Jon and I cranked out the final 52 miles in what felt like a blistering pace, even though our respective tracking apps said we weren’t moving faster than 15 mph. Better still, on top of a nice tailwind, we also had several long stretches of wide shoulders, so we could ride side-by-side and talk.
Even on the stretches without the wide shoulders, we were riding on a four-lane divided highway, so we were passed by only a handful of cars in the right lane. It all made for a great final day of riding. At one point, Jon observed that had we known that today was going to be such smooth sailing, we would’ve stopped earlier in Miami yesterday and tacked those 30 miles onto today’s ride.
Today also added one new species to the roadkill tally: coyote. (And a third turtle rescue, this time by Jon.)
We only had two significant concerns: (1) arriving at the hotel before our rooms were ready, and (2) getting an SUV from Budget that would require some engineering to fit both bikes. Neither concern was justified: both rooms were ready, and we have a full-sized Dodge Durango that will easily hold both bikes without having to remove any wheels.
We’ll load the bikes in the morning and hit the road back to St. Louis after breakfast. It’s a little jarring to realize that it took us seven days to traverse these 412 miles; tomorrow, it will take us less than six hours to go back.
Post-Iter to follow next week.
Rideworthy 