Palatka - St. Augustine, FL
Daily Route
Daily Elevation
How is it even possible that today is the last day of this incredible journey. This whole thing started out as crazy talk around tents somewhere in Illinois last June where we met Jackie, Jim, Bill, and Mel. Now, we are about to complete a cross-country bicycle ride...WOW! Of course Patrick was there to capture our last start:
Let's get this done.
We crossed the bridge over the St John's River and turned onto a bicycle path. I wasn't sure how far the path was going to take us since on the map it changed from a solid line to a nonexistent line to a dotted line, but I was hopeful. After yesterday's added 4 miles, the others were a bit skeptical and kept asking me if we were going the right way. I just kept saying that all was good and we continued up the bicycle trail.
Almost 20 miles later we arrived at the trailhead where there were picnic tables and restrooms. How great that two-thirds of today's ride was on a bicycle path. We continued on Highway 207 and pretty much followed the signs to St Augustine Beach. It was arranged that we would see Patrick and Mary's fiancé Steve, on 11th street which ended at the beach. We made the left turn onto 11th and was was surprised to see Steve, his parents, and his sister holding up a "FINISH" sign. What an incredible surprise. Then, to top it off, Steve sprayed us down with champagne as we each rode under the sign.
Almost 20 miles later we arrived at the trailhead where there were picnic tables and restrooms. How great that two-thirds of today's ride was on a bicycle path. We continued on Highway 207 and pretty much followed the signs to St Augustine Beach. It was arranged that we would see Patrick and Mary's fiancé Steve, on 11th street which ended at the beach. We made the left turn onto 11th and was was surprised to see Steve, his parents, and his sister holding up a "FINISH" sign. What an incredible surprise. Then, to top it off, Steve sprayed us down with champagne as we each rode under the sign.
A surprise awaited us as we entered the beach
We removed shoes and carried our bicycles on the sandy path that lead to the beach. Patrick jumped in the ocean with his camera around his neck and took the much awaited photo of us dipping the front tire of our bicycles in the Atlantic Ocean. WOOHOO!
WE ARE DONE!
The dipping of the tires was followed by celebratory champagne, courtesy of Jackie's sister Kathy.
Some of us then celebrated by jumping into the Atlantic Ocean.
 FINISHED! |  WOOHOO! |
The happy women of the group
Another crazy adventure completed by Tim and I
After the beach celebration we went across the street for some lunch and then headed to the RV park to get some of the packing done. Afterwards, we checked into our AirBnB and went of for our celebration dinner to Columbia Restaurant (very good). Of course we all wore our custom shirts that Jim and Jackie's daughter designed for us. What a great time.
Celebratory dinner in St Augustine
After dinner Tim and I stopped off at a brewery that happened to be on the way home, or sort of on the way home. This is Ancient City Brewery in St Augustine where we got the obligatory flight of beer.
Delicious flight of beer.
Tomorrow is a zero day...haha. We will be hanging out in St Augustine for one more day before people fly home on Friday. There should be at least more more blog post before I close this out with final thoughts and a collection of my favorite photos from the trip. Until then...
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