February 22, 2019 - Quincy to Greenville, Florida

Day 53 Cross Country Bike Trip
Today the forecast was for 100% humidity when we got up – and the fog/mist proved it right! Tobey was up and on his way about 8:30 and I am thankful he wears a bright yellow reflective vest and has a flasher on the back of his bike!I was surprised at the hills as we followed Hwy. 90 to Tallahassee. They were rolling, but they kept rolling for miles! When we got into town, Tobey’s route took him through the campus of Florida State University. I stayed on Hwy 90 which was 3-lanes crammed into the space of 2 lanes – and all three lanes were bumper to bumper. After passing the university area, traffic thinned out and the road went back to 2 lanes!
We had a stop at the Tallahassee Automobile Museum planned and about one mile from the museum, Tobey’s bike had a close encounter with a large screw. I made a U-turn and went back to pick him up and we loaded the bike. After changing the tube AND tire, we had a very short visit to the museum. https://tacm.com/
The museum is the brainchild of DeVoe Moore. He found his love for collecting when he started his first knife collection at the age of 9. But his passion for collecting did not include cars until during his junior year of high school when he customized his brother’s 1951 Ford two-door hardtop. While still in high school he had a 1933 Ford Coupe chopped and channeled with an Oldsmobile motor. These acquisitions and the memories associated with them were just the start of a lifelong passion for the craftsmanship seen in automobiles and other collections he has assembled.
The Tallahassee Automobile Museum opened to the public in May 1996. After outgrowing its original building, the museum moved to its current facility in 2007. It houses two floors of mostly American cars and a wonderful collection of Americana. The main museum building is 100,000 square feet – triple the size of the original facility. It houses two floors of mostly American cars and a wonderful collection of Americana. We only spent a little over an hour in the museum, but really needed at least three to see everything!
There was a large collection of Steinway pianos, as well as a Vampire Killing Kit from the 1800s,complete with silver bullets!Automobiles range from an 1894 Duryea, one of the oldest automobiles manufactured in the United States, to a 2010 Camaro customized to look like a Pontiac Trans Am. The 1860 horse-drawn funeral hearse reported to have carried Abraham Lincoln is also on display. 1894 DuryeaAs early as 1911, electric cars were being manufactured in the United States.The Babcock Electric Model 12 Roadster was on the road!I don’t know about you, but I think it would have been fun to go to a department store and buy my car. It would be much easier than all of the haggling that goes on nowadays! In 1950, you could do just that if you wanted to buy a Crosley Super Convertible.They even had an “Amphicar” on display at the museum. It is like the one the LBJ owned. He used to scare his guests and go barreling toward the water and tell them his brakes didn’t work – then go straight into the water!There are two rudders under the trunk area to guide the car when it is in the water!Corvettes, corvettes, and more corvettes! They also had plenty of Mustangs if that is your preference!Upstairs there were boats, motors, farm equipment, and kiddie cars on display. I remember having a peddle car when I was young (100 years ago!). It wasn’t in this great shape, but it was fun.Tobey could trade his Fuji bike in for a 1946 Whizzer by Schwinn – not an e-bike – but the precursor to the motorcycle.There were too many things to see and not enough time since we needed to get more miles before we stopped for the day. It was sunny when we left the museum and Tobey ALWAYS likes riding more when it is sunny!The courthouse in Monticello is in the middle of a roundabout and in the historic part of town.Tobey rode into Greenville about 4:30 this afternoon after riding 69.5 miles.We stopped at the small community park with a memorial statue of Ray Charles who was born here in Greenville. There was a large play structure in the park, also. I just want to know how you slide down this thing!I got permission to park in the library lot overnight and just hope it isn’t too loud because the train tracks are just across the street!The link for today’s ride is https://ridewithgps.com/trips/31888972.
This is a link that will show all of Tobey’s route so far. https://ridewithgps.com/events/71165-tobey-s-coast-to-coast-ride-2018-2019
On the left side of the map, it shows day by day stop and start points so you can look at each day’s route.
OR you can scroll to the bottom of the day-to-day and there is a box that says “Show all on Map”. If you click that, it will change the map view to show all days traveled so far (but be prepared for a short pause as takes a while for the file to load).