Day 7-9 history, scenery, and bodysuring two oceans...

After leaving Georgia headed south, I was fighting the clock. Had two churches to visit to present the film to in Florida, 200 miles apart, on the same day. I had the fortunate opportunity to film a bit of the scenery around Savanah so that stop was well worth it. From here I barrelled south towards western Florida.

My home of southern California is essentially an irrigated desert. Left to its own devices, the green would return to its natural state of mostly brown. Back east the opposite seems to be true. Nature is always on the verge of taking over pretty much everything is seems. The default state of things is for grasses & vines to grow over stuff. The chore here seems to be controlling the growth rather than encouraging it.

The cultures seem to vary more. Where California is a melting pot of many cultures coexisting for the most part in the same cities, back east each state seems to have a unique identity, a unique accent in most cases as well. The culture change can range from fascinating to disturbing - at one stop I was getting some suggestions for roads south in Georgia from a local resident & was advised to "Not stop for gas or anything between here & there... you'll encounter some unusual folk." When pressed further as to what exactly I might encounter, they just made references to "The Hills Have Eyes".

I did stop - the rumors are only partially true. No cannibals that I know of, but the jury's still out ...



I roll into Gainesville Florida & right away stop at a coffee shop to grab some tea. First thing I read about is the unintentionally hip catch phrase adoped by a new kind of superhero ... "Don't Taze Me Bro".




Arriving at the first house where I'll be staying, we're immediately invited to a baby shower/bar-b-que ... as all the driveways around here seem to be long dirt roads, the GS gets some night-riding offroad testing in...





The decor reflected the local pastime:






Being a college town, there's a very eclectic mix of people - that was reflected in the church services:






Immediately following the first meeting, I had to make it around 200 miles to the 2nd ... the weather got a bit ugly on the way, but cleared nicely & I made it to the next town with literally only minutes to spare.




If you were just driving, you'd pass through this town in the blink of an eye. If you stop & spend some time here, you end up going back in time around 200 years...



I'm fairly confident that I'm the only person in history to ride through this town, on a motorcycle, listening to Toy Dolls' "Nellie the Elephant".

The next morning, instead of heading straight back to 10, I took 65 south to drive along the gulf to Pensacola.







Riding over cities & through the developed areas, I eventually came to where the road ended due to hurricane damage...



It was there that I did a little bodysurfing. Haven't just been in the Atlantic a few days earlier, a session in the Gulf was in order. Oddly enough the waves were far better here than they had been in South Carolina. It was an extremely brief session - just an excuse to take a break from the past 250 or so miles of riding. Afterwards, it was off to my next destination around New Orleans...

Click to view more photos of this portion of the ride.