Author: Deb

Today we cycled through our fourth state capital: Tallahassee. If you’ve been following our journey, can you think of the other three state capitals we’ve ridden though? Hint for the geographically challenged… San Diego is not a state capital. 😂

It’s fairly uncommon for bike travelers to lose two hours overnight, but last night we did. Not only did we enter the Eastern Time Zone when we crossed the Apalachicola River, we “lost” an hour as it’s time to “spring forward.” Now daylight comes two hours later in the morning but we have two extra hours for riding in the afternoon.

In addition to challenging our brains around which way to turn the clocks when we got up, we had this little surprise in my bike tire: a shard of glass.

No problem. Tom pulled it out, it sealed, he added a little air and we were ready to ride.

That wasn’t the biggest challenge, however. We finally got a proper rain shower. And another tire puncture (Tom’s rear tire this time), in the rain, on a four lane highway. The tire was hissing; sealant was spraying so we stopped. Tom plugged the tire and we were off again in the pouring rain with just ten more miles to our day’s destination.

We’re grateful to be in a warm and dry EconoLodge tonight ($68 a night) where we can dry out, play cards and do a little route planning.

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#SD2KW, Day 51, De Funiak Springs to Chattahoochee, 85 Miles | Ride As You Feel

We didn’t plan on riding over 80 miles today. There was a whisper of a tailwind this afternoon, and a brewery in our sites but it was the Opening Day Little League Baseball parade in small town America that started the day off right. That got us reminiscing about the “old days.”

That and a gorgeous morning riding down the gauntlet of pine trees with scattered pine cones as big as my big head.

Tom scored a sweet camping spot less than a mile away from a brewery specializing in ribeye steaks. Yum!

It was the perfect night to cozy up in a tent under the stars.

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#SD2KW, Day 50, Milton to De Funiak Springs, 59 Miles | My Old School

Every day on the Southern Tier we are meeting more riders. It’s like a class reunion of sorts. Today, however was a special sort of reunion when Tom reunited with Troy who drove all the way from Birmingham to meet us in De Funiak Springs.

Dan fan Troy and Tom went to grade school, middle school and high school together and rehashed a lot of memories over bevvies and dinner.

Not only did Tom have the best time reconnecting with Troy, Troy really hooked us up with apples and M&Ms for our ride tomorrow.

And for the first time we met a long distance bike traveler riding an e-bike! How cool. Tom (from Chattanooga) is riding with a group of three other riders who he’d never met in person before their bike tour. They call themselves the “The Old Codgers” as they are aged 76, 72, 72 and 67. Tom has the only e-bike in the group. Good for him!

In other news we finished Map #6 and have just 390 miles left to St. Augustine and the 506 miles down the Atlantic Coast to Key West. Things are beginning to move quickly.

We’re grateful everyday for this opportunity and also your encouragement and prayers. Onward! ➡️

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#SD2KW, Day 49, Gulf Shores to Milton, 67 Miles | The Sunshine State?

We made it to Florida this morning, aka The Sunshine State, and we had our first day of rain. 🤣

It actually just sprinkled most of the morning and didn’t rain hard enough to put rain jackets on. And it’s warm so we didn’t mind the sprinkles a bit.

We could see thunderboomers behind us though, as we road through Orange Beach, Perdido Key and Pensacola and we were determined to “out peddle” them.

What really urged us forward was a planned rendez with Tom’s sister Vickie and her husband, Jim in Milton. We pushed on and arrived to our campground in time for much needed showers and laundry.

It’s getting to be that time of year again… bike travelers abound! There are six of us camping here tonight. Our tandem-riding friends, Dave and Lisa and Mike and Carl from Little Rock showed up shortly after us. They finish Saturday in Gulf Shores and rode from Key West.

We took a short spin on an old road today, and I mean really old. The Old Red Brick Road (old SR 1 which now parallels US 90 just outside of Milton) was built in 1927 and made from bricks. Also known as The Old Spanish Road, it’s one of the few existing brick roads still in use today and used only by walkers, runners and cyclists. It’s a bit bumpy though… I’ll take a bike lane any day.

