Terry and Royce's Grand Adventures

FUN FACTS We have been back from our Adventure of a Lifetime/Ride Across America for one week now. I have a lot of thoughts in my head that I have wanted to convey and this seems like a fitting milestone to put some closing thoughts down on paper. First the trivial numbers game. During our great adventure here are some fun facts Terry rode Ruby (Bicycle) 2,689 miles and Red Ryder (Recumbent Trike) 214 miles for a total of 2,902 miles. Royce rode Stripes(Bicycle) 1,520 miles and his nameless Trike 100 miles for a total of 1,620 miles. Spent items We started in San Diego CA. (THANK YOU  Renee Damon for seeing us off and the great pictures) and ended in St. Augustine FL 41 days later. During that time between all of our bikes and trikes we replaced 4 tires,5 tubes, 1 set of brake pads, 1 bicycle chain and a set of pedals. The car even got in on the flat action and picked a screw in the tire that caused a slow leak. Thanks to tire pressure monitoring systems, Royce...

Alachua FL to Palatka Fl May 28, 2015 78 miles Well, Royce and I believe that we have finally got our program figured out. We are like a well oiled machine when it comes to our daily routine. So....I guess we are ready to start this RIDE ACROSS AMERICA. Seems like the last several days just get better and better for ride conditions and scenery. Today about 30 miles of the route was on paved bike trails. The first one started out of Gainsville and ended in Hawthorne. It went through the Sweetwater Wetlands Park which has the Alachua Sink in it.It also transversed the Prairie Creek Conservation Area and  the Phifer Flatwoods Preserve. It was so nice riding on this 16 mile trail. I met Royce just out of Putnam Hall and we rode on another trail for about another 14 miles. Palatka is an interesting community. It is split by the St. Johns River. The highway that runs through the town is very busy and the traffic does not seem to end. I guess as you get closer to the Florida beaches t...

Live Oak FL to Alachua FL May 27, 2015 60 miles This morning the weather forecaster said that Live Oak had 3 inches of rain last night. What? I never heard a thing.Sure enough when we went out to the car there were puddles of water everywhere. The air had a little bit of coolness to it, but still had the moist humidity. The route was nice. It went primarily through forests and farms. It was a nice peaceful and scenic ride . We got into Alachua early enough to enjoy the pool...again!!!

Monticello FL to Live Oak FL May 26, 2015 60 miles Started the day with a flat front tire. My front tire had over 4,000 miles on it. The Texas roads had taken their toll on the tire. I thought I would try to make it to St. Augustine  and replace it when I got home. I noticed that it had developed a slow leak a few days ago. I had dodged through some glass going through Tallahassee and thought I would be lucky if I did not get a flat. Sure enough when Royce pulled Ruby out of the trailer this morning she had a flat. Once the flat was repaired I was on my way nice an early. It is nice to ride and feel a little bit of cool breeze. It does not take long in Florida to became very hot and humid. The entire ride was on Hwy 90. The road was quiet and went through a couple of nice little towns. We got into the hotel around 1 pm. We headed for the pool around 2:30 and by 3:00 thunder and lightning had moved into the area and a light rain started to fall. We had just enough pool time bef...

Sneads FL to Monticello FL May 25, 2015 77 miles I have told Royce for the last couple of weeks that the miles per day will be going down. Funny thing is some how they never have moved too much from the 70-80 mile range. Today really was one of the last longer days. Since we only have 4 riding days left I can say that with some certainty. We will have one more day over 75 miles.   When I started planning this adventure my goal was to ride about 65 miles per day. The weather not only ended up bumping our miles up daily, but we are also one day ahead of schedule. That is pretty amazing considering the storms we have rode through. Today's ride was a lot of fun. Outside of Chattahoochee my route took me on several very quiet back roads. Since it is Memorial Day the traffic was probably even lighter than normal. Royce had planned on meeting me before I reached Tallahassee so we could ride through the city together. While I was taking a break he called to say that a train was stuck o...

DeFuniak Springs FL to Sneads FL May 25, 2015 80 Miles Seminole Lake A Sunday ride and rested after a day off yesterday made today a nice ride. Nothing really exciting to see today. We rode on Hwy 90 for the entire day. It was nice and quiet. The shoulder is wide and clean making for great riding. We got into Sneads around 2 and right behind us a couple that is biking on the same route as we are rode in behind us. We had a nice talk with them. They are from Missouri. They flew their bikes out to San Diego and started about 2 weeks before we did. They are riding unsupported, which means they are probably carrying about 30 lbs of gear each. This always reminds me how blessed I am to have Royce providing the support for our adventure. Going unsupported really changes the dynamics of the riding at every level. I think they have a lot more stories than we do in regards to bad weather riding.  At least we have the ability to pick up and come back the next day. We also can get in...