Day 52: Salt Springs FL to Astor FL (River Road Campground)
Tonight’s blog is the last from the road… tomorrow my son and I will finish the final 55 miles to New Smyrna Beach FL. Rather that cover todays ride I thought it would be good to reflect on the overall ride and try to sum up a fantastic journey.
The total ride (with an estimate for tomorrow) will be 53 days on the road, 49 days were ride days and 4 rest days. Over the 53 days we outside camping for 35 nights and we spent 17 nights in hotels/B&B/home – the final night is in our condo. Of the nights inside 8 of the nights were around the 4 rest days. That leaves 9 nights where it was too cold or to wet to be outside. The longest stretch inside was 5 days going through Arizona and New Mexico when morning temperatures were in the upper 20F and howling winds. The longest stretch camping was 9 nights followed by a string of 8 nights. As near as I can remember, we went 5 days without a shower during the 8 days stretch. Most of the campgrounds had showers.
The ride was 3,323 miles with 94,000 feet of climbing (that is 17.8 miles straight up). I was on my bike for 262 hours including breaks. My total peddle time was 223 hours or 9 days & 7 hours. The longest ride was 102 miles and the shortest 24 miles. On average we traveled 61 miles/day including rest days. Without the rest days the average was 66 miles/day.
The best part of the ride was the people, the old guy in CA who needed help, the guy without a plan in LA and Cody Anderson who is a real bike legend. All of this seems simple, and the conversations were short, but I remember them all. The Disciples (Paul & John) made the middle part of the ride more interesting – I would have to read my own blog to figure out how many days we crossed paths. We said good-by in New Roads on Day 34. Thanks to Paul and John for the memories.
What did I learn from the experience… the most obvious lesson is, I had the easy job. It is not too hard to get up, eat breakfast and figure out how far I had to ride. Sandy had the hard job. Logistics were hard, figuring out where to camp was tough. Who would have thought that RV parks did not allow tents. I could not have done this without her support. For more practical lessons, we had way too much stuff. In the end we used maybe 25% of what we brought. After a few weeks, we rotated all the stuff we did not want into the topper. Other than for bike stuff we did not open the topper much after this. If you are going to do this, practice and see what you really need. Tires and tubes are important. I had way more than an acceptable number of flats. Have fresh rubber, use extra thick tubes, and use slime in the tubes. I never used the slime but many of the guys I met did. The final lesson learned is after 2~3 weeks you get in a grove. Distance was never an issue after this - time and wind were the biggest factors. I tried to break every day into small chunks of riding so the big numbers never scared me.
The weather… when it was cold, we both wished it were
warmer. When it was warm, we wanted
cooler weather. Cooler is better for
sleeping so I will go with cooler on the temperature. The wind is your worst
enemy. It makes the riding hard which my
blog covered. The prevailing winds are
out of the east (blowing to the west) across the southern US. I took a beating many days. It also beat the heck out of my face. I now have man products to protect my lips,
cheeks, and ears. As rain goes we were
very lucky. We road in the rain one day out
of 49. Through LA we stayed behind a
front the rained for days. We stayed in
hotels avoiding at least three nights of rain and one hailstorm.
My favorite day of riding is a no contest win for Day 14 the easy winner. The ride over Emory Pass was spectacular and has no close competitors for the ride. For my least favorite day I will go with Day 18 and the 34 miles into Van Horn TX. We planned a short day but the winds that day turned this into a 4-hour ride. Close behind this Day 13’s ride into Silver City. The was 46 miles at 9 mph into a bone crushing wind.
I was asked which state has the best roads… as it ends up the roads I was on are maintained at the county/city level. Every "Welcome to County" sign came with new road conditions. The absolute worst road was on Day 33 outside of DeRidder LA. There was a 3~4 mile stretch that was just awful. Later in that day when I caught up with the Disciples even, they commented on the road. On the best roads, all states had stretches of baby bottom smooth asphalt.
Now for the Day 52 recap…
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| Morning Hair is not a big deal after 52 days. |
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| Just enough space for the final day #53 coming. Note Bessy in the background on the Right and how she is packed for travel. |
I was not that interested in the ride today. This was a setup for tomorrow. The ride was short, and I did not stop much. The most interesting part was crossing the St. John’s River. This is the unofficial middle of the state and I am now on the East Coast of Florida. Sandy did find a nice camp site near the river, so we had a good walk after the ride.
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| We are on the East Coast of Florida |
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| Todays Walk |
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| Tomorrow Bessy Retires... |
Today’s ride stats:
Start Time: 11:10 AM East Coast Time Finish Time: 1:21 PM East Coast Time
Elapse Time: 2 Hr. 9 Min. Ride Time: 1 Hr. 43
Min.
Distance: 27.6 Miles Average
Speed: 16.0 mph
Climbing/Descent: 656/686 Ft. TSS:
63
Average Power: 174 Watts Normalized Power: 190
Watts
Calories: 1,080 Ave/Max HR: 124/144bpm
For food today, I ate nothing and drank one bottle. The ride started and finish just like that.
Tomorrow, Bradley will show up in the morning and we will cover the final 55 miles together. I cannot wait to for the finish.
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| One final water tower... |
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