Today's Miles: 154.8 Don's Total Miles: 1,681.3 Sherry's Total Miles: 1,901.6
Here it is the first morning and I have already forgotten that it is the Central Time Zone. My phone whistled out a notification with the Text Message tone at 4:45 AM. I knew that it was Lisa telling me that the dog had waken her up. I thought to myself that it was WAY too early to call her and I figure that she would just crawl back in bed for awhile. Of course it was only 4:45 where I was....It was 5:45 at home. So Lisa took the dog out and started getting ready for work. At MY 6:45 I realized that it was HER 7:45 and she would be leaving for work instead of the "getting ready for work" that I was thinking. I gave her a quick call. And it WAS quick because she was about to walk out the door.
The hotel was not having the Breakfast Bar because of the pandemic (unlike the Clearwater hotel) but that was OK with me. I had other plans. I packed up my stuff and decided that I would head down to the lobby and have a cup of coffee. They might not have the breakfast but they still put out coffee and that is always better than those packets in the room. I figured that I would sit down there coffee sipping and surfing on the laptop until Sherry came down. It was a bit after 8:00 (Central Time....it takes awhile but I eventually catch on) and I really didn't care how long she decided to sleep in.
The elevator door opened and I was about to step in and, lo & behold, there in the elevator was Sherry. She had just taken her load to the bike. I told her what I was doing so she went to the room and got all that was left and then we BOTH sat in the lobby sipping coffee. Instead of surfing on the laptop we continue our "pizza conversation" we were having at Clearwater and were able to solidify some of our ideas to solve ALL the world's problems.
My plan for breakfast stems from a time that Lisa and I had spent in Panama City Beach a few years ago. We had breakfast at a place called Another Broken Egg. One of their breakfast items is Cinnamon 
Roll French Toast. It is so good that it must be evil. I won't try to describe it to you so just take my word for it that their Cinnamon Roll French Toast is just about the best breakfast meal I have ever had at a restaurant. We loaded ourselves on the bikes and aimed them at the Another Broken Egg. Sherry had a more respectable breakfast of an omelet and country potatoes.
Our timing was perfect because we walked right in and got a primo table outside. There was hardly anyone there. About 15 minutes later the place was packed and there was a line waiting outside. On the way in we met a family from Georgia not far from where Sherry lives. The father said he had the Regular French Toast but that the Cinnamon Roll variety was awfully tempting. Tracy, our waitress, was great and made sure that we had enough of everything the whole time we were there. I can assure you that we did not leave the place hungry.
Then we hit the road heading for the Alabama border ON the coast. We made one stop in Navarre Beach for gas, a bathroom break, and some water (there was NO eating!!!) at a Tom Thumb convenience store. Other than that we were riding. The only real issue was that between Panama City and Pensacola there is a LOT of construction on U.S. 98. There was so much construction that I thought we had made a wrong turn and had gotten into Michigan. Then I realized....this couldn't be Michigan because there were people actually working in the construction zones.
There is another thing. I have a thing about heights. Not just heights per se but things like railings or anything high that is not secure. Not only cannot not be happy about ME being in those places I have a hard time watching others. Even on TV....if someone is leaning over a rail my whole body starts to tingle. Lumped in with all of that are high rise bridges. I can ride across them but I am making finger grooves in the handgrips and I CANNOT turn my head at all. I have to look forward....not even swiveling my eyes. Let me tell you that From Panama City to and through Pensacola and on to Perdido Key....there are WAY too many high rise bridges. I did a lot of looking forward!
In the end it was worth it. Sherry's goal was to ride the Florida coastline from Fernandina Beach to the Alabama/Florida border at Perdido Key. At mid afternoon we pulled to a stop about 30 feet inside Alabama. We walked back to the Welcome To Sweet Home Alabama sign and did some pictures with
the help of someone walking past. The entire trip will include riding to and from our homes but starting at Fernandina Beach through Perdido Key was 1,540.1 miles based on my odometer. A very exciting time for Sherry and an exciting time for me to see Sherry excited.
Up until this point I have been the lead bike for the entire ride. I suggested that Sherry take the lead for the remainder of our day and she was more than happy to do that. Frankly, I was more than happy to let her. So she led us back into Pensacola and to our Comfort Inn. Again they were kind to us and let us park our bikes under the main entrance canopy.
That's it for today. I know that there isn't a lot in this chapter BUT the objective of the ride was achieved and that is a lot. Stay tuned because there are still two days left of this adventure. You have been with us this long so you might as well stick it out to the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment