Day 30, Aug. 2-Hawthorne, FL to St. Augustine, FL (Anastasia State Park Campground)

73.69 miles. N29.52 X W81.17

When I woke up this morning, I thought the motel room had a leak. I could hear a dripping sound. It wasn’t a leak, it was the rain dripping from the roof of our room. One would expect that the final day of a 16 week odyssey would be something like this: Clear, sunny skies, cool temperatures, quiet country roads, and a mechanically sound ride. What really happened is we had overcast skies with rain most of the day, hot, humid temperatures such that a raincoat was too hot an option, busy state highways with shoulders, some of the heaviest traffic we have seen, and a flat tire with only 10 miles to go. We packed up and set off for the last day of the trek. We biked back to last night’s supper location for breakfast, then got back on the road. Naturally, the rain had not subsided. The rain finally stopped around 11 at which point we had lunch. Once again, however, it was raining when we left. As mentioned before, we had a flat with just 10 miles to go. Spokewrench fixed that (in the rain) and we were back in the saddle within 15 minutes. We finished the last 10 miles to the campground and set up the tent, in the rain. We biked down to a small pavilion where we cooked a supper of Macaroni and Cheese with Vienna Sausage. After that, we biked down to the Atlantic Ocean to take pictures documenting us and our bikes in the ocean. We went down later to swim a little. This is officially the end of this leg of the ride and completes a 4 year odyssey that has led us from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean (on the Lewis and Clark Trail) and then from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico (on the Underground Railroad Trail) and then on the Atlantic (on the Southern Tier Trail). Unofficially, we have traveled 1648 miles this summer and a total of around 6000 miles. Tomorrow we drive!!!

Question of the day: Calculate how many pedal strokes it has taken us to the bicycle the complete 6000 mile trip. Use an average speed of 11.5 miles per hour and an average cadence of 75.