June 20th - Day 32 Odometer - 2944 I broke camp out of Ocean Springs, National Park and was headed for Gulf Shore, AL for the day. I crossed a long beautiful bridge that took me to Dauphin Island in AL and then crossed the bay where Mobile is located using a ferry. After exiting the ferry I came into some very attractive communities on the Alabama Gulf that were comprised of beautiful new homes that were placed on stilts and painted in wonderful pastels. The weather was starting to cook and hung in the mid nineties with good humidity. I grabbed another terrific lunch at a seaside restaurant and started to look for Gulf Shores State Park. Found the park which was the most expensive park I stayed at. $16 for a campsite without water or electric. The night was a challenge for a number of reasons: It was hot and humid which made sleeping difficult. It rained on and off all night which some how caused the "neighbors" to open and close their car doors and engage in worthless conversation into the early morning........in addition, a colony of ants had made their way into a my tent via a pinhead size hole in my tent.....in addition to an armadillo that tried to penetrate my tent where my feet were positioned. I put a bike tire patch over the hole in the tent and trapped, skinned and barbequed the armadillo............. (just kiddin).
June 21st - Day 33 Odometer - 3,000 Took off out of Gulf Shores heading for the Florida boarder along 292. Reached the boarder about 9:30 am and stopped my the famous FloraBama Lounge for a beverage. Headed off to Pensacola. After reaching the southern part of Pensacola I turned south to the gulf islands. I stopped to absorb some of the beautiful beach scenery and rest a bit and was headed to Destin when I hit a 10 inch pothole. The impact bent the front wheel and I was able to get roadside assistance from Alpine Bicycles in Gulf Breeze (1st stroke of luck). The owner of the shop, Russell Bennett, came out and gave me a lift back to his shop where I ended up having to buy a new wheel. It had started to rain and after tending to the bike I headed out to Navarre to the first hotel available. As luck would have it I got the last room available at the Comfort Inn. 2 strokes of luck in the same day.
June 22, 2003 - Day 34 Odometer 3070 Broke camp, I mean hotel, this morning heading for Destin. It was a whopping 20 mile ride and pulled up next to World Famous AJ's (you'd be surprised at how many places are world famous along the Gulf Coast). I was just resting alongside the dock where charter fishing boats are based when a gentleman who runs a parasail operation started a conversation w/ me. He found out I was from Dallas and we started talking about a few of the attributes of Destin and Dallas. He was about to take some people out for a sail and asked me if I like to go out on the boat and I said sure. I ended up doing some parasailing. If anyone hasn't parasailed it's actually VERY quite and VERY relaxing. After the parasail adventure I headed into AJ's where I had a terrific grilled tuna sandwich and spent most of the afternoon and early evening talking to people and listening to the band that was playing. I ended up at a Motel 6 about a quarter of a mile down the road.
June 23, 2003 - Day 35 Odometer 3090 Monster Mileage Day 150 Miles I broke out at 7:30 am. As I looked at the map I noticed that there was nothing between Destin and Tallahassee along HWY 20 and they thought of a 150 day crossed my mind quite early. I had a terrific riding surface and shoulder, no wind, and a flat terrain. Everything that I needed for big mileage. There were only a couple of other places I could try for record miles. Those places were around New Mexico/Texas where I had a Northern wind to fight and the Mississippi Delta, where I had decided to lighten the mileage in my days.
