsurprisingly, we then ran around like the proverbial blue-bottomed insects trying to fit everything in before the day was done….phew.

So… we managed to find a couple of fantastic cycling shops to buy the much needed cold weather gear: full length cycling tights (tres chic, hmmm, perhaps not); gloves with fingers (luxury); balaclavas (no, we’re not joking). Thanks to Clayton of The Great Bicycle Club for his enthusiasm and willingness to help us find exactly what we were looking for, even if it meant finding out whether another nearby bike shop had it in stock, and for his bits of advice. Also to all the crew at Sunshine cycles, who kept us in their shop for a good hour kitting us out with additional stuff, and giving us lots of sage like advice not only about cold weather gear but lots of other little cycling tricks as well…special thanks to Nick and Ritaan.

Dropping the newly purchased stuff back at the hotel, much happier but quite a few dollars lighter, we set straight out to find the Laundromat that we had understood was not far from the hotel. After circling the supposed location for a good few minutes and getting bluer and bluer from the cold, Anthony said “[forget] this for a game of soldiers” and strode purposefully into the nearest hotel and worked his charms on the lady on reception, who was amazing and offered to let us use their coin laundry. We won’t name her so we don’t get her into trouble for bending the rules for us, but we were extremely grateful.

Us x

Arctic winds in Florida

They both had a very content and peaceful sleep. The previous 3 days of cycling over 206 miles into head winds that gusted up to 20mph had their muscles and minds beaten into submission. As dawn rose and shone her golden locks through the slightly shabby but perfectly adequate curtains of the motel room, Anthony gently nudged Kat and suggested it was time to get up and face another day, though he secretly wanted to stay in bed and pretend the 60 miles that beckoned was just a bad dream. Kat reluctantly grunted back with sounds of disapproval and although this was not the right response Anthony welcomed the extra 30 minutes he had been awarded in bed. Somehow that 30 minutes squeezed itself into 3 mins and 47 secs (we must remember to call Peter Lynds about the theory of time and space) and it was now 8am. Kat still giving no visible evidence of moving out from under the cosy duvet, Anthony pulled himself out of bed and switched on the TV to see what meteorological nuggets of joy to expect along the 60-mile journey to Tallahassee…quel surpris! Freezing Weather Warning: Flood Risk Warnings: NW Winds gusting between 10 - 20mph. Being a ‘cup is half full’ sort of guy Anthony decided not to disrupt the ‘Katnap’ and took a hot shower. Revitalised and returning to bedroom Anthony found Kat was out of bed with a sullen look on her face. Unfortunately she had woken up to the weather channel and was less than excited at the prospect of freezing gale force winds.

Carefully selecting 4 layers of clothing including some very cute wind-stopping shoe covers to minimise the probability of any bodily part turning into blocks of ice, we set off to conquer the 50 metres to Subway for breakfast. The Motel provided “breakfast” but all they had left at 10am was cold coffee. Left with no other option we survived the 100 meter round trip to Subway and scoffed the BLT’s back in our Motel room. Unfortunately Subway didn’t sell coffee and the Motel’s caffeine offering was now frozen solid, so our breakfast was without the compulsory black stuff, which was a first for the both of us… that’s like “fish without the chips”: “ham without the mustard”: “cheese without the god damn pickle!” Come on America if you’re a food outlet that opens before 10am you need to sell coffee. Kat tried to put this major setback behind her and focused on our calorific reserves now being at an acceptable level to tackle Southern America’s freak weather conditions. It didn’t take long for our bodies to warm up as we span our legs frantically in an effort to stand still. The road was long without many a winding turn but we soldiered through and eventually got within striking distance of Hotel Duval in Tallahassee, only to be faced with 3 consecutive killer hill climbs crammed into the last 0.7 miles. You couldn’t have designed a more inappropriate end to the day if you tried.

Despite everything, the über chic hotel managed to lift our spirits. After showering in the best shower ever that rained piping hot water from a head the size of the plasma TV, we headed to the roof top bar with great views across the city. The cocktail waitress, Alix November, catered for our every need and was great, seeing that we were in need of pampering. We then got talking to Polo and Penny who bizarrely enough built Hotel Duval. Penny’s father built the original hotel in the 1950s, which was then refurbished by Penny’s husband Polo just last year… small world. Fatigue was starting to kick in and after two Bloody Marys for Kat and a couple of whiskies for Anthony, we decided to take room service, chilling out in front of the TV.

