Day 52: Monday, 04/25/16, Palatka, FL to St. Augustine, FL

All 36 coasters after completing the 2016 Coast 2 Coast ride, on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean at St. Augustine, Florida!

 

Day 52 distance: 36 miles

Total miles:  2840 miles

Elevation gain: 218 feet

Map of today's ride:

Today's ride into St. Augustine was very emotional. Rather than everyone riding individually or in very small groups as they usually rode each day, everyone rode together in a few large groups on the short 36 mile ride into St. Augustine. If you have ever observed the joy on the rider's faces on the last day of the Tour de France as the riders ride into Paris, we all had that same joyful face as we rode into St. Augustine!

The ride into St. Augustine was staged, in that we all gathered for lunch at the A1A Ale Works in St. Augustine, some five miles before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. After lunch, we rode to another point 1.6 miles from the Atlantic Ocean for a group picture in front of a large "Welcome to St. Augustine" sign. After this picture was taken, Bubba, from the back of a pickup truck, led all the riders, to the Hampton Inn on Florida Highway A1A. To contain the riders and offer security from other vehicles, another C2C vehicle followed the last rider on this final leg of the ride. As a group, the coasters chose Fred Loftin, the oldest rider at 82, to lead the riders on this final leg.

At the front entrance to the Hampton Inn, we dismounted our bicycles and pushed them through the many coaster family members that had made the trip to greet their arriving coaster. We then continued pushing our bicycles into and through the lobby of the Hampton Inn and out the door to the beach. We then headed to the beach of the Atlantic Ocean for a group picture. This was followed by a drink of something bubbly :). We then proceeded to have our individual photos taken, dipping our bicycle's front wheel into the Atlantic Ocean!

What a grand day it was for all of us! There were many emotions displayed at the end, but the prevailing feeling shared by all coasters was one of happiness and elation for achieving the goal of riding a bicycle coast 2 coast!

I am including many pictures today without saying much about them. I tried to get pictures of all the coasters and hope that I succeeded in getting everyone in at least one photo. The one thing that stands out in all the photos is everyone had a big smile on their face the entire day!

Tom Fleming was leading this group of riders at this point while riding on a bicycle trail on the ride to St. Augustine.

Tom Coe followed by John "Curly" McIntyre, also riding on the bicycle trail.

From left to right: coasters Sherry Smith, Ciska Van Den Belt (with sunglasses), Bruce Farrell, Robyn Saur, Tom Coe, Gerald Allard, and J.T. Turner.

Watching some coasters arriving at the the A1A Ale Works. We ate lunch in a seating area on the second floor balcony.

Coaster Kurt Frederick and Wayne Andresen.

Coasters Brigitte "Bee" Cooremans, Zach DeSalvo, J.T. Turner, and Tom Fleming.

The coaster's bicycles parked on the sidewalk in front of the A1A Ale Works.

Coasters Rich Niewald, and Truus and Jan Ritzer.

Coasters Robyn Saur, Mary Ellen Kurki, Sherry Smith, and Mark Copher.

Coasters Andrew and Judith Gustafson, and Gene Ice.

Coaster Wayne Andresen and wife Cheryl.

Coasters Larry Sharkey, an unknown non-coaster, Jim Hilly, and Gerald Allard.

Coasters Kathy Del Sesto, Lucie Bolduc, and Bruce Farrell.

Coaster Julie Willmering and husband Mike.

Coasters John Ilenin and Jim Sporer.

Sheila Hill, a friend of Bubba's sister, coasters Jenine Morehouse, Wayne "WEB" Baird, and Grace Stewart, Bubba's sister.

SAG member Snowflake and our C2C mascot, Cocoa Bean.

Coasters John "Eddo" Edwards and Fred Loftin.

Coaster Wayne Andresen and Bubba.

SAG support member Pete McCabe and coaster Amy Russell.

Coaster Janet Wiener.

Coaster Tres Smith and spouse.

All 36 coasters at the "Welcome to St. Augustine" sign.

Bubba in the back of a pickup leading the coasters the last 1.6 miles to the Hampton Inn. He appears to be doing a rendition of a Biblical pose!

The ride into the Hampton Inn. Note how the back of our C2C jerseys are red versus the blue color when viewed from the front. Also, apparently Bubba's instruction of riding single file was not observed! :)

Bubba's final words of farewell to the coasters on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean.

Getting a little "bubbly" to celebrate our completion of this year's C2C!

Left to right, SAG member Beth Thomason mechanic Dave "Coach" Moss, and coaster Wayne Andresen, saying thanks and goodbye.