It was a real treat to see Jim and Vickie who ubered us into Milton and treated us to dinner. Not only did the melted mozz cheese on my lasagna and “real” salad greens put a smile our faces it was good to hear about their weeks spent in Palm Coast and Destin.

Seems like a lot of people from Indy head elsewhere for the winter and I can’t say I blame them. Where to for us in Winter 2024?

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#SD2KW, Day 48, Dauphin Island to Gulf Shores, 31 Miles | Ferry Godmother

It’s as if our ferry godmother paid a visit to Dauphin Island and fixed the ferry ramp. Once fixed we were on our way to Gulf Shores.

But first, we cycled to the beach for breakfast. At that point we decided we’d check out of our hotel room and wait at the ferry dock still not knowing if it would be fixed today, tomorrow or next week. I guess positive thinking works!

After a 40 minute ferry ride, we cycled east through Gulf Shores to our campsite and arrived just before nightfall.

At the ferry station we met Dave and Lisa from California who ride a tandem and pull a trailer. You should see how they can maneuver this rig through traffic. It’s impressive! When they get to St. Augustine they will head north to Myrtle Beach as we head south to Key West.

Route rap with Dave who’s tenting next to us with Lisa.

For the second graders:

Will wants to know what if something happens to your tent and you don’t have another one available? Although some bicycle travelers would consider sleeping outside without a tent, we would not. What if it rained? What if there were critters roaming about? A cross country bike rider we met a couple weeks ago woke up and had a skunk ready to say “good morning” when he got out of his tent.

So if we don’t have a tent available we would look for a hotel. Or, we would check on a Warmshower host in the area. These are people who host bike travelers in their home for one night. Will, what else do you think would be nice to offer bike travelers besides a bed to sleep in?

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#SD2KW, Day 47, Gautier to Dauphin Island, 56 Miles | Best Laid Plans

Whereas yesterday we cycled the day away with no thought to the time, today we had a deadline: the 2pm ferry across Mobile Bay. It was a little over 55 miles (last 10 a stout headwind) but but we got ‘er done with 45 minutes to spare. We had a Marriott hotel reserved in Pensacola thanks to Annie. Plans were made!

The ferry cuts off 117 miles and it’s just cool to ride a ferry. We rode The Badger over Lake Michigan and another ferry up to Canada on our Northern Tier bike tour. They’re fun!

When they work.

Ten minutes before we arrived Tom checked the ferry’s Facebook page (their preferred communication platform) for updates and learned that a mechanical failure on the ramp rendered the ferry inaccessible.

Although the campground across the street was full, and Dauphin is a small island, Tom was able to score digs for the night at the Gulf Breeze Motel. Cute, quaint and quiet, the motel even has a “real” phone.

It’s unlikely the ferry ramp will be fixed tomorrow so we may have to take the day off. Bright side? It’s not a bad place to take a zero.

Dark side? What if the ferry isn’t fixed for days… that would be 30 miles back to the Mobile alternate start (which includes going back over that long windy causeway) and then 117 more for the alternate route through Mobile and down to Gulf Shores. It’s always an adventure… and there are always cards to play and M&Ms to eat.

Having crossed the Alabama state line we have Florida in our sites!

For the Second Graders

Brody wants to know if you have a friend in every state? Well Brody we have run a marathon in every state and now we want to ride our bike in every state. We are almost finished! Every state we visit we make friends so yes I guess you could say we have a friend in all 50 states.😊

Jackson thinks each of you have one pair of shoes. Is he right? Jackson, that is good thinking on your part because you know how important it is to save room when traveling a long distance on a bike. However, we have two pair of shoes. One pair is for riding and they have special “cleats” on the bottom of them to snap into our bike pedals. This helps us ride better. The other pair of shoes are “camp” shoes and we wear them whenever we are not riding our bike.

Will we will answer your question next time.

Mr. Gardner and I have a question for the second graders: What makes a good friend? Turn and talk to your neighbor (if your teacher says it’s ok).