Tired and looking forward to a lie in tomorrow, we say goodnight and god bless

Us x

Brass Monkeys

Brrrrrrr… How cold was it today in FLORIDA? We could hardly believe it when we stepped out of our room to go to breakfast this morning. Dressed pretty similarly to Joey in the episode of Friends where he wears all of Chandler’s clothes and starts doing lunges, and with a dash of antifreeze in our Gatorade bottles (just kidding, although we are thinking of suggesting a mulled wine flavour Gatorade), we headed out for our 65-mile jaunt to Perry, Fl.

It was a pretty simple ride. The first 20 miles were spent on another wonderful cycle trail – for the third time, thanks Chuck!! The next 45 were on one (fairly) straight road, but it was actually a very pleasant ride, with a decent shoulder all the way, or it would have been pleasant had the clouds lifted and let the sun through…as it was, our teeth were chattering, and our fingertips almost falling off until around 30 minutes before the end of the trip. Perhaps we need to invest in some cold weather gear… However, for some reason, we were also super-organised today: packed lunch courtesy of our hotel breakfast, and a good system of teamwork for tackling the inevitable headwind, which worked very well for us, and made the miles fly by.

We were stunned by the amount of wildlife that we saw, particularly the birds. As well as the usual storks and graceful herons that we have become ridiculously blasé about, today we were surrounded by Northern Cardinals, bright red birds with red-crested heads (see downloaded picture – we can’t take credit for knocking together this little drawing). And on top of that, we also saw…wait for it… an Eastern Screech Owl, in the middle of the day. Perhaps it was so cold that he thought it was still night.

We’re in one of our cheaper motel options tonight, but are actually very warm and comfortable, having tucked away a Pizza Hut pasta and garlic bread, delivered direct to our door (too cold to step outside). We’ve suffered our usual fate of forgetting about the Sunday trading laws, so have had to go without our usual tipple but it will no doubt do us good (we’d start carrying round miniatures in our panniers if it didn’t sound so horribly inappropriate).

Tomorrow there is another frost alert (what fun) for our ride into Tallahassee, where we will stop for a well-needed rest day.

And finally, a mention for MG&T who, on top of the incredible commitment in terms of their blog comments and other messages of support, have just made an enormously generous donation on our charity site. A huge THANK YOU, guys. You are both amazing.

Us x

es ist sehr windig, ja

True to our word let us fill you in on a few of yesterday’s choice memories. First of all, a big “Thank you” goes to Chuck for his knowledge and advice: yesterday’s ride turned out to be a 50+ mile journey along two perfectly manicured cycle paths (Pinellas Trail and Suncoast Trail). Second, Natalie devotedly working on New Years Day in the Shell service station who, upon seeing our cold, wet and pathetic bodies looking worn and tired half way into our ride, took us in and allowed us to warm ourselves up with hot coffee (courtesy of Natalie) and dry snug surroundings. So as usual our great experiences would not have been possible without the help and assistance from “The Friendly Americans”.

Today on the other hand; a whole different experience:

LONG: 78 miles (not the 100 miles as predicted – we changed the route after missing a vital turn – thanks Gamines) of roads so straight and long you could see the curvature of the earth. This optical illusion of the ‘never ending hill’ is a very strange visual experience that very nearly crushed our will to cycle another day.

COLD: it was snowing in Houston Texas today. Yes, you heard right, “in Texas it was snowing” and with our start position at 7:30am being just 900 miles east of Houston, you can guess how cold it was (-2°C to be precise).

WINDY: We’re now starting to get a little bored with the 20mph headwind. All 6½ hours of today we cycled NW and guess what? The wind never faltered, maintaining its steady gust pushing everything SE.

With a final pit stop at mile 65 to replace some vital calories and catch our breath, we met a very nice young man called Keaton who donated some cash for the cause…Thanks Keaton.

Us x

Courtesy Call!

We’ve had another brilliant day, cycling the 63 miles north along the west coast of Florida against a 20mph head wind into Brookesville… no mean feat! Our muscles feel like jelly and we’re categorically pooped. Coupled with the fact that tomorrow’s ride is 100 miles. That’s right folks…100 miles of beating the black stuff (tarmac) against another head wind, we need to get an early night and prepare for our 10 hour ‘Epic’ day.

We promise more info will be posted in tomorrow’s blog… Lovin’ y’all like a fat kid loves cake. Wish us luck!

Us x