Day 55 – Road Kill

Miles Completed: 66.3

Cumulative miles: 2919.6

Miles to St Augustine: 188

Today we rode from Sopchoppy to Perry, FL. This route was very rural. We rode near some wilderness areas and wildlife management areas. Much of the land is owned by logging companies. There were no towns of any significant size along the way and limited places to stop other than gas stations. On the positive side, the first 25 miles of the ride was on a beautiful dedicated bike path and the rest of the ride was on a nice smooth shoulder, so the riding was very comfortable.

Now is a good time to talk about all the road kill we’ve seen across the country. Of course there were the typical squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, and deer. I also saw coyotes, armadillos, opossums, porcupines, skunks, javelinas, frogs, snakes, and a fox. There were many types of birds, hawks, owls, etc. Today I saw a couple wild hogs at the side of the road. But the weirdest road kill was a huge hog laying in the middle of the road in Texas. There were about a dozen turkey vultures on it when I approached it. You see a lot of road kill when you ride across the country.

An interesting side note about Perry, FL is that Dana worked here in the logging business in his late 20’s and he hadn’t been back in about 40 years. He was able to meet up with some of his co-workers from that time. Dana said the town was flourishing when he was there, but now is struggling because the main logging employer shut down the plant a few years ago. He is glad he didn’t stay in Perry.