Click on the link below to view more pics and vids. Yeah you know the song will be…

#SD2KW, Day 46, Pearlington to Gautier, 66 Miles | Gulf In View; O The Joy

If you’ve been following us for a while you know when we were shivering in Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Texas, we could hardly wait until we could cycle in short sleeves and shorts. And we couldn’t wait to see the Gulf of Mexico. Today was that day! Well kind of. 🤣

We were so socked in with fog for most of the day we hardly saw anything. 😂 Well maybe except the ginormous guitar by Hard Rock Cafe in Biloxi.

Early this morning we met westbound rider, Mary and her pooch Migs who travels with her on her bike in a chest carrier. She estimates she’s carrying about 80 pounds with gear and doggie. Woof!

We rode through towns along the Gulf mostly on bike lanes without any sense of a schedule, because we had none and took breaks when we took a liking to unique signs, carvings or other local landmarks such the Angel Tree in Bay St. Louis. Created by chainsaw sculpture Dayle Lewis (from Indiana 😉), one of the below pictured Angel Trees is located near Our Lady of the Gulf Church however there are two more located on Demontluzin Avenue, one of which was used as a life raft by three Katrina survivors and their dog.

Tom found his favorite bike shop in Ocean Springs this afternoon when he stopped to add air to our tires with a proper air pump. They have a beer tap in the store. What? The only time we’ve seen that is at The Hub right outside of Pisgah National Forest. Ok now Tom has two fave bike shops.

Tom scored a nice campsite at a state park right on the route.

However, as I write this at 1:30am, a pesky raccoon just opened up my bike bag and tried to run away with my peanut M & Ms after he ate my crackers and peanuts. Tom chased him away and he dropped them so I got my candy back. I’m sure he’ll be back. Once they know there is food, they always come back. 🦝

For the second graders:

Jackson wants to know if you have enough clothes with you. What if it rains and you get all wet? Yes we have plenty of clothes because we wear the same clothes all of the time. We don’t need new outfits everyday to look good. Instead we wear clothing to keep us warm, cool or dry.

If it rains and it’s cold, (below 45 degrees or so) we put on a raincoat right away to keep our body warm and dry. Continuing to ride our bikes helps keep us warm. If it’s warm out, we just ride in the rain and our clothes dry while we are riding. If it is storming and there is lightning we always find shelter until it stops.

I have a question for you, Jackson. How many pair of shoes do you think we bring?

Brody we will answer your question next time.👍🏻

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#SD2KW, Day 45, Metarie to Pearlington, 59 Miles | The Big Easy

Tom created a route using Ride with GPS on his phone, synched it to our Garmins, and it guided us safely back to our route where we hooked up at Audubon Park in the New Orleans Garden District.

However before we left Metarie Larry took us to 7am Mass at St. Catherine of Siena (first time riding in a car since San Diego) where Tom and I heard one of the most compelling homilies about the fourth commandment. The priest’s delivery and content were 💯 After Mass, Larry introduced us to Fr. Andrew and I had to ask… “Father, how old are you? ‘Cause I’d vote for you if you ran for president.” He laughed and said that he was 29 years old. Well dang… not old enough. Before our goodbyes he gave us a blessing.

Friends, it seems like it took us a long time to get here but we DID make it to New Orleans, aka, NOLA, The Big Easy, The Crescent City and more. And we rolled in on a perfectly sunny Sunday morning. We’d both been here before when we ran the Mardi Gras Marathon so it was fun to see some familiar sights. We agreed NOT to wait in line at Cafe DuMond for a beignet. Nope! We did however score some freshly made doughnuts in Bernard Parish at Gerald’s Donut House and some fresh brewed coffee to soothe our crawfish hangover. 🤣

There are lots of pics of NOLA in the vid below. What we really enjoyed however was getting out of town and riding through The Rigolets and among the marshy areas of eastern Louisiana. There’s so much water with egrets, herons and osprey to watch as we cycled by.

We road into Pearlington and grabbed a couple of burgers and tots at a local place on the water just a mile from our campground.

And when we got to our campground, sure enough the owner was there with his 23 year old cockatoo ready to show us all of Mozart’s tricks.

I think Tom kinda got attached to Mozart.

And oh yeah… we’re in Mississippi now!

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#SD2KW, Day 44, Gramercy to Metarie, 51 Miles | Crawfish Cravins’