I was out pretty late last night frolicking on the beach so I didn’t get up until 8 AM (campground time), which is like 11 AM normal time. I made my self some coffee and hung up my clothes to dry and electronics charging while updating the blog. I was cleaning off the picnic table and went to brush off a piece of light green lichen and it stood up on little legs and started walking away. WTF? Turns out it was a lacewing and it builds a coating of lichen on it’s back so that when it’s not moving it fools thing looking for a lacewing to snack on. After it molts it turns into a bigger medium green bug with beautiful translucent wings. Awwwww nature. Like most days I was planning to get an early start to Hugh’s house (warmshowers) in Saint Augustine, but spent a while talking to people in the campground and packing up so didn’t get on the road until 1 PM. Aggghhhhhh!! The heat. Hha ha ha ha hahahhha hah boiled brains haha ha ha ha.
I took a ferry across the St. Johns River. It was about 8 minutes total – it maybe time to get a bridge guys. I rode through Atlantic and Neptune Beaches and through Ponte Vedra Beach. I stopped once for lunch and also at a bar and a convenience store to cool off. Lots and lots of fluids. 5 miles from Hugh’s house in St. Augustine I got a flat rear tire. Grrrr. I was changing it in grass along the side of A1A and getting nibbled on by bugs, but got the tube changed out and was back on the road and at my final destination by 8:30. Hugh and his friendly dogs were there to greet me with open arms/paws. Boo boo (pic) a bulldog/shar pei mix is a real original and cute as can be. Hugh warmed up a chicken, corn on the cob, a wedge of steamed green cabbage and some delicious tomatoes from his garden and we got to talking. Hugh gets a lot of visitors since he is the only one currently hosting in St. Augustine and really likes taking care of touring cyclists. He did his own tour in 2010 from St. Augustine, FL to Taos, NM (where he also has a home) so he has some experience with the heat of the South in the summer time. He suggested I get a Camalback and fill it full of ice so that it would cool my back as I rode and then be ice water after it melted. It’s now something that I am actively investigating.
Hugh does IT support for a group of medical centers in two counties near his home after originally being hired to transition their entire set of records from paper to digital. Both my dentist and primary care physicians and even vet are entirely computer based and it’s pretty sweet. I was telling Hugh about my experience working at Harborview Medical Center and some doctors reluctance to embrace new technology. There used to be doctors that would have their emails printed out by someone, they would write their replies and then someone would type the replies back into an email and send them off. How’s that for efficiency?
Hugh has a son with an art background that is currently studying colonial era blacksmithing. He is making reproductions of a tomahawk that has a piece pipe built into it. Think of a small bowl at the back of the blade facing backwards and sucking through the end of the handle. Both colonist and native americans used them (they are still used today), but I can’t help thinking that after a hard day of scalping it would be nice to sit back and smoke something to calm the nerves. Or make someone an offer – either the blade or the peace, your choice. I’d go for the peace myself.