April 21, 2018

I woke up this morning with three missions to accomplish: First I had to ride the 45 miles to our destination for this evening. Second, I hoped to find a store on route where I could purchase a replacement for my southern fried computer and finally, I was on deck to cook this night’s dinner.

The day started easy with a ferry ride across Mobile Bay. We had two options for catching the ferry, one at 8:00 am and one at 9:30. Since I planed to do some computer shopping, I chose the 8:00 am ferry. The winds were strong and the water choppy but I fortified myself with an anti-sea sickness nostrum and set sail along with Jim and Marianna from our group. Along the way we were able to get a good view of pelicans, terns and other shore birds that followed the ferry hoping that a meal might be churned up in its wake. We also were able to get a close look at one of the many gas drilling rigs that are scattered around the gulf.

Those same winds prevailed on the other shore and unfortunately were headwinds directly in our faces. This made a 45 mile ride take a bit more time. I also added to my misery by missing the Walmart where I hoped to find a cheap replacement computer and biked an additional 8 miles to correct my mistake. Once purchased I need to find a wi-fi hotspot to set it up. Fortunately, the good folks a Walmart allowed me to sit on the floor next to a power outlet and use their wi-fi to do this. Another hour was burned.

With the basic setup finished I headed back into the wind to finish the second half of my ride for the day. Along the way I passed into the final state on my tour. As you can see by the photo , I was happy to have finally reached the Florida state line.

My choice for tonight’s dinner was a traditional Canadian shore dinner. Talapia had to stand in for walleye but the corn meal, bacon, potatoes along with my secret spices were all available. The verdict of the group was a big thumb’s up. I look forward to a less busy ride tomorrow.

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.

April 23, 2018

What a difference a day makes! Sunshine, favorable winds and warm but not too hot temperatures. Add to that a route along the coast, slow, lite traffic and lots of bicycle lanes and you have biker’s Nirvana. With thanks bestowed, we left Annette and Stacey’s for a multi-turn route designed to avoid as much of busy Highway 98 as possible. We still needed Highway 98 in order to cross a couple of inlets. At the big bridge before Destin, Annette’s friends from her home town bicycle club had gathered at the summit with signs and cheers to send her on her way.

Once off Highway 98 we traveled County Route 30A, a “scenic” route through some charming gulf-side communities and through what I have decided to call Beachopolis. Most of the smaller communities were residential with smaller residences and rental homes allowing plenty of public access to the gulf beaches. There were numerous open areas where the blue gulf waters glistened enticingly in the morning sunlight. Then there is Beachopolis. Beachopolis is what the entire coastline of the United States was destined to become before state and federal governments began to buy up any large areas still available. The primary features of Beachopolis are the tall, condominium type hotels and the chain type beach stores. You can hardly travel a mile without seeing at least two Sunsations or Alvin’s Island stores and it appears the hotel chains are trying to outdo each other to see who can pile the greatest number of rooms on top of each other. You might guess that this type of development is not to my taste.

However just to prove that it does not have to be this way, take the example of Sea Side, Florida on County Route 30A. This community exudes charm. No monster buildings, no cookie cutter T-shirt stores, no buildings over two stories except for some that serve a community or municipal purpose and those are well designed. It is a community that was designed to place importance on being able to work, live and relax in the same community without the necessity of driving 50 miles a day. It was so idyllically designed that it was chosen as the site for the filming of the Jim Carey film, The Truman Show. It was a pleasure to ride through it.

Our destination for this evening is St. Andrew’s State Park. It is a lovely park and one of the nicest we have seen on our trip. The sites are shady, large and well drained. It has a beautiful gulf side beach, a shallow wading lagoon as well as an abundance of wildlife. I took a dip in the warm gulf waters despite the high winds and heavy surf. It was refreshing.

April 24, 2018

Today we have a special guest to guide us along our route to Port St. Joseph. Alan is an Adventure Cycling Association group leader who regularly leads the Gulf Coast Tour. He joined us last evening at St. Andrews Beach State Park and has agreed to show us a road less traveled around Panama City. He shepherded a few of us through the back streets and past palatial homes with a running commentary on the local history and culture. Our first stop was a bayside park with a view of the Panama City port and a memorial to the fallen of September 11th.

