Day 53-54 -- 4/24-25/2019— Tallahassee, FL—2700 miles total! Only 300 miles and five riding days to St. Augustine FL!! We have a layover day here and then we are ready to finish up the trip. The planned stay at a “bike hostel” was scrapped (greasy shop floor to sleep on) and we all bought our own rooms at a nearby Marriott. Our ages and careers of negotiation are beginning to show. Everyone is thinking ahead to the trains, cars, flights and bike boxes they need and the family members they will meet. Farewell dinner and lunch may be reduced. There is an underground movement afoot to stop buying dinner supplies/doing cooking rotations and to eat out for the last four nights (we supplement the $10/each per dinner allotted). Leaders Tom and Joe continue to be the best leaders I’ve ever been with, but we’ve seen some unusual campsites/weather and gauge our bets. Sunshine and good roads have been with us for the last couple of days. We are in good shape and tend to race each other to the next convenience store, with some riders plotting “off course” shortcuts. Others look for good barbecue lunches and buy cabins for the night instead of camping. Everyone gets a fair amount of ribbing whatever the choice. It’s been a heck of a ride! Here is this biker’s view of the last ,seven days:
Day 47-48 — 4/18-19/2019–to VanCleve MS and Dauphin Island FL — In Van Cleve, Mississippi area, most of the roads are not numbered and have people’s names: “Joe Batt” or “E. McHenry,” requiring our close attention to turns. It is relatively flat and we head through green forests with with no towns on our route. We have huge thunderstorms and more tornado warnings at night, and stay in an industrial hanger behind a Methodist church, being very thankful for Reverend Mary’s generosity. The next morning we head through more forests going a flat seventy miles down to Mobile Bay AL, and ride over a ten mile causeway and bridge to Dauphin Island. The island is rural and beautiful. We don’t know quite what to expect, but we camp out on a couple’s lawn. They are generous but own 10 small dogs who rule the place. Luckily it is a large lot and we leave to eat out for dinner coming back only to sleep.
Day 49-50 —4/20-21/2019–to Pensacola and Milton FL — We pack up at 5:30 to catch the 8am ferry which is cancelled in high wind. We then put our bikes on the van and drive to other side. We start riding and cross over into Florida and see lines of cars by the beach waiting for the Easter bunny to drop from a helicopter. We have a glorious tailwind riding 45 miles in record time to Gulf Shores KOA. We camp on Perdido Bay and see dolphins playing at dusk. Next morning we ride through Pensacola and spend the afternoon riding fast on hwy 90. We pass through Milton in muddy forests to turn off and stay the night at Blackwater River State Park. Our campground and bathrooms are pristine!
Day 51-52 — 4/22-23/2019–to DeFuniack Springs and Marianna FL — We are on empty rolling roads with good legs this morning and little traffic. We all stop at Crestview’s “Casbah Coffee,” fueling us for more fast riding. We continue on Hwy 90 to reach the Sunset King Lake RV Resort about 10 miles out of DeFuniak Springs. We camped on a grassy patch, with motorcycles, cars and trucks on the highway and coming into camp all night. We use their clubhouse to make breakfast. The next morning we get back on Hwy 90 and ride through the panhandle to Marianna and Florida Caverns RV Resort. We are the first group to use their new clubhouse and restrooms after the hurricane. This is a poor area made worse by Hurricane Michael October 2018. He cut a 50 mile swath of destruction. We really feel their loss when riding, looking at tarped houses and large piles of house mud debris and miles of downed forest.
