Gainsville to Inverness, Monday Funday

Had a great start to my day, having slept well in the quiet bedroom. Andrea made me a bowl of oatmeal with walnuts, raisins and brown sugar and sent along five of her homemade energy bars which I had watched her make the day before. They were super good and nutritious! Honey, oatmeal, nuts, dried fruit, seeds and chocolate chips, and a bit of candied ginger! I was quite excited about having them to munch on on the road!

She offered to give me a bar of her amazing homemade lavender soap, which I was more than happy to accept. She had used empty Pringles canisters to pour the liquid soap into, which she then cut into circular bars! I thought that was pretty cool!
She had to go to work so I got an early start (well, 8:10 am), to my day.
I had another host down Inverness way expecting me so I didn't have to worry about where I would spend the night, in fact, I have places to go for the next 3 nights as well as tonight! :)
I chose not to go the most straightforward route and had jotted down roads to follow that would get me to where I needed to be. Wanted to avoid busy roads if I could since they can be rather stressful to be on.
Some of the roads I chose (sight unseen!) were lovely and others... Not as much.

The weather forecast had said to expect a cloudy day, but it was more sunny than cloudy! And I procrastinated on putting sunscreen on my arms (but fortunately not my face or I'd have a mighty red nose by now!) till it was too late and they were burned and I felt the effects of too much sun begin to take hold.
Going to be a bit more careful in future! The sun can suck the energy right out of a person!
Every hour I rode I ate something, a Builder protein bar, a banana (Andrea sent one along :), fig newtons, a Clif bar, and of course the yummy homemade energy bars! (I totally didn't mind being the Guinea pig for the trial batch!)

Glad I had extra water in my water bladder that I strap to my back rack because it got up to 25 C today and felt like 30 C!
When I got to the Withlacoochee Trail (what a name!), I found a bench in the shade and enjoyed some time off the bike, and applied sunscreen liberally.

The trail was paved and took me right down past Inverness to where my hosts lived in a gated community. I was pretty much done (120 Km later!) and very glad that, though my hosts were out they had left a note for me to let myself in and make myself at home.
I was more than happy to take a refreshing shower and rest. Very thankful I had, last minute taken Aloe Vera gel with!
It's always interesting to see people's homes and get a feel for what kind of people they might be.
They left me with the wifi passcode so I took the opportunity to research routes for the following days.
My hosts were busy people, they got home from cycling and then had to rush out again for a full moon bonfire event (which they kindly invited me to join, but I politely declined since I didn't much feel up to that sort of thing.)
What I did was get on my pannier-less unburdened bike and ride to town (9km) so I could find a drugstore so I could buy something to help deal with the painful heat rash I developed on my rear end, which I unfortunately have to sit on to ride my bike. Diaper cream seemed a logical solution. I raced back on the Withlacoochee trail before the sun had completely set.
My host, Susan, had kindly provided me with ready made salad and a wonderful bowl of peanut butter sweet potato stew, so I heated up the stew and enjoyed it immensely.
One more day of riding and I get a rest day! Starting to feel ready for one!