Update #34 - Nov 28th, 2001
Milton, FL - 10,225 miles

The ride from Baldwin, LA to Milton, FL wasn't really the best. I changed my mind and went back to Florida instead of traveling to Texas. The heat wasn't really bad this section but I did have several days of really cool weather with strong winds either coming straight at me or from the side. Both the winds and the cool weather seems to run in patterns.

For lodging, I stayed at churches and in quite a few donated motel rooms. I did have two nights in a row in several places

The hardest three things about this section has been the discouragement, illness, and traffic. The discouragement has come from finding out the volunteer centers that I wanted to check out are closed for the winter after cycling a long way to check them out. I had no way to find out ahead of time. I am trying very hard to find a ministry that I can volunteer with during the winter but I am not having very much luck. The tragedy of September 11th has put a damper with a lot of agencies since a lot of the money is being sent up to New York and volunteers are not traveling. Hopefully, something soon will come through since it is getting late in the year to be out and I am getting tired traveling.

Illness has been a bit of a problem with several days lost because of stomach viruses. Traffic has been the biggest problem in this section. The roads haven't been set up for infrequent bicycle travel. Most of the roads did not have any shoulder. The pavement was bad in Lousiana.

The worst problem that occured with traffic was on November 19th between Ashland and Alexander City, AL. While riding through the small town of Goodwater, I got clipped by a car from the rear. It was a hit and run. I was injured much except for some minor bruises and cuts. The real thing that got damaged was the internal frame of my left pannier where I carry my food. It was pretty well destroyed but I was able to jury-rig it. I had to spend two nights in Alexander City to recover and the motel rooms were donated by two churches in the city.

Currently, I'm about fourty miles into my second ride through the state of Florida. I'm heading towards Pensacola to check out a couple of ministries. If I do not come up with something in Pensacola, I'll be cycling eastward to Jacksonville.