Warren Peace in the Florida Panhandle

Today’s guest blogger is Bill Conway

As a group we dodged the weather bullet today as the forecasted heavy rain, thunderstorms and possible tornados went by to the East. However, one of our group took a bullet for the team so to speak as Warren Morris was knocked to the ground by a car driven by an unknown local Redneck as we were leaving the town of Quincy, FL. Look for the write-up in your copy of the “Quincy Times”, as a reporter showed up almost as fast as the EMS. Fortunately Warren suffered only a bruised ego and scrapes on his left arm and side. This was compensated for by the attention of a cute EMS intern who treated him. Warren’s bike was somewhat more abused and needed a triage by Carl, Jeff and at least three Tallahassee bike shops to resuscitate it. Fortunately there was a miraculous cure by 5:30 PM. Meanwhile, Warren bought his concerned fellow travelers beers at a Tallahassee watering hole.

This is the first such incident experienced during Carl and Peter’s journey and we were all relieved that it wasn’t more serious. Warren is raring to go, especially after the fantastic seafood dinner we had at ”Barnacle Bills” in the company of Lawrence, a US Coast Guardsman who Peter met in the Courtyard by Marriott hot tub as the rest of us were cheering Warren up over the beers he bought. We heard from him that after some messed up PR he feels that BP has done a good job in the recovery and in working with the government agencies.

As to the biking today, except for the Warren's mishap it was generally manageable with just a couple of steep hills that I used my seniority to avoid. Jeff continued to have gearing problems which he was able to get fixed at Warren’s bike shop. He is now “all geared up” to go to the Atlantic Ocean. We went through some nice farm and ranch country as well as some nice and not so nice communities. The Panhandle is described as more of the true Florida in history and descendents of settlers rather than Southern Florida where all the Yankees have moved in. I am thoroughly enjoying trying to keep up, but with Gina Tippit’s help I’ve kept things manageable.