Day 30 - Navarre to Dalphin Island, AL

Thursday.

In the morning, we took a few group photos, and then get on the road. Thanks again to Joe for being an awesome host. His wife is a cyclist, and he's still willing to host riders while his wife is busy riding her bicycle on Route 66. Way cool!

After a few miles, we pull into a grocery store for some breakfast. Jake and I take the fast riding approach, and Jorg and _____ take the slightly more casual approach. Something comparable to the "Tortise and the Hare" I would guess. Since our day wasn't supposed to be too terribly long, we chose to take a scenic detour along the coast. We had to walk our bikes over a bridge that was under construction, but it was well worth it. The riding was about perfect.



Until.... Jake gets another flat tire. It's a slow leak, and we can't seem to find the source. We try to patch what we think is the leak, air the tire up again, and continue riding. After about 4 miles, it's flat again. We repeat this appraoch for about 12 miles, mostly because we only have one spare left after the previous days fiasco. Eventually, we put the final tube onto Jake's bike, and hope that we make it into Pensacola where we can find a shop to replenish our supply.


We make it to pensacola and stop at bike shop. These guys are awesome. They true up the wheel, tighten a couple of spokes and sell us some tubes. We are back on the road.

We stop for lunch around 1pm so I can mail in my income taxes and spend a little time checking in with the office. At about 2pm, we begin riding the final 40 miles to the Mobile Bay Ferry. Per Jorg, there is a 5:45pm and 7:15pm ferry. The riding continues to be superb, we cross into Alabama, and down to the ferry. We arrrive at the ferry station at 5pm, and wait for the boat to arrive. After we get on the boat, we talk with the crew guys and find out that Jorg was on the previous ferry, the 4:15! Way to be Jorg! Showing the young guys that slow and steady is the way to go.



On the west side of the Mobile Bay, we pull into the campground to find it is full. I had tried to call this campground several times in the previous week, but got a busy signal every time. It has 150 sites, and I figured surely it couldn't be full on a Thursday. I was wrong. And it was at least 20 more miles of riding into the next town... with not much light left.

Luckily, the lady working the desk was very helpful and found a site for us, so long as we were packed up and out early the next morning.

Lodging diaster averted, we set up camp, rode two miles to a grocery/hardware/fishing store, purchased some food and beer and completed another great day.


Day 30 - 83.96 Miles
Trip to Date - 1478.73 miles
Coast to Coast - 532.28 miles