I appreciated the time for readjustment and processing of the trip, as I'd been away from my parents home for four months. It was refreshing to take a shower with hard water and shampoo.
I felt that it was good to have a small Thanksgiving. I was happy to have time to speak with Donna, I'm learing from her wisdom and courageousness.
After Thanksgiving proper, my mother and I began decorating for Christmas. I helped with stringing lights around the house and made an illuminated representation of a Christmas Tree around a royal palm tree. I planned to go to Miami for Art Basel with some friends. The first rideshare option, with friends Bobby and Morrison seemed like too an elaborate a plan. As a result, my stay with my parents was prolonged, which gave me time to finish a few projects. I was happy to have this time to organize and plan the next steps. I planned to take a bicycle trip to Miami, over the course of three days. When I reviewed this to my parents, I felt that the idea was not recieved with openess. My father was conderned with the lack of bicycle trails and my mother was concerned with the saftey of areas of Miami. I thought their concerns were unfouded, but we came to a compromise when we researched other options. The new plan was to leave from Lakeland, Florida. I would ride my bike the 80 miles south beginning early the following morning.
Today I woke early, as the bike trip was posed to be a race against the clock. My mother generously offered to drive me an hour out of town to give me a head start, which I happily accepted. We stopped in front of a bike shop, situated to the Withlacoochee Trail, the longest bicycle trail in Florida. Our timing was perfect, as I had a break pad fall off of the bike while assembling it at the same time as the owner of the bike shop arrived for his morning routine (an hour before his shop would open its doors). He offered me a replacement brake pad for one dollar. I fixed the new brake pad into place, said goodbye and thank you to my mother, and was off.
I made it to the end of Florida's longest bicycle trail after 30 miles. (note: I started halfway through), before reaching a two lane highway with a narrow shoulder. I rode the narrow shoulder for five miles or so. It was a nightmare. The cars that did see me, often were not respectful of giving me distance. I made it to Dade City, where I began to explore my options. I came across an Amtrak station, which upon inquiry, I learned was no longer in service. I learned however, to counter this, Amtrak had a bus taxi departing at noon to connect with the next train stop. I was on hold on the phone with Amtrak for some time before deciding that I would be better off hitchiking if I did it right. I went to a nearby gas station and saw two respectable looking gentlemen. I approached them and asked if they were going south and if so, I could jump in for a lift. I offered them 15 bucks. Their names were Paul and Mike and they were on their way to Fort Lauterdale. I dissassembled my bike and jumped in. They were very friendly and Mike and I shared good conversation about the harmful dogmatism of the local forestry department. They dropped me off in Lakeland, where I reassembled my bike and rode to the Amtrak station. I checked my bike and boarded the train.
