Day 42 - Reflections

Today was a quiet 73 mile ride for me. I rode alone for most of the day because I needed to pedal at my own pace. Most days I ride with a group but today I was feeling strong and wanted to push myself a little harder. I'm not fast enough to ride with the strongest riders. I fit somewhere in the middle when it comes to speed. 

(The map I have attached to my handlebars)

The countryside still looked like Pennsylvania except for an alligator I saw swimming in one of the lakes. Like yesterday the roads were rolling and tree lined. I passed through small hamlets and some large farms bordered the roadsides. 

There were very few car on the roads and I didn't need to concentrate on riding as much as usual. It was during this time that I began to reflect back on how far we've come over the last 40 days. San Diego seemed like such a long time ago and I had to really think hard to remember the early towns I had visited during the trip. Some of the more difficult rides were easier to recall. Texas Hill Country seems to be burned in my brain but the uneventful rides through Arizona were a blur. I'm glad I've been writing things down and have taken pictures and some video so that I can go back and fill in the fuzzy areas. Maybe it's exhaustion clouding my memory. Tonight we're in VanCleave, Mississippi and we're camping outside a Baptist Church. I'm excited for tomorrow's ride because we enter Alabama and we will be camping tomorrow night on Dauphin Island, which is on the Gulf. We'll finally see the water. From there we head to Florida. We will enter the Florida Pan Handle on Saturday morning.