6.19 Marianna, FL

Wow, what a day. Last night we had our first ‘town meeting’ where we reflect on how things are going and make suggestions for changes, etc. We’ve decided to try to ask for more food donations from grocery stores so that we can cook ourselves healthier meals. People have been very generous in donating but mostly we get pizza, which is great but not 3 nights in a row and not when you have to cycle 60 miles the next day. So we’re gonna get on that. Our discussion went past 11pm last night which is waaaay past our bedtime and the 6am wake up this morning was rough. It’s supposed to rain for the next few days so we were nervous this morning with the ominous clouds and ridiculous humidity. I was ‘sweep’ today which means that Whitney and I were the very last two riders and we stopped whenever people had flats, etc. Being the last rider was nothing new for me, haha, so today wasn’t much different. The hills were back in action and thankfully there wasn’t much sun. But with 2 miles left the heavens opened up and the lightening/thunder/downpour began. Most of the group had already reached the church in Marianna, FL but a few of us had to stop at a gas station for about 20 minutes to let the storm pass. The rain felt great but the whole thunderstorm thing isn’t so wonderful. But we made it to the church. Big news – we entered central time zone today! I’ve biked across a whole time zone…crazy. I wish that I could count the number of times each day that I think I’m crazy. It usually happens on a steep hill or when the sun is unbearable. But what’s life without a little craziness, huh?

One of the most notable things so far has been the different smells we have passed through. When biking you are surprised how sensitive your nose is and believe me, I’ve encountered some interesting aromas. I’ve smelled garbage, manure, wet hay, roadkill, and thanfully occasionally just the outdoors. haha it’s definitely something you don’t get fully when driving and especially not flying.

Tonight we are staying in Trinity Baptist Church in Marianna, FL and they are absolutely amazing. They had lunch for us when we arrived, cooked us a fabulous, nutritious dinner and are going to make us breakfast in the morning. We ate dinner with some of the church members and local Habitat volunteers and then we gave our Bike & Build presentation (yay for raising awareness!). It was a great evening filled with gratitude and hilarious comments about generational differences (made by the church members!). It’s about 8:30pm central time right now and I think people will start heading to bed soon. We are beginning our earlier wake ups tomorrow with 5:30am. Eventually we’ll wake up as early as 4am in order to beat the heat. Good idea in theory…not so wonderful in practice, haha. We’ll see how it goes.

Shout out to Connie and Charley Polizzano because they sponsored me for this day in Marianna, FL! Thank you so much and Mariano is in my thoughts J The town is tiny so there are no postcards here but I promise you will get one from Florida.

Sweet dreams and thanks for all the love!