Today has been a layover day in Marianna, FL. Last night everyone said they wanted to sleep in this morning. Being a weekend, the RV park is pretty full with campers and motor homes. About 5:30 am a couple of young boys started shooting their pellet guns right next to our tent sites. We were all up by 6:30 am. I woke up at 5:30 and laid in my sleeping bag until I heard others in our group up and about. A little annoying, but just boys doing what boys do. We all had our laundry done by 9:00 am and milled around for a while. I worked on the hitch to Al's trailer which had been making noise. We figured out yesterday that the plastic part that fastens to the trailer and to the bike-mounted hitch was squeaking twice with every pedal stroke. I was a little relieved because I was afraid my crank bearings were going out and probably would not make it very much farther let alone the 400 miles we had left to go. Being the engineer that I am, I decided to put oil on it but that made the movement worse and what had been a squeak turned in to a clicking noise with each pedal stroke as the bike surged back and forth and the trailer tried to keep up. After laundry I unhitched the trailer and removed the plastic piece. It is in good condition but there must be some wear at the hole where it attaches to the trailer and since it is round and the trailer part is square, also in this area. I cleaned all the oil off of all the parts with some wet-naps and studied options for closing some of the clearances. Gary had just replaced a tire tube and gave it to me. I cut some bushing material for all the parts and everything appears to be in very good working order now. I left about 11:30 am and rode to a CVS pharmacy to get a prescription filled and also picked up a few things I'd forgotten to bring along (sunscreen - who thought I'd need that in Florida the "Sunshine State"?!). The others, except for RJ, caught up with me about noon outside the CVS and we rode further in to town to a restaurant that served breakfast all day M-F. A couple had breakfast, but I had a cheeseburger that was pretty good. No one wanted to ride to the other state park that has cavers - we decided that if you've seen one cavern, you've seen them all. Not really true, but everyone is tired and this is supposed to be a rest day. I've found it best to stay off of he bicycle as much as possible on rest days. I must have lost a little conditioning because my quads are really sore today. On the way back out of town we stopped and purchased a few groceries for breakfast/lunch tomorrow.
Since the tour started in San Diego through the time I left the group in east Texas, though many dogs will bark and give chase, I'd only been chased by a few dogs that I thought might bite me. I carried pepper spray and used it twice. I didn't bring any with me for the rest of the trip as the airlines would not allow it in either carry on (obviously) or checked baggage. A few days before I returned to ride the rest of the way to St. Augustine our group was riding with the other "van supported" Adventure Cycling Association tour group - 14 riders in all. One of their riders was bitten and has had to undergo rabies shots. My group said that being chased by aggressive dogs became a regular occurrence in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. We were chased twice yesterday and once by a dog that really looked serious about biting - teeth bared!!! The owner of the other dog was outside and yelled to us that the dog would not bite. The downside to this is that, bite or not, a bicyclist will react to the chase and swerve away from the shoulder and into the traffic lane away from the dog. This is done instinctively and usually with no time for checking traffic. If this should happen at the wrong time, even though the dog does not bite, a cyclist could get hit by an auto. Owners really should keep their animals restrained! Today I found a Big Lots store that sold pepper spray so I bought two and sold one to Adrian. Now at least two of us have pepper spray available should it be needed. In the past we've tried to give dogs the benefit of the doubt as most bark but are not really serious about biting. Our mentality at this point may have shifted to that of spraying at the first sign rather than taking a chance and gettin bitten. Dan is especially vulnerable being on the low-riding recumbent as he is eye level with a dog giving chase.
Enough about the dogs. We're going to try to borrow a car again for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we are off to Tallahassee where we'll be staying at the University Motel. The ride will be about 70 miles. I think we only have 5 or 6 days of camping left for the remainder of the trip.
A couple of more photos of the lake at the RV Park where we camped:
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