Sometimes even Florida gets cold

Sunshine State Tour Day 5:  March 5, 2019
Mount Dora to Seville on Lake George


We awake this morning to cooler

not our typical breakfast spot

temperatures and a very delicious breakfast of homemade Eggs Benedict and lots of good coffee.

We lingered over breakfast as long as we could knowing we had to cover sixty miles to get to Seville.  It was feeling pretty cold when we left Christopher's B&B and within a mile the rain started.  Since the temperature hovered around 50 degrees we waited under a roof at the town recreation center until the rain lessened.
There is a lot of open land between Mount Dora and Seville and plenty of the "real Florida" without the snowbirds and tourists.  We rode past conservation areas, state parks, wildlife reserves and state forests.

sandhill cranes right in a neighborhood

The day was getting colder and colder and after riding past nothing but hammock and forest for miles we came into the little town of Paisley and stopped at the town library.  The friends of the library sold tea for $1/cup which made for a very good rest break.

hot tea and a friendly staff at this library

We rode on at a steady speed just to keep warm.
I still needed to get some food for dinner but the tiny grocery stores we encountered carried work boots, gloves, cases of beer and huge cans of canned beans and sardines and not much else.  I managed to buy two ramen noodle bowls which combined with some tuna and tortillas made an adequate supper.  Luckily, there is still one chocolate bar in my pannier so we have dessert too.

Our campsite is about four miles off the Adventure Cycling route down a dead end road.  It is on the shore of Lake George and is in a private campground that looks like a very interesting trailer park. There are definitely year round residents here.

our site for the night

The trailers are circa 1970 and have been added on to in various ramshackle ways. The lady who manages the site just requires a $20 bill and tells us to put our tent anywhere.

The lake itself is the second largest lake in Florida but has an average depth of only 8 feet.  The U.S. millitary uses it for bombing practice and also to perform practice search and rescue missions for downed pilots.  None of this is going on while we are there fortunately, but we are camped right next to some sort of big military communications tower.

sparkling blue Lake George

The temperature drops to the upper 30's overnight and a we sleep dressed in our down coats with our sleeping bags zipped together.

the headwind and cold temps make this a tougher ride than it looks

Sunshine State Tour Day 6:  March 6, 2019

It is very hard to get out of the sleeping bag and the tent is flapping in the wind.  39 degrees!   Today will be another long day.  There just aren't a lot of options for places to stay in central Florida.  Today's ride will take us to the Atlantic coast and then we should have some lower mileage days in the coming weeks.  It is cold---colder than I thought it would be here when I left my rain pants, gloves, and fleece at home.

wearing as many warm clothes as possible (Don't worry, I fixed my helmet after this photo)

sailing along under the live oaks and palms

Road Closed -- because they are installing new utilities

We wait for awhile here and Tom decides we need to re-route or we will never make it to the coast

We have only traveled about 15 miles and we have spent a lot of energy just staying warm.  It feels like high summer in Newfoundland!  Tom decides we must find a way around the construction and so we take a chance and follow google maps.  It works out and we end up traveling about the same distance as we had planned.  At the end of route 100 we arrive at the Atlantic coast.   We have been riding into a steady 10 - 15 mph headwind and we still have about 26 miles ahead of us before we reach St. Augustine where our AirBnB stay is waiting for us.  I booked two nights so we can have a real rest day and a chance to explore the oldest city in North America.  The temperature never even reached 50 degrees today.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer. 

This bridge takes us from the mainland to the barrier island and route A1A where all the beaches are.  

We have covered over 300 miles across Florida without seeing any other cycle tourists.  We met these tandem riding folks on route A1A just after Ormond Beach. 

They kept a blog of their adventures last summer and gave us the address www.cycleblaze.com/journals/twofar2018  Attn: David from Quebec!