 
Wednesday and Thursday, December 19 and 20, 2001 - Big Decision
Lake Wales, FL to Little Torch Key, FL to Winter Haven FL
After not feeling well for two days, I (Joan) was
still not feeling that well on Wednesday either. I seem to have some sort
of bug, added to the exhaustion of the trip, I was unable to ride. Over
the last two days, I was in close contact with my parents, who of course were
worried. Jeff and I also discussed the possibility of ending the trip in
Lake Wales, which was a very difficult decision to make, this being our trip of
a lifetime, and having done all the planning and training, and being so close to
the end. There are approx. 400 miles to go, and we were finally getting
into the really flat part of Florida.
On Wednesday morning my parents called, they had
reserved a pickup truck for us in Winter Haven, which is 20 miles from Lake
Wales. So, we left our gear at the motel, rode to WH and picked up the
truck, then drove back to the motel to get our gear. We still were not
sure what we were going to do. Options were to have us both head to the
Keys, have me drive and Jeff bike the rest of the way, or have me drive back and
Jeff continue. Those of you who know me well know that I do very little
driving and neither of us thought it was a good idea to send me, by myself to
the Keys.
We packed all our gear in the truck with the bikes, and
off we both went to my parent's house on Little Torch Key. Jeff will
continue the trip solo. Thursday around noon, he drove the truck back to Winter
Haven to finish up for both of us. We split the gear up, and he is
traveling as lightly as possible. He should be able to finish in about 6 days,
starting the riding on Friday. He plans to continue the journal entries.
We also sent him off with my parent's cell phone and he will call in nightly.
I will relax and recover at my parent's house.
This was a very painful and emotional decision to make,
but I am just unable to continue. Throughout the trip, my father-in-law,
who is a doctor, warned us to slow down and take more rest days. He of
course was right, tho we felt we were proceeding at a reasonable pace relative
to shorter trips that we have taken.
I want to thank the owners of A Prince of Wales Motel,
who were very kind to us over the last few days. I would highly recommend
this very nice motel, central to many of the Florida attractions (www.princeofwalesmotel.com).
Jeff took the Pocketmail computer with him. You
may email him with the address we have been using. You can email me at: [email protected]
(this address will also be on the home page of this web site).
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