This morning I woke up around 5am and turned my stove on to make I hot drink. I got these buttery caramel instant packets at dollar general the other day. So I had that to start the day, and then began packing up. The church was the perfect place to camp last night! It was and quiet all night long.
Once we were ready we got moving a little before 6am. Then began walking in the dark along the road. We only had a couple miles to go before we came to the first service station. A Rocky’s gas station which was quite nice. We got breakfast sandwiches and a hot drink. Then sat outside on the curb to eat. The sausage, egg, and cheese on a biscuit was actually really good. And I brought my large hot mocha on the road.
Passing by Rocky’s first thing this morning.
After that we weren’t going to be passing anything else until the later afternoon. JR’s stop was about 20 miles away, and is a classic stop along the Florida trail. Which we’ll be getting back onto briefly today! This alternate route was great though. The road may have been a bit boring, but shaving off 100 miles saves us time in the future that we can use to rest or travel.
It was a mildly chilly morning to start the day. But I only needed my Sambob alpha 90 layers and my gloves to be comfortable. We made our way along the road and it began to warm up slowly. After a few hours I was able to take all of my layers off and still be warm. It’s a bit overcast today though which is great, especially on a long road walk.
I loved the way that the clouds looked in the sky this morning.
My headphones were giving me issues today and weren’t really working. So I wound up just going without for most of the day. Just listening to birds and car noise along the road. Fresh Ground called us a couple times so we entertained ourselves talking to him. He’s always a blast to talk to and is so funny. It looks like we’ll probably be seeing him in a week or so, depending how things play out. Long Shot might come down to meet us next week. And if so, it’s likely that Fresh Ground will drive him out to our location so that we can regroup. Only time will tell though.
I packed this out from the gas station last night and enjoyed it on the road this afternoon.
The middle of the day dragged on a bit as we road walked. There just wasn’t much to preoccupy my mind with, especially without headphones. But we had service here and there, so I got a blog post and a video up. That’s always a delight. It’s great having service daily and being able to stay on top of those as best I can. I’m sure that will sadly change as we go further north. But I’ll still stay up with the writing and videos, and then just upload whenever I can.
Punisher up ahead along the road.
While we were walking the road, we had a couple “close calls” with drivers. Once or twice a car would drive well into the shoulder and swerve right at us at the last minute. I don’t know if they were doing this on purpose to mess with us, or just weren’t paying attention. We did our best to stay well over in the shoulder or on the grass. But because of the slant of the grass and how overgrown it can be, it’s much more comfortable to walk in the shoulder. We’ve been really lucky so far that just about everyone is paying attention. But every now and then you’re bound to run into a driver who is just angry that you’re walking on the road at all. Or someone who is preoccupied on their phone.
By 2pm we made it to JR’s stop and headed inside to enjoy a break. We had stopped off a few hours prior to stretch briefly along the road. But that was the only break of the day so far. Other than our quick gas station stop this morning. JR’s does hot food, but only had sausage dogs leftover for the day. That was ok though! I grabbed a chocolate milk and soda, then got a dog as well. We sat inside to hang out and eat. And even wound up staying for almost an hour. We were already 23 miles in for the day, so we didn’t have far to go.
A sausage dog from JR’s! It was really good.
While we were in JR’s we did a bit of research on our route up toward Tallahassee tomorrow. We asked the clerk inside if there were any parts of the city that we should avoid. She mentioned one road in particular which apparently had a lot of homeless people along it. And when we looked it up, we realized that our planned route brought us right through there. Then we looked online to see which areas had the highest crime rates. And lo and behold, the south west portion of the city was known to be the worst. That was exactly the section that our Gaia route had us going through.
The women’s bathroom sign at JR’s.
So we thought about it and looked at other routes. We could go further to the west and mostly bypass Tallahassee altogether. Which added a bit of mileage, but not too much. Or we could go straight through the city and try to stay more to the east, which is apparently really nice. We’ll just have to see what we decide. We were originally planning to possibly get a room in Tallahassee because of mileage and camping options. So of course I’ve been draining my phone and using my power bank more frequently. Because I figured that we’d be charging up again in just a day or so. If we go further to the west of the city, then we won’t be passing by a motel or another for another couple of days. All important things to consider over the course of today and tomorrow morning. We don’t really have to make a final decision until we’re further north.
Punisher and the dog from JR’s.
Eventually we headed out of the small store and got back to the road walking. There was a cute dog outside of the store that we said hello to before leaving. Then got back to it! We only have to walk for another couple of hours to hit 30 miles for the day. So I imagine it will be a pretty early day. The sky was looking dark when we left the store and it was a bit cooler. So the Sambob alpha layers went back on. We checked out the weather and saw a small chance of rain, which hopefully won’t happen at all. But if it does rain it’s not supposed to start until a little bit later.
Passing over the Aucilla River.
The road was a bit less busy by 3pm which was nice. And the shoulder was fairly wide as well. We just continued along, making our way to wherever we would be camping tonight. Eventually we’ll get onto a dirt road. Then hopefully find a place off of the road to get set up for the night.
Then we got back on to the Florida trail, for the final time!
After walking on pavement for a bit longer, we followed Florida trail blazes off into the woods. Then hoped on a dirt road which we would be on for about 9 miles. Within the first half mile we had to skirt around some big pools of water on the road. And we should have known that it was only going to get worse. Each one was harder to navigate around than the last. Then before we knew it, the next pool was more like a pond. And there was no way around it without getting our feet wet. We were not about to do that if we didn’t have to. This dirt road parallels the paved road. So it seemed like a nice break from the pavement. But we were wrong.
This long dirt road seems promising. But the further down it we went, the more flooded it got.
This led to us briefly backtracking and getting on to another dirt road. Which was luckily dry and led us back out onto the same main road that we were on earlier. How hilarious. If we were going through water on and off over the course of the day, that would be one thing. But getting our feet wet in the middle of a road walk for absolutely no reason, now that was too much.
Back tracking off of the dirt road and heading back to the road.
Once we got back on the road again we began keeping our eyes open for camp spots. Which was also an issue with the dirt road. Because everything surrounding the road was flooded, it was not going to be easy to find a place to set up for the night. And we had already gone nearly 30 miles for the day.
Lounging in my tent at the end of another 30 mile day.
Only a mile or so after getting back onto the pavement we found an old road off of the highway. It was overgrown and would have been next to impossible to drive down. That was perfect! We walked down further past a couple fallen trees and got set up there. We were still close enough to the main road to hear the traffic. But far enough away to not be worried about cars driving by in the middle of the night.
The biscuits and gravy by Mountain House is definitely a new favorite of mine.
I got my tent set up and then boiled water to make a mountain house meal for dinner. I made the biscuits and gravy, which is officially a new favorite of mine. I ate every last bit and everything rehydrated perfectly. It was absolutely delicious and exactly what I needed. Then I did my stretching and some blog and video work. I had just enough service to do everything that I needed to do. After a while I got comfortable to head off to bed, listening to the sound of cars drive by along the road.
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