Done!

Today we wore caps and gowns rather than helmets and spandex.

Well, I guess we couldn't resist rolling up to our medical school graduation in classy style.

Let me fill ya in on what has happened since our last post. 

On April 30th, we pedaled our way into Gainsville where we checked out the Devil's Millhopper Sinkhole and enjoyed a dinner party with some FSU med students.

We re-united with Adam, a fellow cross-country cyclist, and stayed in the Zen Hostel in Gainsville. 

The next morning we were delighted to discover a place that combines two of our favorite things: bikes and coffee! They had rad vintage bikes they've restored and equally incredible vintage jerseys!

We figured wool jerseys were just the thing for 90 degree weather with high humidity. It wicks, right?

When we rolled into Palatka, we couldn't resist eating at "Florida's oldest diner." And with the challenge implied by the title of their burger, I couldn't resist ordering it.

While waiting for my "For Real Men Only" burger to finish cooking, I noticed a group of about 30 cyclists ride by. I darted out of the diner and momentarily revived my running skills to catch them and find out their story. They were the Paltaka Cycling Club out on a social ride that would be followed by a picnic. Since I had 1 pound of beef cooking in the diner for me, I informed them that we'd try to catch them further down their route. 

After polishing off 1lb (Tad did too, but we already knew he was a real man), we met the club just in time for their picnic and our second dinner. 

 We really enjoyed the cycling crew, especially Kevin and Gaye who invited us to spend the night at their home on the St. Johns River.

Kevin and Gaye taught us about meade and bee keeping. We enjoyed their tasty concoctions on the dock in the moonlight and spent the night sleeping on their boat. 

We easily convinced Gaye to join us for our final 40 miles to St. Augustine despite the fact that she had never ridden more than 25 in a day. Way to go, Gaye! She easily adapted to our style of loitering and especially enjoyed the candy bar break. 

After 3200 wonderful miles of friendship and fun, it seemed appropriate that two new friends would finish the journey with us. 

Thanks, Gaye and Randy, for riding the final miles with this silly trio!

After dragging our bikes through the sand and arriving a rocky drop-off, we decided to dip our front tires in the Atlantic a bit more creatively.

We played on the beach and swam in the glorious Atlantic. We topped our celebration off with sushi with three of our new friends.


Here are our final stats for the trip:

Days of riding mostly in the right direction: 43

Miles traveled: 3211

Days off: 1 (but we rode 40 miles around Austin anyways)

Number of feet climbed: 90,719

Times we showered: 10

Flats: 9

Fluid ounces of sunscreen applied: 97

Families who brought us into their homes: 4

Most consecutive hours of wearing a single article of clothing: 102

Items found on the side of the road that we continued to carry: 4

Rainstorms: 2

Number of times we wished we were somewhere else: 1--wishing it wasn't over!

But the fun continued...

We loaded 4 bikes and 4 humans and much gear into a van for the trip back west. 

After a final fun loitering session in front of a grocery store back in Madison, Fl, we said goodbye to our sweet friend Randy. 

Back to Team Jadley.

We made it to Memphis just in time to spend a couple hours on Beale Street, make some friends, and get a stellar deal on a parking/lodging combo for the flat rate of 5 dollars.

We stopped in Oklahoma City for a visit with my grandpa.

Since we couldn't quite say good-bye to our touring lifestyle, we camped a few miles from the Avis rental car return site outside of Denver. The next morning we dropped of the van, loaded up our touring rigs, and road towards the nearest Waffle House!

Jess's mom, my dad, and good friends Adam and Leah met us for breakfast and to welcome us home!

While we might look a bit more professional the next time you all see us, I hope our adventurous spirits, love for our fellow man, and confidence that we can take on a challenge will shine as we begin our careers as physicians.

We are endlessly thankful for our families and friends (old and new!) who have loved and supported us through our journeys. May we share many adventures in the years to come!

Crossing state lines and looking mighty fine

After waking up from the power line sleep we biked ourselves out to the Alabama gulf coast. As usual- first stop was gas station coffee. We filled our water bottles with coffee and had ourselves a little breakfast picnic on the beach.






We hung out and took in the sun rays until we felt ready to cross the Alabama-Florida border ( ie after the opening time for the florabama bar where we were told by many folks that we needed to stop). We arrived at the florabama, met one of the owners, got the official tour and had one of their traditional cocktails before heading on to Florida.






One of our first Florida stops was a fabulous fruit stand where we found out Caley is actually pregnant!



The watermelon baby she gave birth to was sure refreshing and delicious.



After our fruit stand stop, we biked on to explore what florida had to offer. A couple days into florida we met this great bus at a gas station.



The folks in the bus asked us if we wanted to sign it ( we did). We got to taking and found out they have been on the road for 2 years picking up anyone on the highway who needs a ride. We met them toward the end of their journey with only 200 miles left to go. The couple driving the bus are about to have a child so are taking a break, but vow to be back on the road again in a couple years. We had never seen anything like this, and it was pretty inspiring.

Later that day, we made it out to defuniak springs and decided that after crossing 3 state lines in our fabulous pink outfits and given that our last shower was in Louisiana, it was probably time for a bath. We found a park with a lake, and after having a nice picnic we decided to jump on in. Here is a photo of our swimming hole.




As it turns out people are not supposed to swim in the lake. This iis how we met officer Bennett. He kindly informed us of this fact, gave us a free background check (something we needed for residency anyway) and directed us to a more appropriate lake for swimming.

We made it on down the road, and found ourselves some fairground bleachers to camp under. Fortunately for our purposes the rodeo was last week.

One thing that we have recently recognized is that we have become pretty darn good at loitering...Looks like we forgot to read the sign.





Despite all this loitering we managed to ride our bikes just outside of Tallahassee where another camp spot came to find us. The tabernacle church. They had a fun setup complete with a stage, plenty of seating, buses, a water spickett and statues of geese.



We woke up Saturday morning and rode our way through Tallahassee. We got to hop on a bike path with a lot of other Tallahassee bikers.

We stopped for pulled pork sandwiches at a county store midday and baked the rest of the afternoon away in the hot Florida sun, whew!




When we got to Greenville a cool down break was in order. While Tad and I were cooling down Caley was actually heating up with Ray Charles on the piano (he is actually from Greenville!).




That evening we took ourselves out to a country buffet in Madison, Fl and man was it th place to be on Saturday night. Fortunately we had used the ride over to get all dressed up.









We made lots of friends at the buffet, including another police officer. He kindly offered that we should camp in the towns four freedoms park. The spot is lovely complete with a stage (where we set up our tent) inspiring quotes and a soothing fountain. Here is our tent on stage:



We got another great surprise that a friend of ours, Randy is coming to join us for the last leg of our trip. We met him back in Arizona when he was headed the other way. We tried to convince him to turn around then bur were not successful. Having now touched the pacific, he has come to join us and we get to keep him for a few days, yay!




Yesterday is was real hot. So, we got to rediscover McDonald's ( and try every kind of smoothie they make- they are all delicious) and go for a midday swim in these springs.


We are currently drawing out the last few days of this adventure and trying to soak up every drop of biking, sweat, gas station coffee and most importantly each other. St Augustine watch out, we are coming for ya real soon :)

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Location:Fort White, Clori