Today's Miles: 323.4 Don's Total Miles: 2,004.7 Sherry's Total Miles: 2,225.0
I found that I was still waking up to the Eastern Time Zone and I was up EARLY. So I was able to almost completely ready myself before giving Lisa her "wake-up" call. The dog had done her job and gotten Lisa up on time however after the morning routine Lisa went back to bed "just to relax for a bit".
After the phone call I finished getting ready and completely packed. I hadn't heard from Sherry yet so I left the stuff in the room and headed to the lobby. They weren't having a full breakfast buffet due to the pandemic but had coffee, juices, fruits, and packaged breakfast bars & muffins. I sat down and was doing some writing and watching other doing the "grab & go" breakfast. Just then I looked and who walked in from the outside.....yep, it was Sherry. She also still was waking up on the Eastern Time and was outside wiping down the bikes. After a quick cup of coffee we gather our things and loaded up.
The first thing that we noticed was that it was a wee bit chilly as we took off. Then AFTER we took off it was a lot bit chilly. We rode on and on but as we did that "chilly" became down right "cold". Finally after about 70 miles or so we pulled in for gas in DeFuniak Springs. I was wearing a t-shirt because the only long sleeve that I brought with me was my rain jacket......It is SUMMER in Florida for crying out loud. Sherry had on her mesh jacket and a short sleeved shirt and she was just as cold as I was. I went into the little store that accompanied the gas pumps. I was prepared to buy anything that had long sleeves. They didn't have anything. Even the two gals were wearing sleeveless so they couldn't give
me the shirt off their backs. I asked if there was a Dollar General or something around. The one gal looked at me all weird and said, "yeah, next door". Sure enough......there it was. I told them that I knew that and I was just testing them. I went in and bought the only hoodie they had......it IS summer in Florida......a nice BRIGHT orange one. I wasn't getting lost in a crowd!
We were also getting a little hungry so we started looking for a place to pull in and grab a bite. As we were looking we came to a stoplight and I saw something that made me laugh. It was a plumber's truck from Benjamin Franklin's Plumbing. It was the phone number that made me laugh....1-877-BEN-1776. I had never seen that before and yet when I looked it up it is a big outfit from all over. Apparently "all over" doesn't include anywhere I have been.
We traveled a little bit further and came to a town called Bonifay and saw a place called Holiday Restaurant. We pulled in and had a GREAT breakfast. The service was "small town wonderful" and
the food was fresh and tasty. After eating and while we were preparing to get on the bikes this fellow got out of his car and walked toward the restaurant. He paused a bit and said that it was a great day for riding. I said that ALL day were great for riding but some, like today, were greater than others. He asked and we gave him the short version of what our trip was about. Sherry added that we needed breakfast and that this place was great. The guy beamed a little as he told us that was good to hear 
because he was one of the owners and that his 93 year old mother, who was also part of the family owned affair, was in the kitchen right then helping with the cooking. He went on to give us a short history of the restaurant and the motel next door. So interesting...I could have listened all day. But, alas, we still had to put some miles on the scooters.
We loaded up and pulled out and as we rolled on we weren't nearly as hungry as we were AND we were no longer freezing. Sherry had pulled her hoodie out of her bag and I was still wearing my ORANGE BEACON. As we rolled through Marianna, FL Sherry pointed out a street sign that said Bumpnose Rd. Once again we had a chuckle over something that we were reading/seeing. Come to find out...it was NOT suppose to be funny. Bumpnose is a type of limestone or something like that. I think that I read that correctly when I looked it up. If I am wrong it is ok.....you don't have to act like my older sisters did and over power me with "YOU WERE WRONG" accusations. I am quite happy believing that bumpnose is a limestone and not the description of my prom date.
We had been on U.S. 90 since leaving Pensacola and were to remain on U.S. 90 until we were a block from our hotel in Lake City. When I looked at the map I noticed that U.S. 90 went right through the heart of Tallahassee, the capital of Florida. On the west end of Tallahassee 90 crossed I-10 and then right at the east end of Tallahassee 90 crossed I-10 again. So I made the executive decision that we would leave our No Expressway rule and do the 15 miles or so around Tallahassee. You will be happy to know that Sherry survived.
We jumped back on 90 heading east. The clouds were increasing and it was looking more and more like rain. Just after we passed Falmouth, FL we were coming up to an I-10 interchange. I looked ahead and I could see that they had U.S. 90 closed. As we got closer, sure enough, it was closed with a sign saying "Water Over Road" and detouring us onto I-10. So we were privileged to ride I-10 again for about 7 or 8 miles to the U.S. 129 exit. We took that into Live Oak and jumped back on 90 again leaving us about 20 miles to go. So far our entire ride had been free of any raindrops except for a itty bitty spit on me on the very first day. Well, we can now say that we had to ride in the rain on this adventure because it rained....very lightly.....for about 90 seconds.
As we pulled into Lake City the streets were wet with puddles all along the sides of the road. Apparently we had missed getting rained on with a bit more intensity by just minutes. We turned on the first road after we rode under I-75 and there was our hotel, a Quality Inn, waiting for us. The fellow behind the registration desk checked us in and then said that even though our rooms were smoke-free there were 4 rooms on our floor that did allow smoking. He asked if we would like to be moved to a non-smoking floor. How cool.....Sherry jumped at that and he proceeded to do that very thing.
We saw a Ruby Tuesday next door so we through our stuff into the rooms and tromped through the parking lots to eat......helmet heads and sweaty shirts and all (I had taken off the Orange Explosion so they didn't have to bear that). Since this was our last day of riding together Sherry wanted to celebrate with a frozen fruity drink....and she did. I celebrated with an iced tea. After downing fried zucchini and some baby back ribs.....AND a frozen fruity drink....it was back to the hotel. Sherry saw a cat wandering the parking lot and that ALWAYS takes over all her attention so I left her in the parking lot and went to my room. I assumed that the cat wasn't violent and that Sherry was safe. I guess I'll find out when I watch the news tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will ride together for about 4 miles before she turns north. I'll tell you all about it in Chapter 11. Stay tuned!
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