my last night in new york was great! went round to lien's friends apt in brooklyn where dennis and sandy provided some great entertainment. managed to find a chinese bus on tuesday morning which was "10 dolla" and smelt rather like chicken and was full of non english speaking people. got to philly a couple of hours later where i strolled around seeing some of the sights where american independence was born and was very temped to have one of the famous cheese steaks but had a veggie one after much deliberation...clearly made the wrong choice! had an incredible afternoon feeling like a 6 year old as there was a star wars exhibition in the science museum. i lapped it up. wez would be so jealous as there were loads of the original costumes, models and clips of how they made the films. linked up with marty and played dodgeball with his friend Emiliano in the gym. absoluely classic! could have been in napoleon dynamite.
the following day i helped out in marty and his mum's catering business before catching the train to north carolina. thought i had got a rubbish seat as the rather large black lady in the seat next to me was sleeping and we didnt chat for a couple of hours, but how wrong i was! turned out that she used to be A&R for warner records in new york and london in the 80s & 90s. chatted about music all the way through virginia. got picked up that afternoon by rachel and jean in Raleigh and later saw kalla. we all had dinner and went to a bar where there was an 'irish' rock band playing. was hysterical especially when this dude, who looked like Mr T started doing a riverdance jig like crazy to the last song, medalions going everywhere!
Thursday was chilled as I was feeling a bit hungover so kalla and I went bowling and played a bit of crazy golf etc. had dinner with the girls who provided some of the most random conversations i have ever had. thanks jean! hopped on the train at 9pm and thankfully slept pretty well.
Arrived in Jacksonville, Florida where Jim met me at the station. I met Jim on a cycling website and he turned out to be legend. he took me for some breakfast and showed me the bike shop where i had ordered my bike though Brian who knew everything there was to know about cycling. Finally at about 2pm I started the ride with Jim who came with me for the first 15 miles before heading back to jacksonville. feel really fortunate that Jim and various other friends have looked after me so well. will have to return a few favours in the future. biked till about 5:30pm after picking up a few supplies. set up camp in a forest not far from route 90. of course it was a bit of nightmare as i had never put up my tent and there were loads of mosquitoes. however i finally put up my tent and got a fire going and scoffed down a tin of baked beans and felt very much alive and happy to have started the adventure. that was until the lightening in the middle of the night felt very close to death at one point! do you think it is ok to be in a tent if lightening strikes? i have no idea and felt like it was a distinct possibility!
Today, I woke up a little wet from the torrential rainfall and packed up my stuff as quick as possible to avoid the mozzies and got on my way. so here i am at lake city with plenty of riding to do in the afternoon. well done if you made it this far!
