After 4 nights broken down in Palatka we eventually headed to Gainesville.

If you ever find yourself driving through Palatka then please keep driving. There were some memorable moments, of course, like the chap sitting in front of us on the Gainesville bus telling the driver that six passengers at $2 a time meant it wasn’t worth ‘robbin’ him. I was quite relaxed as I had already heard him inform his pal that he really couldn’t do more time in jail for ‘robbin’.

His pal was an interesting character. He had stories of being thrown out the house when he was aged 5, being in the Vietnam war, and being dishonourably discharged. As he said ‘I just like shooting my mouth off’. He took a particular liking to Susan. There’s me sitting on edge ready to spring into action and she’s chatting away like its a coffee morning to ‘robbin’ guy and ‘shooting the mouth’ guy.

‘Shootin the mouth’ guy mentioned he was writing a biography of Bass Reeves. Now I happened to know who he was talking about – probably saved me from being robbed and shot.

Bass Reeves was the Black Lone Ranger. Born a slave, Bass became a deputy U.S. Marshal and was said to have arrested 3,000 felons and shot and killed 14 outlaws. He was a master of disguise and worked with a Native American tracker. Sound familiar? Look him up because he is arguably the greatest lawman of the West.

Sitting on the bus with ‘robbin’ man and ‘shootin the mouth’ man I was wishing it was good old Bass sitting beside me rather than Susan! To keep the story short I’m not going to mention the other passengers including the guy who was going to Gainesville to get injected with something, the woman who had to keep moving seats because she couldn’t be within 3 feet of anyone, the ex marine who pretended to be blind and then the big guy with the biggest eyes. You may think I’m exaggerating. Honestly, he had the biggest eyes ever. Ever!

So back to cycling. It was a relatively uneventful cycle to Gainesville (56 miles), Live Oak (70 miles), Monticello (66 miles) and Tallahassee (25 miles). We are struggling in the heat. We’ve endured Australian desert heat but give credit to Florida heat because when you add the humidity factor it’s unbearable.

Temperatures are in the 90s (I’m sorry we don’t do Celsius here) and the humidity makes it hotter and factor in a fully laden tandem and its like cycling on Mercury. We are both burnt and blistered as sun cream just runs off.

Susan struggles in this extreme heat and heatstroke is a real issue. I’ve found an ice cold strawberry milkshake works wonders for her. I drink a lot (water!) and leave a slug like trail of sweat wherever I go. So I’m always cool – in a slug like trail kind of way!

On the road to Monticello we met Martin – the first touring cyclist we have met in America.

Martin has previously cycled from the west coast to New Orleans and now he is doing the Jacksonville to New Orleans leg of the trans America journey. He was maybe going to stop in Tallahassee but after meeting Susan and I he may just go all the way through to New Orleans. There you go Martin – the goal is now in black and white 🙂

I’ve mentioned how unbearably hot it is but all you travellers to Florida will know that the late afternoon brings thunderstorms. So far we have missed them all including hurricane Gordon that was ahead of us and hurricane Florence that’s behind us.

I know that we will get caught eventually but in the meantime, here’s Susan sitting in the sun and the rain falling just over the horizon.

We’re now in Tallahassee which is the Florida State capital and was chosen because its halfway between St Augustine and Pensacola. It’s in the county of Leon which is named after the good old Ponce de Leon of course!

We will spend two nights in Tallahassee because you will never guess what happened – a bloody spoke went! Cycling along, 8 miles from Tallahassee and ‘bang’ another spoke down! This time it was the front wheel.

Now to be honest it was a bit of a relief and Susan and I can start talking to each other again. When seven spokes went on the rear wheel we had a bit of a domestic issue. Let me put it this way. Susan sits over the rear wheel and seven spokes went down. I sit over the front wheel and no spokes were down. Well I know what you’re thinking and nobody has to say the obvious. The facts kind of speak for themselves.

Now that the front wheel spoke has gone we now know its nothing to do with weight of either person. It’s just wear and tear. I can stop hiding the chocolate bars.

So an extra day in Tallahassee to get the spoke repaired and the wheel tuned. The bike shop was great in doing the work quickly and it allows me to catch up on my beer intake.

Another picture of Susan in front of our Monticello motel. Oh it was a rubbish motel but after Australia all U.S. motels are fantastic.

I’m sorry all the pictures are of Susan. It’s so hot just now I only wear a pair of speedo trunks and cycling shoes. I really cant publish that!

From Tallahassee we head west along the Florida Panhandle and our next rest day will be in Pensacola.

So far 273 miles down. A lot more to go.

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