Sunday February 8, 2015

The sun was warm as we left Chattahoochee, the forecast was for a high of 17 degrees and it reached 23 degrees, it was a lovely ride.

Yesterday we had the climb into the Town of Chattahoochee, this morning we had a great sweeping downhill to take us into the valley below. It was a little chilly going into the wind, but a lovely way to start the ride.

We left Chattahoochee at 9:00 am, we had only gone about 2 kilometres when we crossed the Apalachicola River and also crossed into the Central Time Zone. We gained an hour.

From the bridge we could see the Jim Woodruff Dam, it is a hydroelectric dam and is on the borders of Florida and Georgia.

The route carried us along Highway 90, which parallels Interstate 10. It was very quiet and all the cars passed us with lots of room to spare. I think the 3 foot law is in place in Florida.

We went through some small settlements which looked to consist of trailer parks in woods or cabins in woods, very scary looking places. Other areas had bigger houses and more development. The Town of Marianna was a lovely place with many historic homes. There area about 18 historic homes in the Town. This one was called the MacKinnon House and was built after the Civil War on the site of a house burned during the Battle of Marianna. It is now an attorney’s office.

About 10 kms outside of Chipley we spotted a couple of touring cyclists with their bikes on the ground. We stopped to see if they needed help and then spotted their young son, Reese. These intrepid cyclists are cycling the Southern Tier with their four year old son. Rather them than me, I sometimes find it difficult to entertain myself on my bike let alone having to keep a four year old happy.

We will no doubt see them again along the way.  Although they are not doing the mileage that we are doing, they are stopping in DeFuniak Springs tomorrow and that is where we will be tomorrow night.  They passed us as we were checking out one of the motels in Chipley, there overnight stop was going to be in Bonifay.

We are staying at a Super8 in Chipley, the night-time temperatures are warming up a little, so we should be able to start camping soon.  The only problem now is, I have got  used to sleeping in a bed at night, I am not really looking forward to camping again.  We are managing to stay within our budget at the moment, but we should really be saving the hotel stays for when we need them (bad weather etc) and not use them all the time.

Saturday February 7, 2014

Surprisingly we had a good nights sleep on our cots and with our sleeping blankets. We haven’t slept on the cots since Spain, over four months ago. Justin came by to say goodbye and after we had breakfast we headed up to the apartment to say goodbye to Marina. We had a nice chat to her about her work and she gave us some chocolate balls – they were awesome, recipe is on her website.

Again it was a cold start to the day. But the sun warmed me up and I changed jackets to my lighter windbreaker, before we left the city limits of Tallahassee.

It was a lovely ride, the first 40 kms or so were rolling hills. We went through a really nice town (Quincy), with some historic buildings. I must remind Ralf to stop and take some photos. They weren’t spectacular buildings, but still nice.

He did take a photo of this forest covered in Spanish moss. I bet it looks amazing in a fog, very scary.

We cycled for about 20 kms on a flatish road almost all the way to Chattahoochee. Then the road kicked up and climbed a hill into Chattahoochee, what a way to finish a ride.

We are staying at a cheap motel in Chattahoochee. There is a large hospital here but not much else. We did find a little grocery store for our dinner and once again cooked in the room.

Friday February 6, 2014

A cold start to the day, but the sun was out and it felt good. We are wearing our ShowersPass windbreakers as it is still too cold to switch to the lighter windbreakers.

The ride along Highway 98 to Wakulla was very straight with not much to see, apart from the odd rock garden.

There is a large wildlife management area called Aucilla which has about 2,800 acres of land, there are walking trails and canoe entry points along the river. At Wakulla there is the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, we had a long ride to Tallahasseee and didn’t stop.

From Wakulla to Tallahassee we followed an excellent paved rail trail, the Tallahassee – St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail. This rail trail goes all the way from St. Marks to Tallahassee and was originally a rail line that was built in 1837 to serve the agricultural hinterland and the cotton trade.

Half-way along this trail I realized that we were now officially on the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) Southern Tier route. Up until this point we had been heading north from New Port Richey as opposed to west from St. Augustine.

We arrived in Tallahassee at 3:00 and found our warmshowers house very easily, it is just off the trail. Justin hadn’t arrived home from work yet, so we went around the corner to a nice café and had a good sandwich.

