Jeff awoke with a sharp pain in the right side of his chest. He must have pulled a muscle or slept on it wrong or something, but he is pretty sure it will work itself out. It is painful when he puts the bike on its centerstand, so we figure he pulled it while trying to get the bike turned around in the hotel driveway yesterday. No problem, we don't need to use the centerstand anyway.

We rode the long drive back to Clearwater. The temperature is in the 90s and very humid. We rode through a few sections of the same brush fires we had passed the day before. We arrived in Clearwater nine hours later and stopped at Sean's house to do some laundry. We went out for supper while the dryer was running and later lounged by the hotel pool. Jeff found that his 'muscle pull' annoyed him enough while swimming that he stayed out of the pool. Fortunately, the hot tub was at a great temperature and recently cleaned. They kicked us out of the pool area when it closed at 10:00pm, so we went up to our room and talked until midnight. Thanks for spending time with us and showing us around your corner of the world, Sean.

Odometer at end of the day = 41933

Miles ridden today = 439

Thursday, May 319 a.m.

We were up at 7:30 a.m. We enjoyed coffee in the lobby while Jeff mapped out our trip and booked us a room in Tallahassee. We made good time and would reach the hotel around 1:30pm. That seemed too early to stop for the day so we changed our reservations and booked a room in Mobil, Alabama, about 250 miles further than Tallahassee. We took another butt break about 100 miles outside of Pensacola. The time changed back to Central time as we pulled into Alabama and we were back on Chicago time. It is 5:00pm.

Drivers in Florida were very courteous and would move to the right lane to let us pass. The drivers in Western Florida seemed to be a little less courteous, but as soon as we crossed the Alabama border, it seemed like they learned how to drive from a completely different book. Most of the drivers stayed in the left lane all the time. There were even semi trucks in the left lane, not passing, just idling along. We did most of our passing in the right lane!

Odometer at end of the day = 42501

Miles ridden today = 568