February 23, 2019 - Greenville to Wellborn, Florida

Day 54 Cross Country Bike Trip

We saw the sign for “Breakfast in a Cup” at Charlie’s Kitchen and thought we should check it out today. Well, a breakfast in a cup is grits with an egg on top and a side of bacon or sausage. Neither of us are big fans of grits, so we opted to have the pancakes instead. Call us cowards, but grits are just not our thing. The pancakes were good.When we stopped next to the restaurant, I noticed the mud flap on the RV was hanging. After breakfast, Tobey had some screws we could use to fasten it until we can get the right ones. We had trouble with it when we were in California and now it back to haunt us again. UGGH. Mud flap reattached, Tobey was ready to go about 9:15.Tobey and I both saw several work crews along Hwy. 90 picking up trash. It was very clean! We both saw hawks along the route, too. I spotted one swooping down and it caught something, but I couldn’t tell what it was as it flew away. I stopped in Madison, Florida to look at the Madison County Courthouse and the Wardlaw-Smith House.There are several historic houses along Hwy. 90 and it was fun to stop, see them, and read about them.

At Ellaville, we stopped for lunch then took different routes. Tobey went up into Suwannee River State Park then across on Stagecoach Road. I stayed on Hwy. 90 and stopped in Live Oak to look at their historic downtown area.The Suwannee Courthouse was quite a beautiful building. There is also a memorial plaque dedicated to Stephen Foster who wrote the “Old Folks at Home” which is also known as “Swanee River.” He wrote the song in 1851 but he had never visited Florida! He apparently chose the term “Swanee” because its two-syllable cadence fit nicely into the music he had composed. He sold the song to a businessman who operated a series of minstrel shows. In 1935, “Old Folks at Home (Swanee River”) was designated as the official state song. Quilt designs were painted on a few of the buildings in the downtown area. Appropriately, the one with the houses was on the side of a real estate office.Two other buildings had large murals. Someone must like Wrigley’s gum!Our path reconnected east of Live Oak and followed county roads into Wellborn. Many of the trees have Spanish moss hanging from them.The temperature was 87 this afternoon when Tobey rode into Wellborn about 3:30, but he is still smiling! He rode 62.2 miles today. This is the link to his ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/31920436.