Week one recap. I left St. Augustine a week ago and rode 316 miles to Tallahassee, and I'm only half way across the panhandle of Florida. I've stayed with fantastic Warm Showers hosts 3 nights, a couple of nice campgrounds, and a couple of motels. I've seen a lot of egrets, herons, turkeys, peacocks, and vultures. Florida is big on vultures. I've also seen bright red cardinals, which was a real treat. I've seen a lot of American flags, but relatively few Trump signs. I've seen 3 Israeli flags and one Ukrainian flag. Also lots of Florida flags. Lots of signs for local campaigns.
The country changed from lush jungle like with cypress swamps to more upland pine plantations and pine and oak forests with farm fields. On day one I passed through a large potato and cabbage producing region, but since then it's been mostly cattle. I did see a bunch of beautiful paint and pinto horses in one field.
The weather has been everything I could hope for, mostly in the 70's. I only got rained on for an hour or so on day three. Its been quite windy but for the last two days it's been mostly at my back.
Traffic was quite heavy getting away from the east coast but thinned out appreciably by day 3. Drivers have been very courteous, which has been very nice. Even when they've had room to pass many drives have patiently waited until they could change lanes entirely to pass.
My legs have felt great. I'm not pushing it. I'm riding in what I call low exertion mode. Just pedaling easy, using low gears on the hills, and coasting when I can. Speaking of hills this part of Florida is way hillier than I expected. Tallahassee rivals any NW town when it comes to hills.
As usual my mood has been kind of glum in the mornings, improving as the day proceeds. The utter non existence of coffee shops in rural Florida doesn't help. Coffee doesn't really give me an energy boost but it sure improves my mood.
I never really feel like eating much when I'm riding but I've had some fresh Florida oranges which give me a nice boost. I've also had a few decent restaurant meals. I mostly carry pita bread, cheese, peanut butter, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and little sweet peppers. I drink ice tea and an occasional fruit juice. I have not yer resorted to Gatorade or the equivalent. That stuff is only for when I'm bonked and still have lots of miles to go.
I'm looking forward to the next segment which will take me over to the gulf coast (south coast of the Florida panhandle) and along the beaches. I like beaches.