Translated by SFT
We arrived at MariannaCity, FL (5/7). Marianna’s nickname is ‘The City of SouthernCharm.’ There we experienced warmth and kindness ofstrangers. It is indeed charming! When we were on the internetin the McDonald restaurant, Alex, a physician, and his father came tochat with us. Before they left, Alex’s father asked me how tosay ‘tire’ in Chinese and then gave Yi $20 telling her it’s forus to buy new tires in the future.
Later, we metDarrell, a principal of a Sunday school. He invited us to stay in thechurch hostel and to attend the Mother’s Day activities in thechurch the following day. To celebrate Mother’s Day, he hadalready had a plan for dinner in the Oak Restaurant, so he asked usto join him and also invited a couple from his neighborhood, Mr.and Mrs. Huang, to come along. The Huangs immigrated to the USAabout 40 years ago. Mr. Huang is teaching in a local college. He shared a lot of American jokes with us. However, I felt itwas like ‘the chickens talking to the ducks’; I was totallyat a loss. My aunt has been sending me American jokes almost dailyand I don't really understand them. Hope I will eventuallyunderstand them and maybe just maybe someday I will turn into anAmerican comedian (or at least in my dreams).
After the churchservice, we met Darrell’s family for lunch and had a wonderfulgathering. Then Darrell and family headed to Orlando forvacation. Maybe I should have tied our bikes to his vehicle foran easy ride to Orlando!
InQuincy, FL (5/9), we ran into a group of cyclists from Denmark, UK,Germany, and the USA. They planned to ride the bikes from the eastcoast to the west coast across America. After we told them we hadalready visited several countries, riding our bicycles for 18months or so, their two thumbs up were an indication of: ‘You won!’
It has been a monthsince we left Austin, TX. We have traveled 1500km (930 miles). We went to the library in the TallahasseeCommunity College (5/10). It’s thelargest library we have seen on our way from TX to FL. We met Torriothere and later he kindly sent us information about Florida BikeTrails and wished us a safe journey.
As we rode southboundon Highway 27, we passed Perry City (5/11) and Cross City (5/12).Then we got on the bike route to Ocala City (5/13 & 5/14). Nopolice contact for 30km (Uncle Jim, Aren’t you proud of us!)
Weare very impressed with the road conditions in US. Theyare very smooth, so it makes our bike trip more relaxing. Wayne has been trying to arrange stays for us along the way; however,we are not always on schedule, so it did not work. In the pastfew days, whenever we tried camping near a church, we wereeither invited to have hot showers or stay with the church members. We feel so blessed and loved by all of God's angels helping usalong the way.
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