The Day to meet UF student Stephanie

Joan's View

As most of you know, Marla is in grad school at UF in Ohio (The University of Findlay). Tonight, we were fortunate to hang with a different UF student, Stephanie Winslow. Yes, we found another Winslow! She is in medical school here at the University of Florida. She is doing a geriatric block right now so picking us up for dinner fit right into her rotation. Haha. We came up with that at dinner. We got a mini tour of Gainesville too which was a great opportunity for us because she leaves this area when she starts her residency this summer.  She even took Tony to an ice cream shop since he really wanted ice cream today (see below).

Stephanie with her car named Sunny 😍

Thanks Stephanie!

Let's back up to the start of our day. It was pretty warm when we left Cross City. We thought we had passed the last lumber mill as we left Cross City,

One of many lumber mills in this area.

but then we saw that more lumber loaded semis were heading in the same direction as us. 

We rode on a smooth bike trail for the first 20 miles that was converted from a railroad track. At one point, we stopped on this cool old railroad bridge over the Swanee River and chatted with another bicyclist. In case you are too young to remember Bing Crosby singing Swanee River, here it is:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Swanee+River+Bing+Crosby&&view=detail&mid=D4DB5534F36AA021DFEDD4DB5534F36AA021DFED&&FORM=VRDGAR

Back on the road, we saw this cool name for a business. I think it's a sign that Wade & Linda will be getting a house soon.😉









There was more variety to see today. We were on the bike path with the usual rabbits, squirrels, birds and snakes, but today we were also dodging some sort of flying grasshopper. At the end of the bike path, in Trenton, we took a break and the local community was holding their food pantry at the park pavilion. They were calling numbers for who could pick their food next, but everyone could have as much cabbage as they wanted. Pretty kind thing from whomever donated all the cabbage in the big box.

On the road, we saw lots more businesses. We passed through the small town of Newberry and ate lunch at the Country Kitchen. It seemed like one of the few eateries in town so lots of locals were there too. Coming into Gainesville, Tony took us through some residential areas. He was really hoping that we would pass an ice cream shop, but we arrived at our motel before we could find ice cream. 55 miles today and we are gearing up for the last day of our ride tomorrow, 66 miles. The temperature is warm again tomorrow in the 80s, and we get our Christmas tree & Sherpa back for the last leg of the trip. See you tomorrow, Tom (aka Christmas tree) & Cindy (aka World's Best Sherpa)!

Tony's Extras

Another beautiful ride today. It sure feels good to be sweating in 80 degree weather. When we were going through the residential streets, we came across Anthony's Lawn Service. Notice the phone number ended with 1001, the same as our home phone number. You need to just leave your pain in the grass to Anthony's Lawn Service. There were a couple of big intersections that I took us through. One had 2 left turn lanes, 3 straight through lanes and a right turn lane. We were in the middle left turn lane, and I looked at Joan and said, "Pretty intimidating intersection, huh?" What a fun night out with Stephanie tonight. Good food, good IPA beers and then ice cream. I now have a new favorite WInslow. However, I am looking forward to seeing my 2nd and 3rd favorite Winslows tomorrow. Last day of bicycling tomorrow. Bummer!