Donna and I are reliving our childhood, exploring the backroads and countryside on our bikes. We have gone on a ride in north central Florida for the last year about once a week. The only goal is to see how much beauty we can see and explore some of the native culture of some of the backwoods people and places.
Our first ride involved the Rails to Trails from Rochelle, Florida to Gainesville, home of the Florida Gators. Rochelle is a ghost town pretty much in the middle of nowhere midway on the trail from Hawthorn. We left early around 8 am and rode straight to Gainesville downtown for breakfast. Main Street was blocked off, so Donna led me through a less-than desirable neighborhood, marvelling at the architecture of the low-rent homes which, as I could see, were quite beautiful cracker architecture that was untouched by any renovations. We settled on Emilio's for lunch and then started home.
As we were pedaling down Main Street, I barreled through a red light, seeing no one around. As I went through, I heard "you just went through a red light" on a loud speaker from a cop car behind me. As Donna followed, we heard "and so did you!" After, the police pulled up to us and Donna didn't even give him a chance to speak before she nonchalantly asked for directions. Of course, he did finally give us a lecture on the rules of the road! We laughed all the way back!
After we got back to the truck, we drove over to Cross Creek and found a fish camp where some of the locals were hanging out. I started talking to them about 'what was biting' as I am an avid fisherman. Donna got a charge out of that. We did finally make it home after a satisfying day we afectionately call "Lalapaloosa" forevermore.
