2009-03-09 For the last five or so years my cellphone plan has been at 300 minutes. Upon changing to AT&T I was forced up to 450 minutes. I checked my minutes Sunday to see how I was doing. 1500 minutes used so far this period! Dang. Fortunately AT&T was kind enough to backdate my new unlimited plan to the beginning of the month. I spend way too much time talking to customers. So I spent half of my day biking along the coast. Now of course the ocean is rarely visible because of the palmettos, dunes and houses, but mostly the houses. Leaving Jacksonville Beach, the beach houses were very residential, but nonetheless well maintained. The farther south I traveled along A1A, the more immaculate the houses became, and then opulent, and then the houses could no longer be seen directly from the road which tells me they were downright embarrassing. I met a lot of other cyclists along this route, all local. Most waved. One guy sat up and clapped enthusiastically at me. Another had a surfboard mounted to his bike frame. I passed through St Augustine. This town is very "historic." Everywhere you look there are historic buildings or other historic landmarks or historic forts. But the place was packed with tourists. For a minute I fell in behind a tour-trolley. I kick myself for not following it, because I could have easily kept up and the speakers were plenty loud enough to educate me. Outside of St Augustine I found a Target and decided to see if maps could possibly be sold there. Upon entering an associate asked if they could help me. I asked where the maps were, to which he answered, "where you goin'?" "All around Florida, so I'm looking for a good map." "We don't sell maps," he informed me. I was slightly incredulous. "But if you just tell me where you goin' I'll tell you." I held up my hands to show him my bicycle gloves I was still wearing. "I am biking, and so I'm looking for a good map with back roads on it." "Where you goin'?" We went several rounds like this with him giving me various directions to interstate 95 or back to A1A. Eventually I thanked him for his "help" and found another associate who told me where the maps were. They sold the big state atlas, which is what I was looking for. Also today I saw one of those church signs that normally have those witty one-liners. This one read, "if the going is getting easier you're not climbing." I don't know why exactly, but that bugged me greatly--enough to post this. First of all, aside from the bridges how the frig are you supposed to climb in Florida? of course, that interpretation is probably too literal. Second, I like to think that if the going is getting easier it is because I am getting stronger. By the way, have you ever seen one of those signs that simply read, "good job"? I haven't. I ended my day just north of Ocala National Forest. Soon after setting up camp I heard a tree fall. That was a bit disconcerting. Why would a tree just suddenly fall over?

a beach house big hill in Florida