50.2 miles from Snead Florida to Bonifay Florida

Chris: I bet that when you think of the Florida panhandle you don’t think of rolling hills. I never did either. Until today. I bet they’re pretty from a car or a home. I wouldn’t know. Curse words were uttered. 

 I rode past beautiful cattle and horse farms. Two kindly strangers inquired if I needed help when I was stopped for a water break. 

 A man turning out on a road in front of me yelled “don’t worry darlin’. I won’t hit you”. Down the road a ways we met up again at a gas station and without any preamble he told me that research shows that dogs are as smart as five-year-old children but his dog was smarter than the average. I didn’t tell him that mine is too. He asked if I was just riding around the neighborhood. When I told him my destination he gasped, made the sign of the cross, got in his truck and drove off. 

I biked through cotton growing country with fields of cotton, a town called Cottondale and tufts of cotton blowing by the side of the road. Which made me think of fabric and my sewing machine. And then I felt sad. And then I felt even sadder when I biked right past a penny and couldn’t stop to pick it up. 

David makes sure I carb load before and after biking. I think that might be the most beautiful sentence I’ve ever written.