bike shop, Starducks, and Monticello

Hi Everybody,

Another beautiful day!!  WE are off-route and using hwy 90 as we wend our way through north Florida.  tonight we are just south of Madison, FL and I-10 at Deerwood RV park.  It is a nice, shady spot with operating bathrooms and showers but no laundry.  Dave washed his clothes while still wearing them in the shower!  Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Dave has been having trouble the last couple of days with 2 of the lower gears on the bike so wanted to get to a bike shop as soon as possible.  On the way through Tallahassee which has at least 4 bike shops we chose one and stopped.  The repair took less than 10 minutes and they did not charge him a penny!!  

Tallahassee is the home of Florida State University which we drove past rather quickly.  It appears to be a very nice campus and accounts for much of the reason for the number of bike shops here.  We looked for the capitol building but missed it.

The highlight of the day was our visit to Monticello.  The county seat for Jefferson County is named for Thomas Jefferson and the town for Jefferson's well-known plantation.  The first place visited was Starducks, yes the "d" is correct.  There were little plastic ducks in a row on the counter all painted in clever designs.  The coffee was just as expensive as you know who's!

Then a walk onto the square and into The Peddler, an antique and craft place.  Some interesting stuff which, at my age, all looks too familiar from my childhood.  Then a little farther around the square and off a half block to a bakery (just closing) and into M'lady's Shop, an upscale women's clothing store.  The owner was outside watering window boxes and I stopped to chat.  Her name is Barbara Hughes and she has lived here most of her life.  She is 71 years old, attractive and every inch a southern lady.  We talked for over a half hour about our families, the south, racism, and the economy.  She felt like an old friend.

I took lots of pictures of the courthouse and Barbara and Starducks.  

The flowers are getting more profuse as the days grow warmer.  Between Monticello and Greenville, the next town, someone has planted azalea bushes at regular intervals along the highway.  The corridor produced by the tall pines and azaleas on either side of the road made for a very scenic ride.  

We are sad to have learned that our CFO friends here in Florida are now not able to greet us as we finish the ride.  We are hoping that our friends Dave and Gloria Botten, newly moved to St. Augustine, will be able to be there.  They are to arrive in Florida on Wednesday, April 7.  (Would someone let her daughter Tiffany know so that Gloria can call us.  I do not have an email address for them.)

Love and blessings,

Lana