Periodic Progress Report Southern Tier Cross-Country Bicycle Tour

Date(s): Nov. 9, 1999
Day: Tuesday
From: Grand Bay, AL
To: Gulf Beach, FL
Lodging: Big Lagoon State Park
Segment Mileage: 73.7
Cumulative Mileage: 2923.9
Actual Riding Time: 5:15
Average Speed: 14.0
Weather: Mild, partly sunny
Temp: Low 80's

We're finally in Florida. It seems like ever since we left Texas we've been passing through a state about every other day. It will take us a while to get to St. Augustine, but the fact that we finally arrived in our destination state made for an emotional day.

We had an early wake up call this morning when the trash truck came to empty the dumpster in the middle of our tent area. Suzanne, camped next to it, said she jumped out of her tent fearing for her life. Luckily no one had leaned their bike against the dumpster.

Todd, Oliver, and I left camp before 7am and we were the last to leave. It's probably the first time on the trip that we've gotten off that early. We stopped for a picture of the shrimp boats on a draw bridge in Bayou La Batre, where parts of the movie Forest Gump were filmed. It was difficult to stop as we were racing to get to the ferry by 9:30, about 30 miles away. We met up with Bruno and Mike, and had a fast paceline to the bridge across Mobile Bay. Just before the bridge we also met up with Jimmy (or rather chased Jimmy, as he sped up as soon as he saw us coming), then we all stopped on the bridge for pictures. The bridge was the steepest climb of the day.

We reached the ferry with about 20 minutes to spare, and everyone was there in time to catch it. It's about a 30 minute ride across Mobile Bay between two Civil War forts used by the South to try to keep Confederate ships out of the bay during the Civil War. As we reached the opposite shore it seemed to take a very long time to land. We discovered that the ferry had struck a sand bar, and the last time it happened it took 5 hours to dislodge it. Luckily we were free within 30 minutes.

Todd, Oliver, Mike, Jim and I took a short side trip to the fort and then formed a paceline headed to the beach at Gulf Shores. It was one of those days when Mike was feeling good and we left him out front and let him pull us along. Finally Jim got tired of looking at my behind and got out in front and went even faster, so that the rest of us could hardly keep up. When Todd had a flat we were all somewhat relieved not to have to keep up the pace. We got to the beach about the same time as Bruno, Cyndi and Suzanne.

Today we were determined to take a dip in the Gulf and we heard from a local that Romar Beach, just up the coast, was a good beach, and it was. It had a large pavilion with a changing room and showers and to the amusement of some people sitting on the pavilion benches, we changed and went running to the water, splashing around like little kids. We were finally in Florida, the water was not too cold, it was a great sandy beach, and we had a great time. Jim arrived soon afterwards to remind us that we needed to get to camp at 4pm to make sure the cooking gear was there for the cooks. We were like mischievious kids being told we were having too much fun and resented it a little, and said so. But we finally hopped on the bikes and headed to camp at Big Lagoon State Park, working together as a group so that no one would be left behind. Later at the map meeting we talked about the need to get to camp on time as well as the need to be flexible on those special days during this long hard trip. We didn't resolve all of the tension in the air, but it was good to bring some of the emotion we are feeling to the surface. We probably need to be prepared for some emotional days as we near the end of this trip.

As several of us sat by the fire, just before going to our tents, Lynne appeared with a shredded food bag to let us know that the night creatures were on the prowl. It's a small price to pay for being in this island of green among all the beachfront condos. Tomorrow we leave the beach for inland Florida and Blackwater State Park.