Ralf was amazed to see this sign reminding motorists that cyclists are allowed to use the full lane.

The bikes drew quite a bit of interest and we chatted to one young man who told us about the café. Jimmy Johns is a sandwich shop that has some very funny sayings on the walls.

• Never engrave your initials in something that doesn’t belong to you.
• Don’t speak with your mouth too full.
• Don’t pick your teeth or anything else.
• Don’t ask young kids to pull your finger.
• Don’t worry, be happy and don’t forget to smell the flowers.

In the men’s bathroom there were stick figures which had words like – creative, relaxed, girly and show-off …. You figure it out.

We met Justin back at his apartment who showed us our two options of sleeping accommodation. His small two room apartment or the community room. Justin was volunteering at a community bike shop that evening and his girlfriend was working late. We opted for the community room as we knew they were going to have a late night.

After we had set up our sleeping cots and got ourselves organized – checking the route for the next day and checking on accommodation we went around to the community bike shop where Justin was working. The not-for-profit bike shop assists people to repair their own bikes and builds bikes for people who need bikes.

Justin told us that his girlfriend made bags. Marina makes some amazing hand-waxed bags for bikes and has just created a new touring line her website is www.anhaicabagworks.com. The name for her company and line of bags comes from the original name of Tallahassee. On the first Friday of each month the galleries and workshops in the area where she works are open until late and there are food trucks and music. We decided to go there and look at Marina’s work and look at the other galleries. We had dinner that was prepared by Hari Krishnas, it was very good. It was a really good evening, albeit a little cold, I wore my puffy jacket for the first times since New Zealand!

Thursday February 5, 2015

An early rest day. After getting cold and wet yesterday and still not getting over our colds, we decided to have an early rest day. The Royal Inn is cheap so we could afford the extra night.

Ralf’s hornet bike “horn” shorted out again at 5:00 in the morning. This bike horn was made in England and when it gets wet it shorts out. Do you not find that a little bit odd – a country that is renowned for its wet weather, designs a horn that cannot deal with wet weather!

As we were having a rest day I decided to do some washing. The people at the motel said the Laundromat was a long way and offered to do our laundry for us in their big industrial washing machine. How kind was that and they didn’t charge us.

We went for a walk to the \”Historic Downtown” Perry. Unfortunately Ralf didn’t bring his camera, although there was not much to take photographs of. They were in the process of building a new park which looked very nice and they had already renovated the old train station. Apart from that there is not much in downtown Perry. Probably because there is a large Wal-Mart on Highway 98 and all the fast food joints are also along the Highway. What did surprise us when we were looking for somewhere to stay is that there are 10 motels/hotels in Perry.

We spent the evening watching TV and relaxing. We will be in Tallahassee tomorrow and are staying at another warmshowers.

Wednesday February 4, 2014

A long, cold, very wet ride today. We had a free breakfast at the motel and headed up Highway 19 to Perry. We knew it was going to be a long haul and we knew the weather forecast was not good, there were no other Towns that we could stay at in between Chiefland and Perry. It wasn’t raining when we started but within an hour of us leaving Chiefland it started to sprinkle with rain and then turned to rain for the rest of the ride. The temperature never got above 10 degrees.

This is a big shock to our system for the last 14 months we have been cycling in weather above 20 degrees and often above 25. Now we are below 10 degrees brrr.

The road was very good and for the most part had a good paved shoulder. We had a few drivers honk at us and gave us a friendly, encouraging wave. We had one pick-up driver who shouted at us to get of the road! There is always one!!

We made good time and did the 104 kms in 5.5 hours. Usually I start to flag around the 75k mark but today I kept my speed and cadence up and shoulders down and kept right on pedaling. It helped that we weren’t battling a head wind. We were both cold and wet by the time we arrived at the motel – the Royal Inn in Perry. The owner checked us in quickly and gave us a couple of older towels to clean the bikes.

The shower was hot and thawed our frozen toes and warmed our cold bodies, it was wonderful. We dried our bikes with the old towels and relaxed for the rest of the day. It continued to rain for the rest of the afternoon and evening. We decided not to leave the room after we had our hot shower and settled in. We had a peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch and pizza for dinner!

