Today's route was somewhat familiar. Alain and Viktoriya came up to Apalachicola a couple of years ago for a 50 km run. We actually stayed at the same Best Western hotel in Apalachicola that we stayed in last night, albeit 2 rooms over. The 50 km run started out on the same causeway that we started out on this morning. Since there was no room for staffed aid stations during the run, the race organizers had just left cartons of water bottles out on the causeway. Biking the causeway was much more comfortable than running it.
Florida has many miles of coastline, but surprisingly few roads that run right along the beach with an unobstructed view of the water. Today was one of the very best places to enjoy the waterfront from a bicycle.
The sun is climbing, but we are not. We had a nice flat road along the shoreline.
We passed huge numbers of butterflies today. Even out on causeways far from land we would see butterflies. I guess they know enough not to touch the water. There were some small white flowers that were popular with orange butterflies. Sorry, don't look to us for an identification of the flowers or the butterflies.
We were wondering why butterflies have such large wings compared to beetles and bees. If one design was superior to the other, you would expect all insects to have the optimal wing size. Are large wings more efficient for long flights? Surely butterflies would have a hard time maneuvering through a hive.
We are starting to get close to where Hermine made landfall last week. There was not much sign of storm damage. In a few places the tidal surge had come close to the road, but it didn't look like the road had been blocked or washed out anywhere. Right as we got into Crawfordville at the end of our ride we saw some tree damage. Today we were west of where the eye hit, tomorrow when we cross to the east side the damage may be more significant.
Jeanna and Kerry's friends Jerry and Gail met us in Crawfordville. They brought presents - spare tires for Kerry and dessert for all of us! It was a pleasure to meet them.
