Days 27 & 28 Panama City to Panacea to Cross City, FL

Day 27 Distance:  115 Miles;  Elevation gain 770 feet. 
Day 28 Distance:  99 Miles.  Elevation gain 362 feet  ( I climb more than this in the 8 mile commute from my office to my house)
. 
Total Distance to date:  2,873 miles

Wow, what a day.  After leaving Panacea at daybreak, I rode 50 miles through an area along the panhandle that can only be described as a jungle.  I kept my eyes open as I rode this morning and spotted a lethal Florida swamp snake.  I then came upon this alligator sunning himself just outside of the treeline.  He was a pretty good size so I didn't want to get too close. I thought riding in Florida would be easy.  Other than having to watch out for the gators, the heat when you get away from the coast can suck the last ounce of liquid from  every cell in your body.  After having lunch in a small town of Perry I set off for Cross City, a distance of 40 miles with enough fluids for 20 miles.  My map showed 2 towns along the way, so no problem, right?  Wrong.  The heat was brutal and a slight headwind made matters worse.  The 1st town that I came to had a closed gas station with a "for sale sign" on it..  Maybe it was the heat or maybe the psychological let down of not getting more fluids, but I then started "bonking".  For those who are not familiar with this term, I'll describe the feeling briefly. Your strength is zapped and your cognition becomes cloudy.  I could not keep my speed up and I started falling asleep, which is not ideal when cars and trucks are whizzing by you at high rates of speed.  I tried doing my mental stats exam which is to start with 100 and subtract by 7 until you get down to the number 2.  I tried this twice and came up with the wrong number both times.  So realizing that I was not doing very good, I pulled over in the grass laId the bike down and sat in the grass for about 15 minutes until my head cleared before plugging on.

I finally came to the second town and again nothing, with the exception of a post office.  Figuring that there has to be running water inside this small building, I dragged my weary, sun beaten body inside.  I asked the clerk for some water and she said sure, "there's a spicket around the side".  Anything wet sounded good at that point so I drank the rusty tasting water right from the tap and set off for the last 20 miles feeling better that I was hydrated.  Well the story doesnt get better.  By time I arrived in Cross City and checked into my motel room,  my normally ironclad intestines were paying me back for drinking rusty water.  Without detailing my pain and suffering, after about 45 minutes I was well enough to shower and hobble down the street to the only place that looked like it was serving edible food, the McDonalds.  I ordered a chicken sandwich with fries.  Halfway through the sandwich I looked at the chicken and it was raw.  Disgusted, I threw everything away and bought some popcorn at the gas station to microwave later tonight in my dingy $45 motel room..  The only good thing about today, other than getting that awesome photo of that alligator, is that tomorrow has to be better and I will appreciate the good days ahead that much more.

The end of  what has been an amazing trip is now in sight.  I estimate 2 hard, long days of riding or 2.5 days of easier riding.  I'm opting for the latter.  I hope to be around Sarasota by Saturday night.  My folks are planning to drive up and have dinner with me, spend the night and then have some breakfast.  The plan is to then ride the 70 or 80 miles to my parent's home on Sunday.  A day of Tarpin fishing is planned for Monday and Tami flies in Monday night

An interesting sign on the edge of Perry.  I had to stop and read this twice to make sure that I didn't need to make an application at City Hall.  I am both a transient and a peddler!

Some photos of the Jungle:

For those of you still checking on this blog, I will make my final blog entry on Tuesday morning.  I'll have the last 3 days of riding, the totat distance logged during the ride and some closing thoughts and pictures.  Cheers.