Tough morning but great afternoon

Saturday April 29th. Day 54 Tallahassee to Madison 68 miles or 110 km.

We had to wake early again as thunderstorms and heavy rain were in the forecast for the middle of the afternoon. I opened the door of the motel room to put my panniers outside and saw about 10 police cars outside in front of our room.

Vaguely I had heard some voices during the night but too tired to be bordered by them. Must have been a wild night. After taking pictures and a video we were ready for the day.

Heavy fog made cycling more difficult.  We made sure that we had bright red lights at the back of our formation. Luckily it is Saturday and traffic starts a bit later. My bike performed for about 30 minutes and then no more. I was very upset but couldn't dwell on it. Just keep peddling one stroke at a time.

We didn't have breakfast so around 10 am we arrived in Monticello and stopped for coffee. Unfortunately, we chose the wrong place. Slow service, wrong menus and then lukewarm coffee.

So we left and found another coffeeshop. Much better. Very good coffee and the food was excellent. We discussed what to do about my bike as I had only cycled 50 km and still had another 50 to go. My thought was to give it a try and if not working to try to get a ride to Madison. 

As soon as I began cycling the bike worked. I passed my friends and told them that I would try to get as many km in till the motor would quit again. Well that didn't happen. All the way to Madison I had power. There I waited for the rest of our little group to arrive. There is no rhyme nor reason to this shutting down situation and thus almost impossible to figure out what is wrong with my bike. It is very upsetting yet so grateful that it did work for 50% today.

The roads were beautiful today. Smooth pavement,  trees that gave me shade as it had become quite hot again, and loads of yellow flowers. Very uplifting. Around 1.30 pm we arrived in Madison but no hotel to be found. There was a bed and breakfast place but too pricey for our budget. So we stopped by a fire station and peeked inside. A beautiful old firetruck with wooden spokes was parked beside a new truck. Quite a difference I must say.

While the 3 amigos discussed what to do next. in Hebrew most of the time, more dark clouds rolled in. Time was of the essence so we decided to ride 10 km off route to the Days Inn hotel. We arrived just in time. The clouds produced thunderstorms and heavy rain and as I am writing my blog it is still pouring rain. The humidity must be 100%. Our floor of the room is wet and you can't see yourself in the mirror yet it is warm. I don't like this sort of weather but complaining doesn't make it any better😩 so won't do that.

Soon we are going to eat. There's a restaurant next to the hotel and they have a salad bar. Might just try it out.