With all the dogs Bob encountered on our cross-country ride, this one I’m sure he’d want to take home with him. I know I would. I can’t believe those little legs did so much. What heart!
Update on the blog: More photos and videos have been added to the blog (and still working on adding more details to the posts). If you want to see what’s been added, you can re-visit the posts or just click on the links in the menu (or here) for PHOTOS and VIDEOS.
Poplarville's Main Street
I received a phone message from Bob this morning. He said he was leaving Poplarville, MS and that he had to stay another day because of storms.
Bob said he will give me another call tonight and let me know where he is and any news.
Looks like the rain is following him. Hope Bob doesn’t get wet again today. Will post more when I get more info.
UPDATE:
After 50 miles of riding today, Bob is in Frankinton, LA. He said he had a good time last night in Poplarville, MS drinking with the locals and that it was funny getting drunk in a dry county. It was raining, so the guy that owned the RV park let him stay in a $50 cabin for free.
Bob met another cyclist today, coming from San Francisco, through San Diego, on to St. Augustine, and then up to Maine. The guy is 62 years old and averages 85 miles a day!
Bob said 2 – 4 pm is the hardest riding time because of the heat.
Today he had several animal sightings. First he saw a possum in the middle of the day, which he thought was odd. He also had two encounters with dogs. He was lucky he was going downhill and out ran the first dogs. The second encounter was with a small yapping dog and a Great Dane. Bob said he got off his bike and had his pepper spray ready but he didn’t have to use it.
Yikes!
Bob still has about 400 miles to Houston, about 8-10 days.
Tonight Bob is at an RV Park with about 90 sites and only 1 RV parked in it. He hopes the owner will show up soon and let him stay in the back room of the cabin, where there are 4 bunk beds set up. That would save him from setting up his tent tonight.
Tomorrow could be a short ride because of available campsites ahead. Today’s ride was a lot of little rolling hills. Not a bad day.
I passed on all the emails and comments the blog has been receiving for him and he enjoyed hearing from everyone. I also passed on info from Iris Hollis who said that the Dragon Boat team Bob is on won First Place in the B Division. The whole team really worked hard and I’m glad they got their just reward.
I told Bob to ride safe and I’ll be waiting for tomorrow’s update on his progress.
If anyone has anything they want to pass onto Bob, please leave a comment on the blog and I’ll make sure he gets it.
Chuck
MS to LA!
Yesterday I had to make a very difficult decision: Continue with Bob on our cross-country ride or return home because our little girl, Shadow, wasn’t doing very well. There was no doubt I was returning home, but I felt really bad about leaving Bob to continue on himself.
Bob is one of the best guys I have met. He understood, and that means an awful lot to me. He will keep in contact with me as he continues riding. His plan now is to make it to Houston, where his son lives, and make a decision to go on or wait for another time.
This trip has meant a lot to me. Bob and I were just getting in the groove. We had fought the hills and almost constant headwinds in Florida and had finally gotten some tailwinds and easy pedaling out of Pensacola into Alabama. We did get a good soaking going to the Ferry to Dauphin Island and holed up in a motel on the island, which got about 7 inches of rain. No way would we have put up our tents in that kind of rain!
Chuck and Bob - Good Times
The next day we had another tailwind which made it an easy 40+ mile ride to Grand Bay, AL.
When Cheryl called me, she said she didn’t want to tell me Shadow might not make it, but knew I had to know the situation. Cheryl wanted me to continue the ride because she thought that it meant so much to me and that I was doing a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Cheryl is my whole life. There is nothing more important than Cheryl and Shadow to me. Shadow has been with us since she was 8 weeks old. She is now 16 years and 8 months old. I could not live with myself knowing she might pass away with me not being at her side.
I’m back at home right now with Cheryl and Shadow and don’t regret what I had to do, what I needed to do — and that is be with the two I love with all my heart.
I'm here, Shadow.
