28 April 2014
Crestview to Marianna, FL
92 miles (Total Miles = 2,629)

My bicycle tire has yet to roll a single inch but I’m already drenched in sweat. I don’t know about this Florida. Having been born here you’d think I’d have some kind of genetically or environmentally engineered protection against this humidity but I guess we moved away before that bit kicked in.

It’s a long road in front of us today and it pains me – literally – to know that between last night’s laundry not fully drying and today’s humidity, I’ll be cycling it in the equivalent of a wet diaper. That cannot possibly be good. Gina and I talk a lot about switching our cycling clothes from lycra and polyester to something more pleasing to the general public, but when it comes down to it, choosing fashion over function is probably a bad idea. Investing in talcum powder might be more prudent.

We’ll be ticking off these 90+ miles on Map 7, the final map of our Southern Tier trip:

The maps are quite good as they include the mileage between towns and basic information as to what kind of services – if any – a given town has. Sometimes you get a little unlucky and aim to stop in a town where the gas station has closed since the map was printed, but then you just choke down another mouthful of warm water from your cycling bottle and push on to the next dot on the map. So really, if you think about it, cycling across the country is nothing more than connecting the dots. How hard is that? Maybe a little bit hard when wearing a wet diaper, but lucky Map #7 is bound to see us through.