Day 69 - Nov. 14th I am in St. Augustine and am getting ready for my final 5 mile ceremonial ride through St. Augustine tomorrow starting at 10am!  See the following article that came out in the paper today as I have been told the St. Augustine Habitat office has been receiving calls all day about people that are coming out to join in the celebration!  Also...tomorrow we will have the final tally on fund raising and will have one final blog to update everyone on our success!

ARTICLE:  http://staugustine.com/stories/111408/religion_1114_062.shtml



Thursday my ride was short of only 30 miles as we made it the entire 3200 miles and am very excited!  We celebrated by having a couple of beers and going to bed early.  On Friday we visited the St. Augustine Habitat main office along with a tour of several homes under contruction (pictures to be posted soon).  My last miles yesterday consisted of mostly agricultural land of cabbage and red potatoes.  Also there is a lot of swampy, deep forest areas which remind me of a jungle.  The ride was pleasant as we took our time to enjoy the final day of real riding.  We rode through Molasses Junction which had only one building...but a great story behind it.  In the early 1850's sailing ships brought molasses up the St. John's River to port nearby.  Then the molasses was transported along a rode for about 14 miles eastward to St. Augustine by mules and horses.  Later a rail track of wooden rails with brass over the top was built to speed this process.  The cars were also pulled my mules and horses.  During the Civil War the Confederate soldiers tore up the tracks to salvage the brass for weapons.  Also, as the story goes, there was a breakdown of wagons at this buildings location and it has been named Molasses Junction ever since.  The picture below is of me and the owner and staff.