Days 44 & 45: Milton to DeFuniak Springs to Marianna, Florida

Bubba Barron

Writing this a day later, I find I can remember nothing about yesterday's ride.  It was only about 53 miles, the weather was nice, the road was fine.  Perhaps the most memorable thing was John's lunch...barbecued pork on top of tater tops with cheese melted over the whole thing.  We ended up at a very nice R.V. park, certainly the nicest of our trip, although they seem to get better the further east we ride.  The park ladies catered dinner for us-- or I should say for the others-- since my vegetarian meal was the usual enchiladas and spanish rice (good ones, I must say).  I did eat their speciality-- sweet potatoes wrapped in dough with a caramel sauce and pecans-- no it wasn't dessert, just part of the meal.

Looked better in real life.

So here we are in Florida and we froze to death in the night.  The internet said that it was 37 degrees in DeFuniak Springs and 46 in Belfast, Maine at about 7:00 this morning.  The ladies made a breakfast that was as good as dinner the night before and we headed off on a 67 mile ride.

The highlight of the ride was the town of DeFuniak Springs.  It is said to be one of only two natural and perfectly round springs in the WORLD!  It looked like a pond to me-- quite large and very beautiful.  Located on this body of water is the oldest functioning library in Florida-- that is to say built as a library and still being used as such.

The part of the building that shows is the original part but they have added on very cleverly to the back and down the bank toward the water so that the library is much bigger than it appears.  The library director came along just as we arrived and showed us around-- a very nice library and one of which the town is very proud.

Otherwise, not much to say about the ride...again good road, good shoulder, nice unexciting scenery.  We were promised a tailwind but it didn't really materialize.  I saw for the first time in the whole ride a "Romney for President" sign.