Coffee and donuts are the fuel of many of our morning rides and this day we passed a number of interesting bakery shops without stopping. Alan knew of a place just before the big bridge called Fly By Coffee that he knew to have a superior product. It definitely is a place to get caffeinated with quality and speed that Tim Hortons could envy. What it did not have was what I call decent pastry. I gave it a pass being stubbornly persistent. Just a few feet further along was Leon’s Fresh Baked Donuts. Inside an employee was busily making some fresh goodness and I asked if she had any apple fritters made. Some had just come from the oven a few minutes ago. Once again being a stubborn hard-head paid off.

The only dull part of today’s ride was the 12 mile or more ride through the massive Tyndell Air Force Base. If I could have seen the jets taking off it might have been great but all OI could see was endless miles of pine plantation on both sides of the road. At least the road was smooth with a decent shoulder and freshly paved, so the miles flew by.

In the town of Port st. Joseph stands the Cape San Blas lighthouse which has been relocated to this location. It is different from other coastal lighthouses in that it has a steel structure instead of masonry. The community is trying to raise funds to restore it.

Finally after a few wrong turns I found my way to our camping site for the evening. A warm shower and a cold drink awaits me.

April 25, 2018

This is our last non bicycling day of the trip and the weather is great. With most of the group heading off to do some kayaking and snorkeling, I decided to not chance my fondness for motion sickness given the choppy surf. Instead, going against common wisdom, I decided to go for a bicycle ride. My destination was close by in the town of Port St. Joe.

If you have been following my blog you may remember my missive on the decline of small towns across the continent. Today I witnessed a rebirth. The town of Port St. Joe was once a fishing and logging village beset by the typical problems of both. Hurricanes, storms and oil spills periodically devastate local fisheries and logging is becoming ever more mechanized. Enter tourism. The town has redesigned itself into a tourism friendly place that is also very livable for local folks. The key seems to be local ownership, restrictions on mega-structures and the positive and friendly spirit of the population.

Aside from a charming main street the community has nearly everything a tourist or local resident could want. A supermarket, drugstore, lawyer’s office, and health care as well as restaurants and stores offering local needs and touristy stuff. Sure, there is a McDonalds and a Burger King on the main route but that does not seem to have diminished the demand for the local fare. It also may help that Port St. Joe is not in an area that Walmart has chosen to invade just yet. Nearly every business is locally owned and when you walk in the front door, it is likely the owner him or herself that greets you. There are a couple of vacant storefronts but guessing by the condition of the windows the vacancy is only for the short term. There could be a lesson here for other communities. Keep it local, keep it neat and inviting, keep it small and don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself. Some civic dollars may be involved but I suspect those dollars will be paid back many times over.

An interesting sidelight to the day: A film was being professionally shot in front of the town’s restored movie theater. I asked the local sheriff what was going on and he told me that recently the Brother’s Osborne performed a concert in their town and from that experience created their latest album titled, Port St. Joe. Now they are back to film the music video. It goes to show the if you build it, they will come.

April 26, 2018

They call this section of Florida’s gulf coast The Forgotten Coast, my hope is that it stays that way. When such things find their way into the popular mind they become overrun and eventually run down or turned into Beachopolis. For now this area has a relaxed rural charm that invites tourism without screaming it at the top of its lungs. Here you can still find local restaurants, private enterprise and low density development. Sunsets and wildlife abound. However, there are signs that this is changing with large sections of vacant land now surveyed, divided and posted for sale. Best enjoy it while we can.

The town of Apalachicola was along our route today and it bills itself as the oyster capital of the world. This may have been true at one time but it seems to be on the wane. A few years ago a hurricane was predicted to hit their area and damage the century old oyster beds. Local water men urged the regulating powers to allow them to do a deep harvest since the storm was going to destroy them anyway. You can guess what happened, the storm missed and the water men destroyed their livelihoods through over harvesting. Attempts to reestablish the beds have only been partially successful and even then there are some who want to begin harvesting oysters early before they have fully been restored to their former glory. Time will determine if this is wise.

The town of Apalachicola is quite interesting with an old time flavor to it. There are the usual shops selling some of the usual touristy stuff but they also feature a lot of locally made products and do so in an eclectic way. The Cafe con Leche was a welcome stop for many of our group and we wolfed down numerous apple fritters and other treats to fuel the next leg of our day’s ride. On the wall were two signs that we assume reflect the views of the owners.

