Spring Hill to Chiefland, Fla Jan. 26

83.2miles in 5:30. Beautiful, 75 degrees, slight headwind, very little traffic. Riding this stretch of US19 on the weekend may had been fortuitous, because this is logging country, and judging by the scenery, there are lots of logging trucks during the week. Many of them were loaded and parked, just waiting to roll Monday morning. The road was fantastic-newly paved, straight as an arrow, with a great shoulder the entire way. I saw other bikers that looked like they were touring, only they were headed south, which is probably the way to be going! I loved the towns that I rode through-we are back in small town America-places that you are through in ten minutes, even on a bike. Crystal River was especially nice, as well as Chiefland, neither of which I had ever heard of. Crystal River seemed to have manatees as their main attraction, as there were companies everywhere that specialized in swimming, snorkeling, diving, and boating with them.
We are back in armadillo and wild boar territory, as I saw one of each, dead along the road. We are also very close to the University of Florida(30 miles), but you would never guess it. Being Saturday, I saw lots of hunters. It is bear and boar season I would guess. I also had the opportunity to help a lady pump up her bicycle tires in the parking lot at Save-a-lot in Chiefland. (See picture). One other weird thing happened-I passed over Ten Mile Creek while on US19-something that I could do in Washington Pennsylvania. I also noticed the deciduous trees were without leaves, further proof that we are moving closer to the Arctic Circle.

Pam - The road was great for travelling in a motor home - smooth road, very little traffic but we are losing the "tropical look".  Not as many palm and palmetto trees and more bare trees as Mike mentioned - not so green anymore! : (
We spent the night in a WalMart parking lot (thank you WM) and it looked like a campground with 3 other rigs there with us!  Did not sleep very well since we were in "redneck" country.  Every young pup had a jacked-up, souped-up pick-up truck that they race through the parking lot (must be the cool thing to do at midnight!) and they were VERY LOUD!

This is an auto shop outside of Spring Hill - yes it is a dinosauer!

To the right of the road, we had an old train tracks following us.  This was a display of an old locomotive and coal car from the old Georgia Pacific line that no longer travels thru the area.

I helped this lady fill her tire.  She is riding her bike down to Lakeland , Florida (near Orlando) to visit her kids.  That can't be an easy ride!