Coasters Jan and Truss Ritzer, from the Netherlands, dipping their bicycle wheels in the Atlantic Ocean

Your blogger dipping his front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean.

A repeat of the photo of all 36 coasters to close the chapter in an unforgettable 2016 bicycle ride across the United States!

Day 51: Sunday 04/24/16 High Springs, FL to Palatka, FL

Early morning view of the road we traveled a few miles out of High Springs, Florida, on Day 51. The Florida roads that had any traffic always had a nice shoulder for bicycling.

 

Day 51 distance: 84 miles

Total miles:  2804 miles

Elevation gain: 1514 feet

Map of today's ride:

As mentioned yesterday, most of the riders were concerned about Day 51's 84 mile ride, the day before our final short 36 mile ride into St. Augustine, Florida. As it turned out, the concern was only mental. The day was nice and I am not aware of anyone struggling with the ride once we got started. Nor should we have struggled, as everyone had shown weeks ago they were capable of daily long rides. By a little after 2:00 pm, some of the faster riders completed the ride and started arriving for the night at the Palatka, Florida armory, and by 5:00 pm, everyone had arrived.

We had dinner at 6:30 pm, and after dinner, the final rider meeting was held. Bubba had everyone sit in a circle where we reviewed the past 51 days, giving our thoughts on questions such as: Which day was the hardest ride? ..the most scenic?, ..the windiest?, ..where was our favorite overnight stop?, ..our favorite dinner?, ..etc. There were a lot of different opinions, but everyone's thoughts were interesting. Each rider was then presented a 2016 C2C engraved framed picture of him/herself taken at some point during the ride by John Murphy, this year's C2C staff photographer. At that time, each coaster briefly talked about what the experience of the ride across the country meant to them. We heard everything from funny experiences, thank you's to their fellow riders and staff, to the impact the ride had, or will have on that rider's life. It was a very emotional experience. Lights when sleeping in a gym are always out at 9:00 pm, but on this night, we did not even finish the evening's agenda until well after 9:00 pm, and the lights were finally shut off at 10:15 pm.

Early Sunday morning, when riding through the town of High Springs, Florida, on our way to Palatka, Florida, I counted 11 buzzards at this house. They were feasting on a dead armadillo (on the grass) that apparently had been hit and killed by a car during the night. I saw my first dead armadillo in East Texas, but once we rode into Louisiana and beyond, I would guess I saw at least another dozen road killed armadillos.

In the Gainesville, Florida area, we rode about 20 miles of today's ride on a beautiful canopied bicycle trail.

Anne's last dinner of the 2016 C2C was tacos.

Finishing dinner and after dinner discussions.

This year's Wolf Pack. These young people are a very hard working group. They set up each night's sleeping facility, pack everything up after the riders leave the next morning, and then transport and set up the next night's facility (tents, armory, or motel) before the riders arrive that afternoon. They also received a well-deserved framed photo commemorating their effort.

This year's SAG staff receiving their framed photo commemorating the big effort they made to make this year's C2C a success.

Blog Update

Sorry I have not posted for a few days. Since Day 50, I have been in a whirlwind and have not had an opportunity to blog. Just know that I successfully completed the ride, and dipped my front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday afternoon, April 25. I will update and conclude the blog in a few days when I return home.

Thank you all for following the blog.

Dipping my front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean on Monday, April 25, 2016.

Day 50: Saturday 04/23/16, Rest Day in High Springs, FL

Day 50 distance: 0 miles (Rest day)

Total miles:  2720 miles

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Foot bridge across the Santa Cruz River at O'Leno State Park, High Springs, Florida. In a 2012 flood, the water was even with the bottom of the foot bridge.

This is our final day off of the 2016 C2C, so besides a few thoughts of the day, I will try to answer a few questions that blog readers have asked earlier in the blog. If I have missed anything you have wondered about, please comment so perhaps I can address it in my final summary after the ride is complete.

What a great day for a day off! The day started cloudy and quiet, great conditions for sitting back, relaxing, and taking an occasional nap. A large group of coasters went on a 7 mile kayak trip down a river a few miles away. It sounded like a fun excursion, but I chose not to go. My lower back has been bothering me this past week in the area where I had back surgery about 27 years ago, so I decided my best activity today would be rest for my back, ahead of the last two days and 129 miles of riding.

