70,18km – 10H06′
We were on (State Road) SR29 all day. We went through two towns: Immokalee and La Belle. All day long we were able to admire beautiful birds, which are quite wild and not willing to have their picture taken. In a small book “True Tales of the Everglades” I read that at the beginning of the last century there were feather hunters. They killed the birds for their feathers and sold them to milliners who used them to decorate ladies’ hats. These feathers brought such a high price that even when the federal government passed a law to stop the killing, it was so profitable that the hunters continued to kill the birds in Florida for their feathers.
The citrus route. Hidden from our view behind high banks are hundreds of acres of citrus trees. They are irrigated by canals and laden with fruit that ripens in the Florida sunshine. We continue to be in a rather swampy area. This morning at 7am we passed a considerable number of gray and red vehicles which resembled school busses (which are yellow) that were carrying Mexican laborers to work in the orchards. As a matter of fact, in Florida I wonder if the first language is not Spanish…. I even found “Arroz con Leche” for Serge in a Mexican “greasy spoon”. It is rare to find it in the US, where all milk products are highly pasteurized.
Cars and trucks flash by at 100 km/hour and Serge, on the shoulder of the road, started his day stressed by this traffic. He sweated a lot the first two hours because he suffered from hypoglycemia caused by this stress. After having eaten well he found his running legs. I find that he does not eat much sugar. He prefers salty food.
In short, this day on the road was not very pleasant and the towns were not pretty, even if one of them is named La Belle. One positive point for our runner, who suffered from the noise, is that he had the wind at his back all day…..
Tomorrow we will take the wide Highway 27 which heads toward Sebring.
