Yesterday was quite a day. We joined Jeb, our warmshowers host in Pensacola, for breakfast at a local eatery. There were so many good cycling stories to tell that we got away from downtown Pensacola rather late. Fortunately, we had run out of the Florida hills and the only climbs of the day were bridges over the intercoastal waterway, and the flags were flying in a favorable direction. (We never like to actually say anything about a fortuitous tailwind, for fear of jinxing in it.)
By 10:30 or so, we had made good progress, and stopped at Big Lagoon state park for what was to be a quick water stop. That was when Larry showed up pedaling out of the park on an old Bianchi road bike equipped (doubtless at Bianchi's chagrin) with a pair of twenty year old Ortlieb panniers. We had several unsighted crossings with Larry for the few previous days, but had yet to meet in person. Larry is quite a person. We never mentioned ages, but Barb and I estimated upper 60's. Formally, Larry lives in Chattanooga, but spends much of his time riding or hiking around the world. There weren't many places Larry hadn't been. He apparently often rides his bike to races, where he competes, then rides home for a respite before riding somewhere new. Needless to say our brief stop turned into an hour of entertainment.
We finally remounted our bikes but only traveled a few miles when we approached the second bridge of the day. It had now been several hours since lunch and I needed to eat. So we sat down in a local fast food restaurant for a hamburger and fries. Another half hour passed.
Just over the bridge was the WELCOME TO ALABAMA sign and we'd both agreed it was a can't miss photo opportunity. There we were joined by an older couple from Missouri who were celebrating a week at the beach, all expenses paid by Pepsi-Cola. We exchanged cameras for photos and then listened to their vacation stories and answered their amazed questions of what we are doing. 30 more minutes.
That was when the heat of the day really started kicking in. Still, it seemed there was plenty of time to ride the 20 miles to catch the Mobile Bay ferry and make Dauphin Island for supper. So we took the opportunity to grab lunch at a local Mexican restaurant in Gulf Shores AL. Finilly we were on our last stretch to the ferry landing.
We stopped briefly at a park service office where they checked the ferry schedule. 13 miles to go and three hours to the last ferry of the day. We would make it easily. We were coasting into the last two miles, when my bike gave a small shudder. I looked down and sure enough I had a tire going flat. So we sat down along the side of the road and proceeded to fix the flat. This isn't really that much of a surprise or repair, and we still had plenty of time to catch a ferry.
The repair made, I remounted my bike and started down the road. Then I turned to check on Barb and she still hadn't moved. When she had moved her bike off the road to help with my repair, she'd picked up a fish hook in her front tire. The tire hadn't flatted, so we decided to see how far we could get without removing the hook. Two miles later we arrived at the ferry landing, hot and tired, but with the fish hook benignly taking a ride. Let sleeping dogs lie. So we sat and sipped sodas for the next 30 minutes.
While we waited, another pair of cyclists showed up in orange U of Florida bicycling jerseys and shorts, riding carbon fiber framed racing bikes and pulling bike trailers loaded with gear. Neil and Pete are heading for Boulder CO to pursue aspirations of becoming professional bike riders. Our paths crossed for just last night as they were heading to the same beach house to spend the night.
The ferry crossing was uneventful as we passed time talking with Neil and Pete and watching the seabirds.
This is when Barb's trouble began. She was still riding with the imbedded fish hook. While I sought directions, she struck up a conversation with another local. As soon as she started following me down the street she recognized she'd left her $200 prescription glasses on her back pannier and they'd fallen in the parking lot as she went to leave. She called for me to stop, but I didn't hear and she had no choice but to try to retrieve her glasses before they were backed over by a car leaving the lot.
She made it back to find her glasses unscathed, while I rode off on my renewed mission to find Ponce. By the time I realized she wasn't with me, I'd found Ponce and the beach house and was circling back to find what'd happened to Barb.
It turns out embedded fish hooks will lie benignly for 6 miles, but no more. Our circuitous path had unfortunately left Barb with 6.25 miles to safely reach the beach house, so humbled and tired the two of us walked our bikes the last short way to our destination.
It was dark when I ordered pizza at a place we'd passed coming in. Neil and Pete rode back to eat their pizza at the restaurant, and I strapped ours to-go on my back rack and came back to eat with Barb.
All's well that ends well.
This morning we extracted the fish hook and replaced the inner tube and rode in for a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and coffee before returning to the breezy shade under the beach house to relax.
Tomorrow we return to the road in earnest.
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