Day 47 - DeFuniak Springs, FL to Marianna, FL

68.5 miles today
2,420.8 total trip miles
13.5 mph average
1,627’ climbing
FF - 7
MP - brother-in-law Rob & family. He got a good engineering education, moved West for a job & found a wife.  Has lived & worked also in the Midwest & now in the East.  Always moving to improve the situation for himself & his family.  Loves God most of all & shares his faith eagerly.  Runs in unbelievably long events (50 miles or more at a time)

We are in Florida & finally the temperatures are rising.  I promised I would not complain about hot weather after our earlier experiences with cold on this trip, and actually I am getting along with it fine.  We spent a lot more time on US 90 today, went through a few towns which increased the amount of car traffic, but the drivers are mostly polite.

I had my closest encounter with wildlife today.  I stopped at a park in a nice little town & these ducks were not really afraid of me

I may have spoken too early yesterday in my post about bike tires because today I had my first flat tire on the road.  I started to fix it on my own, then some other riders stopped and were able to get this picture.

After I worked on it for about 5 minutes our tour mechanic came by & stopped to help.  A small piece of glass worked its way through the tire.  I heard the pop & it started to deflate instantly.  Fortunately I wasn’t going fast & was able to stop with no problem.  When we arrived at camp today, we replaced the whole tire.  I guess 2,400 miles on a bike tire is pretty good service.

WDYLT - ILT on a warm day, it’s really nice to have a chocolate shake after biking for 67 miles.  The whole ride was just over 68 & that last mile was easy after being refreshed.