Day 28, July 31-Live Oak, FL (Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park) to High Springs, FL (O’Leno State Park)

54.72 miles. N29.54 X W82.35

I had a flat tire today before we had gone over 10 miles…a piece of a brown beer bottle lodged in my tire. I saw it before I hit it, and dodged it with my bicycle, but I couldn’t avoid it with the trailer. In my opinion, glass throwers are the lowest level of human life forms. People who throw glass bottles on the roadway should have their driver’s license suspended for life and be issued a bicycle and garbage bags so they can dodge and pick up roadway glass. We see glass everywhere and all the time. I’m surprised we haven’t flatted from glass before this. I also have a similar opinion about people who throw dirty diapers on the roadside, but I won’t go into that one.

It pretty much rained and dripped all night long. We stayed dry in the tent, but it was pretty hot and damp. Today’s problem is that we have decided to do a 55 mile ride and our map shows no services for the entire trip. Isn’t it amazing that you can go 55 miles in one of the most populous states in the U.S. and can go that far without a place to stop and eat or use the restroom? Well, fortunately, the map was wrong. We found a coffee shop in Wellborn at the 17 mile mark and then around the 50 mile mark we found a campground and convenience store. Most of the route today was on country roads and relatively flat. The ride was pretty much uneventful. The weather was hot in the morning then somewhat cooler in the afternoon as it became partially overcast, threatening rain. We pulled into O’Leno State Park and immediately saw a couple of deer along the side of the road. We haven’t seen many deer since biking in Florida. We set up camp amid thunder all around us. Our equipment is still wet from last night’s rain and it looks like more rain is in the offing. We waiting a little before starting to cook, in case the rain should start. Finally, we decided we’d better eat. I cooked and we were able to eat without getting wet. While we were eating, we heard a pair of barred owls talking to each other. After supper, I was writing in the journal when I saw one of the barred owls fly down to the ground and pounce on something and fly back up to the tree to eat. I tried to mimic its call, but unfortunately, scared it away. Perhaps my call was a warning call…or it was just plain weird. Sure enough the rain started a little before dusk, and while we were showering. It rained very hard for 20 minutes or so and then rained lightly for most of the night. We spent another night shut up in our tent, dry, but very warm and damp. By the way, the spider in the picture above is a banana spider...and, no, it is not making a cell phone call, it's just for size comparison.

Question of the day:

What English phrase is used to mimic the call of a barred owl?