St. Augustine to home

We had a wonderful time in St. Augustine. From there we the headed a little south along the coast line. We camped right on the Atlantic for a couple of nights. Staying right on the ocean you didn’t need a sound machine to put you to sleep at night – the waves were very soothing. We had spectacular sunrises. The sand here is the brown rougher feeling kind, not like the soft white sugar sand that we are used to. But walks on the beach were still very beautiful. We did several rides out of here. Riding along the coastal highway makes for some pretty awesome views. While on one of our rides through the potato fields we came upon a father and 50 year old son that both had the hobby of flying remote control planes. We all had fun watching them flying them doing their maneuvers. After a couple of days of riding in this area we stayed near Inverness. We woke our last morning (Nov. 16th ) to 38 degrees in the tent. While waiting for it to warm up we had breakfast with Ann’s Aunt & Uncle, Don & Faye Weaver. We had a nice time visiting with them. It still had not warmed up after breakfast. The coolness may have been the deciding factor to head further south in the motorhome to our home in Terra Ceia. It was nice to get back into our own bed, shower, etc. We did some more riding around here to get in some more miles. Thanksgiving day was spent with friends and family. It was also Tim’s 50th birthday – so that means you have to ride a mile for each year. So we got our 50 in before a nice Thanksgiving meal.
Friday night the 30th is a “Welcome Home” BBQ for us at the Terra Ceia VIA Hall @ 6:30. We would like to thank each of you for your donations to the American Cancer Society, prayers and concerns. We will be doing our final update after Friday night.
Looking forward to seeing you all at the BBQ !!!!!

Here we are! It has been a long time since we last updated you on our progress. You see there are several variables to creating the updates – time to create, high speed internet access and simply just be in the mood. As you will recall we lost our motor home driver in Natchez, MS which leaves us the challenge to move the motor home and car from campground to campground. It involved us leaving in the morning and driving the motor home and tandems to the next night’s campground. Once there, we would ride the tandems back to the car and then return to the motor home. Yes, we traveled the road three times and about 12 hours of travel times each day. To say the least it has taken an immense amount of energy and coordination. After several days of this effort we made a corporate decision to move fewer times and to do “loop” rides from that location to get the required miles needed to complete the planned route. After two or three days we would relocate and start over with new “loop” routes that area. This approach also allowed us to make up some of the miles we had to forfeit due to road construction and smoke from fires earlier in our trip.

After leaving Gulf Shores we seen a sign we hadn’t seen in four months – “ Welcome to Florida”. In our minds we translated this to say “Welcome Home”. In Pensacola we picked up mail and a special gift from our friends Connie and Conni - fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. They were great and Tim guarded them with his right arm. We went to Port St Joe, and stayed in a wonderful state park right on the Gulf of Mexico. A very special gift to us was that Tim’s brother Todd, his wife Debbie and girls Heidi and Jill came up to see us for the weekend. They also brought cookies only this time white chocolate for Ann. It was a great time!!

As we rode through northern Florida we enjoyed seeing fields of watermelon, peanuts and tomatoes. Cattle, donkeys and horses were also frequently in our view. We thought once we got to Florida we would have sunny warm weather - boy were we so wrong! It has been windy and chilly. We met up with Tim’s parents in Lake City for lunch as they were on their way to their Florida home. Cousin Patsy and her husband Tim from Arkansas met us then for lunch also. After leaving the restaurant we were passed on I-75 by Tim’s aunt and uncle, Martin and Lorie on their way home from North Carolina. A quick road side visit with them concluded our traveling family reunion. Another great time! Riding in north Florida is quiet and pleasant. We have now made it to St Augustine, and have ridden over 3,500 miles from the start in Washington State. While in St. Augustine we have toured much of the oldest city in the nation. We had a carriage ride through the historic area and also did the Flagler College tour. Our dear friends Brent and Kendra Whitehead drove up from home to witness and participate in the “Dipping the Front Wheel in the Atlantic” ceremony. What an emotional time. Though windy the skies were bright blue with a few clouds. It reminded how blessed we were to have such great weather for the majority of the trip. Other friends Alan and Robin Dawson were visiting St Augustine and stopped by to have dinner with us. This last month has been a blessing having the friends and family checking in on us and knowing that we are in the last days of the trip. We leave tomorrow for home and expect to be rolling in on the 20th. When completed we should have right at 4,000 miles. We appreciate all of the donations we have received for the American Cancer Society. We will be doing another update when we get home in a little over a week. Can’t wait to see everyone !!!!

Thanks to all the veterans who have and are serving for our country. Your service is appreciated by many of us. Happy Veterans Day !