It is interesting, that even after riding over 2700 miles with several days of rides longer than 80 miles, most of the coasters are not looking forward to tomorrow's ride of 84 miles. I think it is the psychology of a final long ride, one day before the short 44 mile ride into St. Augustine. Everyone is very capable of doing the ride, but we all are tired and it will be a strenuous day for many. Being so close to the end, we just want to complete this C2C without the effort that will be required tomorrow. This morning, to split the 84 miles into two days, five coasters left on their own, after making a motel reservations for tonight, so they could divide the 84 mile ride into two shorter rides over two days. The rest of us are sticking with this year's C2C schedule.

Here are three of the five coasters who left earlier today on their day off, to split tomorrow's ride of 85 miles into two days. From left to right: Jim Hilly from Chicago, and Kathy Del Sota and Bruce Farell, from Massachusetts. Jim's bicycle sports 26 inch wheels. Kathy and Jim's Kestrel's started with too high of gearing, so they ordered and replaced the front chainrings on both bicycles en-route.  Interestingly, the farthest Kathy had ridden a bicycle on one ride before this C2C was 45 miles.

Here are some images I took around O'Leno State Park this morning.

The Santa Cruz River originates from Santa Cruz Lake some 44 miles before it flows through O'Leno State Park. It is a very pretty river, heavily treed along its banks.

I hiked down this trail along the river this morning for about ten minutes to get to what is called the Santa Cruz "Sink."

This is the Santa Cruz Sink, the end of the river on the land surface. At this point the river, carrying 900 million gallons a day of water, goes underground, into caves, reappearing three miles away at what is called the Santa Cruz "Rise". The entire underground water cave system has been mapped out by divers. After it resurfaces, it flows for another 35 miles before flowing into the Suwannee River.

This and That...

 A question I was asked some time ago was about the types of bicycles people were riding in this year's C2C. After trying to approach this question logically, I gave up. Perhaps if you can imagine a bicycle combination, it is being ridden. The most typical bicycle would be a standard compact 10 or 11 speed, although there also are several triple chain ring bicycles in the mix. This year, there were also 5 or 6 bicycles with electric shifting. There were also a couple of mountain bikes with mountain gearing and adjustable shock suspension. Three Rohloff internal hub bicycles are being ridden by three people from the Netherlands. Two of the Rohloff bikes are 12 speeds driven by a chain while the third is a 14 speed Rohloff driven by a rubber belt. All three of these bicycles each weigh 40 pounds, but these bicycles are also very fast. Overall bicycle designs are quite similar, but there was also the 2002 custom built Soft Ride Beam custom steel bicycle (the frame cracked but was repaired..see Day # 41 blog post), and, one tandem, which in the front position is a recumbent rider with an upright rider in the rear position. We also can't forget Mike Barga's Bike Friday which I briefly discussed in the Day # 33 blog post.

A standard Giant bicycle and an older Litespeed bicycle.

A ladies standard Specialized Dolce.

Sherry Smith (upright) and Mary Ellen Kurki (recumbent), both from Florida, riding their Hase Pino tandem. Both of these fine ladies and riders work in the area of critical care nursing.

A Cannondale Mountain bicycle being ridden with 28x2.0 tires.

 

Kurt Frederick's 2002 custom built Softride Beam Suspension bicycle. Note the repaired frame next to the SS coupler. Steel frames can be repaired!

A chain driven Rholoff 12 speed bicycle.

Mike Barga and his Bike Friday.

There were many flat tires during the C2C. I don't know the count but I do know several people that had more than 5. I experienced three, two thorn and one pinch flat to-date. Several riders experienced broken spokes, there was one broken rear derailleur hanger, one broken front derailleur hanger, and at least two wheel failures. If you ride a C2C, be sure to bring all the recommended spare parts, as if in the middle of nowhere and a part is needed, you will be the best source to fill that need.

Randi asked how my Anatomica Selle bicycle saddle was working out. I would have to say very good. This was the first long bicycle trip I have taken where I never had a complaint about a sore butt!

Finally, Lisa asked about the camera I used for my photos. It is a Canon G11 that I purchased for my wife when it was released in late 2009. It is a small lightweight camera that I just toss in my small handlebar bag so it can be grabbed and used quickly. It can be used in "Auto", or in full manual control. I usually shoot in "P", which is something in between Auto and full manual. It also has a view finder in addition to an LCD screen. I usually use the LCD, but do like the view finder for shots like flying birds. I usually shoot in RAW rather than jpeg, and then do my own post processing of the image in Adobe Lightroom. I currently am using Lightroom Version 5, even though I own Version 6, simply because I haven't taken the time to learn the idiosyncrasies of the Version 6 update. With the Canon, I get an excellent image right out of the camera so it doesn't take much work to make it better. You can never start post processing with a bad image and expect to make it a good one.