One of the best ways I know right now to support Bob is to keep maintaining this blog with reports on where Bob is on the ride and how he is doing. He has promised to keep in touch and fill me in on all of his adventures. This way you can keep following him too, and cheering him on.
I tried to get him to take my SPOT GPS located with him, but being Bob, he said, “I don’t want to get addicted to gadgets like you are!” Obviously, Bob knows me too well. So we’ll just have to “track” him via his phone calls.
While I was on the road, Cheryl forwarded the comments and emails everyone has been sending to us via the blog and we enjoyed hearing from everyone. I will keep doing that for Bob. So if you want to let him know you’re thinking of him, comment or hit the contact button. We’ll pass it all along.
Now that I’m home, I’ll update the blog with some more posts on mine and Bob’s experiences, complete with all the pictures and videos I took. So check back on some old entries, as I’ll be adding stuff.
Shadow is comfortable right now, but still not well. We don’t know what the future holds, but being with her at this time is what’s important. If you have, or ever had, a dog, you know what I mean. If you don’t, then there is nothing else I can say.
Thanks everyone. Check back later for more on where Bob is today.
Chuck
Saw this online and wanted to share:
Chuck says:
Still at White Springs. 08:25 and it is still raining; more of a drizzle but not worth getting on our bikes. As I write it is getting a little more heavy. Nice and dry inside.
Last night Tony, one of the SBA managers, cooked up some great pork chops and muddles for us. It was delicious. This a.m. I had my oatmeal, and Tony cooked up some eggs and bacon, so I am getting plenty to eat. Thanks, Tony!
Everything is packed and ready to go. When the rain stops we will be heading for Suwannee River State Park. Another short day if we get out at all, but not sorry. We knew we would have days like this.
Bob passing the time by patching inner tubes
Here is a video I took of the ‘TP Cyclist’ inside Suwannee Bicycle Association. They say he’s been here 20 years. Cheryl posted this and more videos on YouTube for me. Just click on the VIDEOS link here or at the top of the page to see more.
UPDATE by Cheryl:
Chuck called a few times throughout the day. The guys stayed put at the Suwannee Bicycle Assoc. waiting out the rain. By the time it cleared, they figured they wouldn’t get far before they would have to stop and camp, so they might as well stay the rest of the day and head out first thing tomorrow morning.
During the day a couple of riders came in. “Guess where they’re from?” Chuck said. “San Diego! They are on their way to St. Augustine. They have three days left and we have fifty-something.” This was exciting for the guys and they spent the rest of the day talking to Josh and Kevin, getting tips for the rest of their long journey ahead and checking out each other’s blogs.
Kevin & Josh
Chuck felt better about everyone spending the night in White Springs last night when Josh told them that they had camped at Suwannee River State Park and that they were only about 25 feet away from a tree that got hit by lightning! Close call, but they weren’t hurt. You can read about it at The Southern Crossing 2012 Blog.
Josh also told the guys to avoid a particular alternate route in Arizona, as it was the worst road they took the entire trip. They wrote it down to remember so as not to make the same mistake when they get to Arizona.
The riders also told them that there were times they didn’t even have to pedal, enjoying some tailwinds they encountered. Chuck said, “I’m thinking about buying a ticket to California and starting there!” Especially since tomorrow’s weather forecast is for winds 15-20 mph from the Northwest. The guys face a stiff head wind tomorrow, and it won’t be the only time.
Though they really appreciate the amazing hospitality of SBA, everyone’s eager to get back on the road tomorrow and a few more miles closer to San Diego.
No blogging while actually riding. Really. :-)
Just a note to say that blogging while riding cross-country might be a challenge. My bride has already told me, based on her own ride back in 2000, that she knows that technical problems like no wifi or cell signal or low power, or me being just too tired, will make it hard for me to write a post and send photos and videos in real-time every single day.
So we decided that when I can’t write myself, Cheryl will fill-in for me. She’ll let you know what’s going on based on my phone calls to her. She’ll also add my photos and videos and my own writing later, when I am able to email them to her.