Ralf was able to Skype his Dad and had a nice chat with him. No photos it rained all day.

Tuesday February 3, 2015

We were up by 7:00 am and Fred had made us a lovely breakfast of eggs, potatoes and sausage with pancakes and coffee. That kept us going for a while.

As I was getting the water bottles ready I noticed what looked like frost on the truck windows! It had dropped to 0 degrees during the night, but the sun was out and it felt nice. I decided not to put my leggings on, which turned out to be a mistake. Once we started cycling at 8:45 we realized it was still cold. Before we got to the end of Fred’s street we had switched our light jackets for our heavier wind/rain jackets and put on our gloves. It was 3 degrees centigrade and we had a head wind. The wind continued for most of the ride but changed direction occasionally from a head wind to a slight side wind and back again. The wind dropped the temperature by about 2 degrees. The temperature just made it over the 10 degree mark during our ride! I was very proud of Ralf he didn’t complain once about the temperature. At least it wasn’t raining.

The road was straight and flat with a wide paved shoulder, again the vehicles moved into the other lane when they could. A few even honked at us and gave us a friendly wave. The ride was a bit boring, although I did see a couple of hawks and what I think was a little sparrow hawk. The only “Town” we went through was Otters Creek, it had a post office, a gas station with a café attached and that was it – don’t blink because you would miss it. Larry told us yesterday that if there was a post office in the Town, the Town would still be on the National Maps, if the post office closed down, your town was erased from the maps! how sad is that.

We arrived in Chiefland, tired and cold. We booked into a Days Inn, we have realized that we will have problems camping until the temperature warms up. Our tent and camping gear is not cold weather rated. The sleeping bags are only good to 2 degrees and the tent is a 3-season tent. Although we are not camping we are eating in the motel to save money – this motel had a microwave and a fridge.

I hope the temperature warms up soon.  No photos – fingers too cold to take photos!

Monday February 2, 2015

A short ride today due mainly to the fact that we had a warmshowers in Crystal River. The other reason to stay in Crystal River is the fact that the next major Town with accommodation is another 80 kms down the road!

We started of at about 9:30 am the weather was warm but with an ominous grey cloud hanging over us. Within 30 minutes into the ride the heavens opened and it continued to rain all morning. It only stopped as we were coming into Crystal River!

The route today took us along Highway 19. It is a four-lane divided highway (2 lanes each way) with speeds of 55 mph to 60 mph! Not a worry we had a bicycle lane for the first 16 kms and then a wide well-paved shoulder for the remainder of the way. All the vehicles gave us plenty of room even though we were on the paved shoulder they still moved over into the other lane.

Bob had told us the road wasn’t too busy after Spring Hill and it wasn’t. Despite the rain it was a good ride. However, he didn’t warn us that we were passing through an area that had bears! Bears in Florida who knew!

By the time we found our warmshowers host’s bicycle shop we were cold and wet, but not too miserable. Although Fred had offered to host us, we weren’t sure whether we were going to have to pitch the tent. Fred immediately put our fears to rest and said we would have a warm spot to sleep in. That meant no pitching the tent.

Fred welcomed us into his shop and put the kettle on straight away for a good hot cup of tea. He was waiting for his sister and brother-in-law (Nellie and Larry) to come back to the shop and then they would take us to his house. We chatted to Fred, he has done quite a few bike tours, and it was interesting to hear about them, especially as some of them took him through the areas we will be going through.

Ralf loves bike shops and he had time to check out every thing in the store before Nellie and Larry arrived. The only thing he bought were two rubber booties for his bike stand and some conditioning wax for the Brooks saddles (the other tin of wax melted in Australia).

We headed to Fred’s house and had a lovely hot shower. We dried our wet clothes and had a great chat to Nellie and Larry. They were farmers from Missouri – they rent their land and have decided to do some travelling.

Before we came over to the house Fred was telling us that it was nothing fancy and he had only just moved in so things were not in their place. We assured him we would be o.k.

Nellie made a wonderful dinner for us all chicken legs, potatoes and green beans. Good home-cooking, it was lovely. Ralf and I, as usual, cleared the dishes, washed and dried the dishes. Nellie wanted us to sit down as we were guests. We told her that we always do the dishes at our warmshowers hosts as this is the only thing that we can do to show our appreciation and thanks for being hosted.

