O'Leno State Park, Florida

Mickey’s birthday! Hawthorne to Gainesville trail for first 16 miles was wonderful. A birder’s delight & obviously no traffic. Called early to a bike shop to see about a replacement shifter for my bike. Amazingly, we were successful. $135 did the deal. Also replaced gloves stolen. Not as good, but OK. A guy named Doug escorted us the last bit of the trail and all the way to the bike shop.

Passed U. of Florida on the way out of town.

OK ride. Longest and hardest. 55 miles. We have arrived at our destination every day just at sunset. The days are so short we are having a tough time making the mileage we need to make while enjoying the whole ride. It would be better to get up earlier, but it’s so cold (High 20s to low 30s) in the morning. We put the flies on the tents for warmth and they get soaked with condensation. They take a while to dry out and we need sunlight for that.

As usual, ride was windy (headwind!), a bit cold to very cold at the end of the day.

Excellent, but expensive, state park tonight ($16.50). Good shower. Mickey fixed fajitas and we drank a bottle of Jim Beam. Nice fire. No one in the campground that is anywhere near where we are. Near full moon. (The campground IS near where we are!)