For now I will remember the Forgotten Coast as it is: Classic views, smooth roadways, light traffic and a dream to bicycle. I hope others will be able to remember it fondly as well.

April 27, 2018

Today we begin to head inland in Florida on our way to our final destination of St. Augustine. We still have four and a half days of riding ahead but they should be fairly easy ones, especially when compared to the first few days in the mountains of Southern California. Unfortunately, today was largely spent on Route 98 which is flat, straight and bland. It also seems to have enough dump trucks and belly dumps to be moving a significant portion of Florida from one side to the other. The seventy miles we rode rolled by quickly enough but there was little to recommend the route other than being a way to get from A to B. They are building a new bicycle path from Sopchoppy eastward. When finished it will be a nice alternative to Route 98. There are some interesting sights still ahead but every once in awhile we just need to get from A to B.

April 28, 2018

We started the day on wheels and ended it on the water. Just how did we do this? We had a early start with every rider away by 8:00 am, both espresso (fast) and decaf (leisurely) riders. By 1:00 pm we were at the Ichelucknee Family Grocery and Campground for a kayak trip down the Ichelucknee River. Off came the bicycle shorts and on went our swim wear. It being a Saturday the river was busy but we still saw our fill of turtles, fish and the occasional bird. It was a great departure from the daily grinding of gears and rubber on asphalt. We are now three days from the end of our epic journey and it was time for something different.

Florida’s rivers in this area are relaxed and crystal clear. The Ichelucknee is a jewel of spring fed waters and soft, waving grasses. Suckers, catfish, bass and gar pike can be easily seen below the surface along with snappers around nearly every turn. On a nice Saturday in late April it also home to teaming hordes of sun seekers on tubes, rafts, canoes, kayaks and other floating items with names that I have no idea of.

The first two hours were grand until we hit the dock where these other item were launched and we came upon Tubeagedon. Dozens, no hundreds of children, adults and everything in between in and on everything that floats in an endless stream of rubber and plastic floating on the Ichelucknee like an oil slick. Any wildlife had the good sense to be somewhere else.

We still had a great time and were happy to give our butts and legs a rest. Later we had hamburgers, corm on the cob and some high octane sangria. Another great day was notched into our saddles.

April 29, 2018

As the street corner prophet exclaimed, “the end is near.” We are cycling the last few miles towards our tire dip in the Atlantic. It has been an adventure of a lifetime and in two more days it will come to an end. I have met some great people and cycled with them daily. I have seen some sights and looked at this part of the continent in a way that is up close and in slow motion. You just see the countryside differently at bicycle speeds, especially if you break out of the cadence coma and take time to look around. At bicycle speeds you can watch the landscape slowly evolve from the pacific coast through the mountains, deserts, prairies and to bayous and subtropical. Each city, town and village has its own style and character from railroad strip towns to towns radiating outward from a well planned town square. In between are some that are little more than sign posts of what once was. Farms, forests deserts, ranches and wildflowers abound around every bend in the road.

Tonight is our last nigh camping and the place chosen is Payne’s Prairie State Park, s sub-tropical mix of palm trees, oaks and Spanish moss. The weather is hot and the humidity high but we reached it after a fairly easy ride of just over 50 miles. Tomorrow we sleep indoors and the day after we dip our tires and get reacquainted with those who followed our adventure from a distance. It will be a bitter sweet moment but one I look forward to. I may never do anything so epic again but who knows, I may. For now I am happy to have done this and happy to begin that time of in between where great adventures are imagined and planned.

April 30, 2018

After a comfortable night at Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park we awoke to our last full day of riding. No more tents to worry about as we will sleep in a motel before our final push to St. Augustine. This morning was one of the more relaxed mornings with time for blueberry pancakes and bacon before hitting the road. The ride was an average 60 miler but we had dedicated bicycle paths for nearly a third of that distance. My only downside was to learn that I had apparently lost my glasses somewhere in the park. Good thing they were an old pair and that I have a spare.

The scenery today was great and pretty enough that I hardly noticed the headwind. Tonight we dine in a restaurant and tomorrow we we dip our tires in the Atlantic! It has been a long ride but everyone will make it to the finish line.