We chatted the evening away and were in bed on the futon mattress in the living room by 10:30.

We were expecting Floridian hospitality and got mid-west hospitality instead.

Sunday February 1, 2015

I woke up early, excited that we were going to start cycling again. We left Gail and Bob’s at 9:45 am, a little late but the weather had warmed up and I didn’t need to wear my knee warmers or a jacket.

Ralf is still not 100%, but we really had to start cycling. The route today was flat along a dedicated cycle way adjacent to the Suncoast Highway. We cycled through Starkey Park and then joined the Suncoast Trail.  Starkey Park is a State Park that used to be a cattle ranch many years ago, but it is now a park with camping and pavillions for picnics and BBQs.

It was a really good way to start our Florida leg, a flat ride, dedicated cycle route and the sun was out and it was warm.

We did have a bit of wind, which kept changing directions. The last 30 kms or so we had a tail wind, which was very nice. People were friendly as we cycled along. Although to hear some of the comments as we passed them were quite funny. “That’s a lot of weight”, “Jeez” and “Oh shit”

It felt good to be cycling again. We passed this tree which had a lot of wind chimes, they sounded really nice as we came up to it.

We headed up to Spring Hill, there were two warmshowers in this Town, but unfortunately neither of them could host us. On arriving in Spring Hill we found a cheap hotel and went out to have lunch. It was the first time we have had “fast food” in ages and we were like amateurs the poor girl behind the counter had to explain everything to us. I am guessing she had not come across anyone like us in a long time.

We popped into the supermarket, and bought some supplies for tonight’s dinner, which we will be cooking in the hotel room!

Tomorrow we are hoping to stay at another warmshowers, but it isn’t looking too promising. Another hotel stay, I guess. This could be an expensive trip, especially as the Canadian dollar has taken a dive.

Saturday January 24, 2015 to Saturday January 31, 2015

We spent Saturday, making lists of things we need to get done this week before heading out towards the start of the next leg of the Grand Adventure (Southern Tier of the United States). We ordered the maps from the Adventure Cycling Organization, got the bikes in for a service and bought all the food and camping gas etc. we needed for the next leg.

It was a busy week getting ourselves organized. We took our bikes to Suncoast Trails Bike Shop who did an awesome job checking the bikes out. We needed quite a bit of maintenance done to them, but at least they did a good job and the bikes are ready for the next 15,000 kms!

We have decided not to go to St. Augustine to start the Southern Tier. It would mean cycling 200 miles east to St. Augustine, so we decided to cycle straight north up to Tallahassee and start the Southern Tier from there.

I had a bit of a cough leaving Cuba, I thought it was the pollution on my chest, but no I had a cold. I spent a day in bed trying to shake it, but it just had to work itself out of the system. I generously passed it on to Ralf, who also took to his bed for a day.

The weather was quite cool in New Port Richey. I wasn’t sure I had enough clothes to put on to stay warm.

On the one warm day we had during the week, Gail and Bob took us to Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs is famous for its sponges and sponge diving.

I had to laugh at this bicycle, there was a shark sitting on the seat.  The guy sitting on the bench reminds me of an old Greek guy.

The weather has finally warmed up and we will be heading out tomorrow on this leg of the Grand Adventure.

We were going to head out today but Ralf was not feeling up to the ride. Ralf is still suffering from the cough, but we have to get going at some stage.

It was really good staying with Gail and Bob for the week. They live in a nice community in New Port Richey.  There was a small pond in the park and we saw a variety of birds: Sandhill Cranes, something that looked like a cormorant airing his wings, and lots of other water fowl. They also got lovely sunsets.

Bob and Gail really looked after us, from making sure we had the drugs for our colds to driving us all over the place to pick up our supplies for the next leg. I can’t thank them enough for how they helped us.

I was able to Skype all my family in England and my sister in Cyprus. It was good to talk to everyone.

Cuba is a great place to cycle, at the moment. Although the roads and the infrastructure are crumbling and there are very few cycling lanes the car and truck drivers are used to slow moving vehicles and give you lots of room when they pass. The only vehicles we had problems with were the tour bus drivers, rushing to take their load of tourists to the next location. They drove recklessly for the most part, not giving an inch (or a centimeter).

