Worse Than A Toothache?

My attempts to connect with my dentist yesterday were more than a little unsuccessful. You’d think after so much time on the road that I would remember something simple like the Central Time vs the Eastern Time Zone. Apparently not. As such, today’s big plan (other than to get some cycling in) was to speak with my dentist, Dr. Dayan. I know, pretty ambitious plan.

My window of opportunity was the hour between 12:30 PM and 1:30 PM. My options were simple: A. Stick around at the motel; or, B: Take off down the road with the hopes of finding a decent WiFi connection between 12:30 and 1:30 (that’s 11:30-12:30 Central Time). Needless to say, hanging out at the motel didn’t seem like the best use of my time so I went with option B. That said, I felt that leaving the possibility of finding WiFi to chance was ill-advised so I consulted the sometimes-all-knowing Google Maps. My research revealed a McDonald’s about 65 km away. Perfect. I officially had a plan.

My plan got off to a bit of a messy start at breakfast. Breakfast was of the continental variety at the motel. The good news was they had both Frosted Flakes and a waffle maker. Side note: The Lakeview Signature Inn in Calgary is still the only hotel at which I’ve stayed that offered Mini-Wheats for breakfast. Clearly, they win. Sadly, I have no prize to offer. End of side note. The bad news was that the waffle maker wasn’t exactly in top form. Sure, it LOOKED fine but the same can’t said for the waffle that came out of it. Actually, that was the problem. The waffle had no desire whatsoever to dislodge itself from the waffle maker. It took more than a little aggressive prodding to final free the waffle. The result was a heaping pile of waffle scraps. That said, some butter and syrup made it not entirely untasty (I know, I know … that’s not a word).

Fortunately, the waffle fiasco was not a precursor to what the rest of the day would be like. Sure there was an unfavourable (and somewhat strong) headwind. Sure I had to take a detour because a bridge was out. But other than that, things went very well. Okay, I’ll admit that the bridge being out may have annoyed me more than a little but I carried on and it really didn’t add too much time (nor distance) to my ride. The biggest downside was that I would no longer be riding directly along the coast.

While the detour didn’t add much time to my ride, my goal of reaching McDonald’s (for WiFi, not food) by 11:30 Central Time didn’t work out as hoped. I have no one to blame but myself. Actually, it COULD’VE worked out but I ended up finding WiFi elsewhere along the way. At Burger King.

It took three attempts to get a good Skype connection but I was finally able to speak with Dr. Dayan. She told me what needed to be done (remove the tooth) and what could be done (replace the tooth). The only thing left to determine was the timing of those things. Side note: With a mere week of cycling left on this leg of my journey, I was hoping the most painful part of the trip would be the toothache. Then I found out how much it costs to replace a tooth. OUCH! Now that’s pain. I don’t know what the Tooth Fairy is offering for a cracked tooth these days but I’m guessing not nearly enough. Not nearly!

With my dental consultation finished, I returned to the road to ponder my options. Actually, I only returned to the road for about five minutes as it was lunchtime and there was a Subway. Despite the lack of a sponsorship, I made my 122nd Subway stop.

The only other really notable part of today’s ride was that I reunited with Francois and Ariane – the cyclists from Quebec that I met just outside of New Orleans. I actually reunited with them twice today. The first time I caught up with them was before for dental consultation. Since I was in a bit of a rush (and the highway was not a good place to chat anyway), I just said a quick hello as I passed them.

They got ahead of me again while I was having lunch, although I didn’t actually see them go by. But around 3:00 I caught up with them again. This time it was at an intersection so we were able to stop and chat for a bit. They had a great Warm Showers stay last night – it’s too bad I wasn’t able to stay there as well.

Tonight they were unsure of their destination but were planning on going further than me. My plan for the day was to stop in Panama City. As such, we once again said our goodbyes and continued on towards our respective destinations, but not before I remembered to take a picture. Not a great picture. But a better-than-nothing picture.

From there I was only 15 km to Panama City. And it was a very easy 15 km.

I checked in to yet another motel for another evening of editing, writing, and there may have been another episode of The Walking Dead before I called it a night. I probably should’ve spent more time figuring out exactly (or even remotely) where I’m going tomorrow. Oh well, I guess I’ll do that in the morning.

Did I mention that today is the start of month number seven on the road? As I’ve mentioned before, time goes REALLY fast! The miles don’t go quite as fast but at the moment I’m 2 miles shy of 8,000 for the trip (which means I’m somewhat rapidly approaching 13,000 km).

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 89.63 km
Ride time: 4:13:06
Average speed: 21.24 km/h
Maximum speed: 37.41 km/h