Bob and I rode to breakfast so we wouldn’t have to be shuttled. It was one of those “hurry up and wait” kind of days. We had to get our gear on the truck before going to breakfast, so the truck and vans could get in line and not miss the ferry or they wouldn’t be available to us on the other side when we needed them. Everything was done extra early, and that gave us plenty of extra time to sit and wait for the ferry. The ferry ride was 40 minutes; our entertainment was Dauphin Island getting smaller and smaller, the oil rigs, the sea gulls, and Katie playing with the bubble maker I had given her a few days before. I almost wished we were done for the day after the ferry ride, it was so relaxing, but we had 90 miles to go and it was already 9:45.
Bob was leading out a paceline of about 15 riders for miles until it finally broke apart and we could get back to “normal” riding. We stopped several times to look at the incredible water colors – five shades of blue and teal and blazingly white sand – amazing! We had a great lunch at a “world famous” sub place, the owner even wore a bicycle century t-shirt. We asked about his ride, and then he asked where we were going – just a little farther than he did. A wonderful sandwich, a huge slab of chocolate cake and we were good to go for the rest of the day.
Up and over a few bridges and we were onto this long sand spit with beautiful water – we had to stop and get in. The drivers on the other hand were not so beautiful, one in particular gave us a long honk of his horn and shouted at us to get on that “million dollar sidewalk” they built for us, and to get us off his road.
I didn’t realize how much farther we had to go, my odometer didn’t match the route guide because of our extra breakfast ride and adding more miles durning the day to find a post office. There was another big bridge in the distance and I was convinced it was on the next days’ route mostly because I didn’t want to climb another bridge. Bob said it was today and we “discussed” this for awhile, so when it loomed right in front of us I said “okay, so we’re going over the freakin’ bridge,” Bob is always right.
Our campground tonight is very nice with close water access – it seems more like a lake than the gulf. Dinner was across the street, a bunch of us met early for beers and then we ate our way through the dinner trough.
92.2 miles