32.4 mi / 11.5 mph / 426 ft. climbing
Home: Tracie’s AirBNB Room

It was 40℉ when we woke up, and probably had dipped as low as 37, so we have clearly escaped our 72℉ mornings of the Florida Keys. I took a morning stroll around the campground (at least three of the sites at the fully-booked campground appeared to be unoccupied), and was transported to a different world when I glimpsed a deep bowl valley dropping away from the backside of the campsites. I guess this was the remnants of phosphate mining, but since the pit was now completely covered in vegetation, it seemed like an entirely natural valley, just not one that belongs anywhere within the boundaries of Florida!

That topography helps explain why there were more mountain bikes here than people (I saw a multiple couples who brought 4 bikes with them!), and finally just as we were rolling out at 11am, one of those riders broke through the cultural divide for a chat. He was impressed, but also thought we were crazy (an accusation I’m always happy to own!), mostly because we ride on public roads with traffic. He was sufficiently concerned that he recommended through-hiking as a car-free way to do long-distance travel! I guess the two cultures just get our thrills from different sources?

Our mild headwinds continued, but we had come far enough inland that there was now a network of quiet back roads available and we were lucky to spend much of the day on them. It’s perhaps our first day of Florida riding where the mountain biker could have come with us and not been totally traumatized.

The peace allowed Rett to continue practicing a new riding skill she had begun experimenting with on the bike trails before our holiday break: using the “bullhorn” position on her handlebars! She’s had the option available on her “Denham Bars” for four years, but has been (understandably) reluctant to use them, both because it takes her hands away from the brakes and shifters, and because it changes the feel and balance of the bike. The alternate position can help relieve hand soreness, but mostly in this case the slightly-lower and arms-tucked-in position reduces wind resistance. Every few months when we have a windy day I’d suggest that she try it out, but this round she’s been attempting it of her own volition, which of course makes all the difference. Already she had become more-comfortable and settled in the new position, and it definitely made her significantly faster…I would note that I needed to speed up in order to stay on her rear wheel, and only later realize that it was because she had switched to the streamlined position.

The good-sized city of Lakeland is home to a lot of huge warehouses (including Amazon’s), presumably due to its central and highway-crossed location. It’s also home to some crazy hills, these apparently natural and not due to mining! Well, the 6% hill (the steepest we’ve climbed since New York) was an artificial one to climb over a highway overpass, but we had to climb a similarly steep one just to get out of the Publix parking lot.

Lakeland’s location means that it also has plenty of motels, but we had an unusually difficult time finding a cheap-but-not-disgusting sweet-spot like we usually do, so instead went with an AirBNB “Room”. Tracie’s place was a bit of a disorganized mess, but she was friendly and welcoming, and the two-room wing of her house designated for us was certainly more for the money than we could have gotten at any motel. And as an added bonus it triggered good memories because the setup was almost an exact match for the first place we stayed when we arrived in New Zealand last year!