Now in Zen hostel in Gainesville December 10th 2009. Started Monday December the 7th from Vero Beach. Did 78 miles to Mims. US1 had a nice shoulder most of the way except in Melbourne where it disappeared and the sidewalks suck for cycling. Stopped in a dunkin' donut for 40 minutes. Also had to wait for the rain for 2 or 3 hours at a roadside arcade run by Rich Cummings. Mims was all wet when I got there. Two women at a convenience store said highway 46 was dangerous, two lanes, with a lot of accidents. I found a place in the trees to string up the tarp at the northeast corner of US1 and highway 46.
December 8th 2009. I awoke and packed. I noticed I had camped about 150 ft from a house. I prefer to stay clear of houses when I can, but I did not see it in the dark. It was about 11:00 p.m. last night when I finally got set up to sleep. So late due to the rain. I cycle West on highway 46 to McDonald's where I had a breakfast of pancakes, yuck. I left there around 9:30 a.m. 46 was a very good road for cycling east of sanford. It has a good shoulder. The scenery along the way was quite swampy. West of Sanford traffic increased very much and the road took on more of what the women had described the night before. I took various roads to eustis where I got on highway 19 going north through Ocala national forest. The area is rolling. The growth on both sides of the road was so thick and interlaced like a flora fence I could not get the bicycle in anywhere to sleep. And there was hardly any place to lay down. I finally did find a short road to a tower. I got off into the trees and bushes behind a fence around that Tower. I just lay on the ground and threw the tarp on top of me. No rain. I had already searched several places to sleep before I found that place. It was very cramped. 77 miles.