As mentioned throughout the blog the roads are in poor condition, which actually helps to keep the car drivers sticking to the speed limit. There are two motorways, one heading west to Pinar del Rio Province and the other heading east. The amazing thing with these two major highways is that cows can be seen grazing along the centre median, and horse and carts and bicycles are allowed on the very wide shoulder.

The scenery in the west and the east (two opposite ends of the country) is stunning. The hills and mogotes of Pinar Del Rio province are very beautiful. Cycling through this rural area was amazing, the people were friendly although a little reserved. We enjoyed cycling along the roads going through the valleys and watching oxen plow fields. Almost as if you have stepped back in time. There are few big towns and cities in this Province but there are a lot of independent tourists visiting the area. We were surprised to discover in Vinales (a relatively small town of less than 25,000 people) there were 350 to 500 casas. How they all made money we don’t know.

Guantanamo province where the Town of Baracoa is located was incredibly beautiful. The mountains were stunning with different vegetation than the west side of the country. Again these areas are sparsely populated but we would often find ourselves surrounded by people trying to sell us bananas, mandarins and cones of sugar and coconut.

The south coast from Santiago de Cuba to Pilon was also one of my favorite areas. Amazing coastal and mountain scenery, we cycled along a very rough road with few settlements but the people were very friendly. Waving at us and calling to us as we cycled along.

There were days when the calling, staring and kisses blown were annoying, but we came to realise that this is their culture. People coming in to stores would often kiss the cashier on the cheek. It is a very touchy feely society. Whenever we left a casa we would get a hug and a kiss on the cheek. If we returned to the casa on our way back, we were treated like long-lost family.

Would I come back to Cuba to cycle again. Yes, probably but not for three months. I would pick the areas I wanted to see again (Pinar del Rio, Granma/Santiago and Guantanomo) and spend maybe a couple of weeks in each area.

There is poverty in Cuba, but not like in other countries where people are starving for lack of food. The “system” does not allow for that. Every adult has a ration book, where they get the staples: eggs, oil, powdered milk, rice, beans and flour, and bread. Meat and vegetables are available in the rural areas where they grow their own vegetables and pigs, chickens etc.

Cubans do not pay rent for their houses, they pay a small amount for electricity and do not have to pay for water or sewage. They can apply to the government for land where they can build a house, if they can get the supplies. Therein lies the problem the supplies or the distribution system. We heard in one casa where they could not get toilet paper. We were told that another Cuban had discovered where the truck was distributing the cases of toilet paper and bought half the supplies from the truck driver. The black-market is huge. If it is not at the government run stores you can find it (with a bit of searching) down a back-alley somewhere being sold off the back of a truck.

Education is free right through university. Although if you are a Doctor, Engineer or other sought after profession, you are “requested” to go on a “Mission”. Cuba trades its well-educated workforce to other countries – Argentina, Venezuela etc. for oil and other commodities. Missions usually last four years and is very hard on the families at home. Although the professionals do earn extra money while they are away and that does help out the families financially.

The medical system is free and of a good quality. We saw an old fella in the middle of rural Cuba with the tell-tale signs of a pacemaker. Again the problem is not the quality of the system but the lack of supplies. We spoke to a nurse who was in charge of 300 junior nurses at a training hospital. She would tell them what they were to do, but there often wasn’t the supplies for them to do it. There is a “Policlinico” in almost every town. These are clinics that have a doctor, a dentist, nurses and are capable of small operations. There is a pharmacy in every small village and the drugs are cheap.

Cubans pay no income-tax or taxes on items that they buy. They often have no concept of how expensive things are in Canada or the rest of the world or how hard we have to work to get the things we buy.

One of the things that drove us absolutely crazy was the lack of customer service. If the staff went much slower they would go backwards. There is no incentive for them to work hard.

