Today we restarted our summer travels. We are headed for Shark Week XVI in Loveland, CO. We took our time having breakfast and loading the bikes.

(The flags and orange paint mark the location of pipes. T-Mobile is getting ready to install fiber internet in the community.)

It turned out it was a good thing we took our time getting ready. Right after I took that picture, our neighbor across the street tripped on the edge of her driveway and fell on her face. I grabbed her dog and Beth wiped the blood off her face. Our neighbor’s husband came out and helped get her up. Beth and he got her back into the house. If we had taken off just 5 minutes earlier, she would have had to wait for another neighbor to come by.

It wouldn’t be a valid trip without something to fix. As I got on the bike, I noticed the rubber pad on the footboard was askew. Three of the four grommets are broken. A strip of Gorilla Tape is an adequate fix.

Once we were able to get going, we had a pretty easy, although hot, day. We went up the Suncoast Highway to Crystal River and then US-19 to I-10. High, thin, clouds filled parts of the sky.

Our morning break was at Dunkin’ in Chiefland.

Lunch was at a shaded rest area just west of Tallahassee.

That’s the black phone, so you know the real estate agent is at work.

We arrived at our Bunk-a-Biker friends, Lorraine and Tony, in the early afternoon. It was very hot – about 96 degrees. We took showers and donned fresh clothes as soon as we had our stuff unloaded.

Tomorrow’s destination is Tupelo, MS.