Day 26 - August 31 Wet. Dry. Wet. Dry. Repeat.

While watching the weather this morning there was a picture of Sloppy Joe's in Key West from last night.  The people walking down the sidewalk were in calf high water.  We couldn't have been more than 12 hours ahead it yesterday.  The weather reports were pretty convincing that we needed to adjust our route.  The original plan was to ride the Gulf Coast and in doing so visit Homosassa Springs, Cedar Key and other costal towns around the big bend. All of that area, including our final destination for the day (Apalachicola) were the "red zone".  Changing our route to I-75 would move us into the "yellow zone".  This meant the difference in rainfalls of hundredths of inches vs. tenths of inches and total rain fall of 1-3" vs. 5-8" of rain.  As disappointing as it was, changing the route seemed like the safe and sane thing to do.  Yesterday had been plenty of riding in the rain. 

We left at 7:50am and the temp was 77.  It wasn't raining at that moment, but it had been raining and it was certain to rain again at some point.  We headed for Tampa on I-75 north geared for rain.

 

Of course, being on I-75 means more traffic.  As we neared Sarasota, 30 miles down the road, it was trying to rain. I watched to see what other bikers were wearing as a possible indicator of how the locals interpret this rain.  I guess the answer became clear when no other bikers were seen on the road. Twenty miles later it was coming down pretty good.  It was similar to the heavier rains we rode in yesterday.  And like yesterday, it was just rain.  There was no wind to speak of, no thunder, no lightning, and the rain wasn't cold.  In fact, temps remained in the mid-70's.  It was just very wet.  The name of this post could just as easily have been 50 shades of gray.  The roads were gray.  The sky was gray. The rain was gray. The spray off the trucks was gray.  Torrey's rain gear is gray. Tim's bike is gray.

We took a break in Tampa at the HD of Brandon.  Then we headed back into it.  About half way to Ocala the rain stopped and by the time we reached the HD store we were dry! From there we headed out on 441 North to Micanopy, FL to find Pearl Country Store & BBQ as had been suggested by the staff at the store. FL441 was a real treat after being on the interstate most of the day, and it was dry to boot.  The BBQ lunch was great.  I'm not sure how it could get more southern than that.  While our food was being prepared, the weather channel was on and reporting about the rain that Tampa was receiving.  We had just come through there.  As rainy as it was riding there only hours earlier, I didn't think it looked like what was on tv.

After lunch we made our way back to I-75 and when it intersected with I-10 west, we went west with it. The rain had started again near Lake City and was at its heaviest when we stopped outside of Tallahassee for fuel.  The man fueling on the other side of the pump from us was headed in to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC).  He told us that school had already been cancelled and that they were preparing to declare an emergency in additional counties.  The latest information he had confirmed our research in that if we continued through to Apalachicola we should be out of it.  Getting back on the bike wasn't going to be fun, but we also knew that the weather was likely to break in the coming miles.

 

On the western outskirts of Tallahassee the rain quit and we were able to dry out again.  We stopped at a rest stop near Greensboro to drop the rain gear as it had really heated up now that the rain had stopped.  Pulling out of the rest stop we headed towards Hwy 65.  In the less than 10 miles between the two points, the storm found us and now we didn't have our rain gear on!  We had worn it all day in an effort to stay somewhat dry and in 10 miles, we were completely drenched AGAIN. It felt like we were playing hide-and-seek from the storm.  We kept trying to hide and it kept finding us.

When we reached Hwy 65 it was dry and wooded.  It was the most beautiful riding part of our day.  This route is part of the Big Bend Scenic Hwy.

The ride into Apalachicola was the gulf coast riding and views that we had hoped to enjoy the whole day.  When we stopped for fuel we felt pretty good about finally ditching the storm. 

 

 

The gentleman from Georgia that was also fueling explained to us that he had packed up and left St George Island under mandatory evacuation.  From the gas station we could see the bridge that connected St. George Island to mainland Florida.  That was a bit unnerving.  

All in all, we out ran a tropical storm today.  Although the storm did get a few good shots in on us.
We were in the Gibson Inn for the night, dry and safe. 

Total Miles today: 521.7;
Time to Travel that distance: 10.25 hours
Total Cumulative Miles: 9385