• Telephone company – There are often three lines outside of the Telepunto Office. One line for the internet, one line to buy credits for your phone (this cannot be done on-line) and pay your bill and one line to buy a phone and get your contract. Ralf waited 20 minutes in line to buy a case for his phone. There was no key to open the cabinet, because the lady who deals with that cabinet was not working, on that day. Ralf wanted to buy a USB stick, he had to deal with another lady for that item. Fortunately she had a key for the other cabinet. A third lady dealt with Internet cards, which you have to buy before accessing the internet. The internet is available at the Telepunto office (and some hotels) and is expensive. I think I spent almost $85.00 to keep the blog updated in the three months we have been here.
• Restaurants – regardless of the standard of restaurant if you ordered the same food all the food came out together – appetizers, main meal or if you order different main dishes they often came out at different times – on several occasions Ralf had almost finished his meal before I got mine.
• Restaurants will substitute dessert if they don’t have the one you requested, without telling you!
• Banks – there are usually long line-ups for the banks. Again there is a procedure to go through. Line up outside to get in. Line up inside to get to one of the cashiers that have access to on-line banking. Line up to get the paperwork signed by another person, then go back to the cashier to get the money. However, we can access our account at the bank and withdraw money from the account and not use visa cash advance. In Havana there are ATM’s that Ralf has been using.
• Stores – come in many shapes and sizes. All of them sell rum (except the stores that sell kids stuff). Again you have to line up at each counter to get the items you want. If you want candies, there is a counter for that, if you want tuna there is a counter for that and if you want liquor or beer there is a counter for that.

We were told that there is a culture of theft. Things are stolen from hotels. We stayed at many casas where the crockery was stamped with Cubanacan Hotel logos or the towels had Iberostar on them. However, stealing from tourists (pick-pockets or muggings) very rarely happens, we never heard of one mugging while we were here. We felt safe wherever we walked, even down the back-alleys of Havana at night. However, the constant request for one dollar drove me crazy.

One of the things that did surprise us was the sex tourism trade. Lots of young girls selling their bodies to older men. We saw many lovely young girls walking down the street on the arm of an older man. They would sometimes be married and get all the stuff they wanted from their “sugar Daddy”. We were in a Casa in Las Tunas where an older Italian was staying with his young girlfriend, I was working on my blog on my Mac and she spotted the apple logo. “That is what I want, I want one of those lap tops”. The Italian came over and wrote down the name of the Macbook Air and smiled happily at his young girlfriend.

The noise in Cuba is constant. Whether it is the music, people shouting, loud conversation or general street life, it is a very noisy society. Maybe that is the Latin-American way, I am not sure.

The casa particulares that we stayed at varied in size and amenities. Most of them were nice serving good food, albeit very similar, and very nice people.

There is an emerging class system, in Cuba. There are some private businesses, the casa particuleres, taxis, small cafes and restaurant and the little hole in the wall pizza/sandwich places. These people do pay a “tax” on their income, but these are the only people who do pay taxes. They also have the ability to buy the extras, mobile phones, televisions, computers, some have cars, nice clothes etc.

Most of the people we spoke to regarding the renewed relations between the US and Cuba feel as if the goose has laid the golden egg. However, I am not sure what is going to happen to the country when they realize it is not necessarily the US blockade that has kept them poor, but their own government.

They want more, but don’t necessarily want to work hard for it. We watched Maria in Havana clean three rooms, it took 4 people six hours to clean the rooms. They said that they were exhausted because they had a very hard day. Ralf and I could have got these 3 rooms done in three hours and the bathrooms would have been shining, the floors would be gleaming there would be no dust on the side tables. It is all down to organization.

They have had 56 years of not having to work hard and still have housing, food and the necessities of life provided to them. There are going to be interesting changes over the next few years, some for the good others not so much.

The problem is not with the system it is with the nature of human beings. If I work hard I should get more. Why should I support the lazy bugger down the street, if he can’t or won’t work. Whether this attitude will come to Cuba will be interesting to see. It is prevalent in most developed countries. The “Me” society. I think it will come to Cuba, but how quickly will be the question.

In Havana and other major cities there is a lot of rebuilding. But I feel it is Cuba putting on a face. Look we have survived without the assistance of the mighty US, but look at this picture below. The top floor is only the façade the building was renovated at the bottom but not at the top. This is Cuba a façade. We have free education, medical, housing, food etc. we look after the poorest of the poor. The people cannot get any richer and people who work hard cannot move forward, unless they have an in with the government.

Everyone tells us Cuba will change, Cuba has to change.  Maybe when the Castros have gone, but they have their successors in place ready to keep the country as it is.