April 22, 2018
Today was supposed to be a great day to ride. Not only were we to be the first group to ride a brand new route for the Southern Tier but we were also going along some spectacularly beautiful gulf coast shoreline. It is a section known for long stretches of snow white sand. To get there we had to cross two long and heavily traveled bridges but we were veterans of that sort hazard. Then there was the wind. Once again it was strong, nearly gale force and either in our face or a cross wind which angled towards us. The shoreline that would have been enjoyable blew sand in our faces. Then it started to rain.
We had the great good fortune to have one of our group who lives along our route in the city of Mary Ester. With this new route and our late decision to ride it, there was no place in the area for us to stay without a very long ride. Annette and Stacey opened their house and allowed us to spend the night indoors avoiding all the nasty weather that was forecast. In fact the weather was quite nasty with Kelly, the ACA leader driving our van today just missing being caught on a bridge as a tornado spun and spouted its way across the sound. Many, many thanks to Annette and Stacey for keeping us warm, dry and out of the storm.