Day #1: Tallahassee to Quincy (the long way) 39.1 Miles

We started our journey today to Tallahassee at 4:00 AM - panniers in hand.   When we landed, the plane immediately filled with an acrid smell from forest fires burning in the city.  Looking out the window the sky was grayish red and visibility was poor.  The weather board inside the airport described the weather not as cloudy rainy or sunny but rather as "dreary" - see photo below.  Arriving in Tallahassee, we made our way to the Higher Ground Bike Shop  to pick up our Surly- Long Haul Truckers and some last minute gear.  John who works at Higher Ground who helped us order the bikes a month ago, spent several hours with us teaching us how to change tires, what to look out for and giving us general advice about our trip.   I can't tell you how lucky we were to find these guys on the internet and would definitely recommend them to anybody who appreciates knowledgeable and patient sales people.   John  encouraged us to take a more scenic route (with more frequent bike lanes) to Quincy. Being  in peak physical shape, my dad and I decided to go for it. It turned out to be a very pleasant ride with gradual rolling hills and an almost continuous bike lane containing very little debris. We stopped at the FSU diving  facility to wait out some thunder, lightning and heavy rain.  The people there let us fill our water bottles with some iced power aide which was great.  At one point Cobys chain came off his bike and we decided to fix it on the grassy curb on what turned out to be a giant ant hill - home to vicious biting ants.  Two road workers had a good laugh watching us dance around trying to swat the ants off of our legs.  39.1 miles later we arrived at our destination -  the Allison Inn.  We were greeted by Stewart, a man who's first question was "man, are you guys the slowest bikers ever?!" (jokingly of course). We were shown to our room inside the bed and breakfast which is protected by the National Historic Society.

To sum up the day in a total of 6 hours we rode through smoke, thunder, lightning, rain and got bitten by nasty ants.  It was a great day!


Here is a map of todays route! Our Route From Tallahassee to Quincy

We hope you enjoy some of our favorite pictures we took today, and thanks for coming along for the ride.