A Misty Day in Alabama

Tony's View

What a beautiful, misty day to ride a bicycle. It was misty all day. Really, the only issue was foggy sunglasses, getting Joan's fairing wet and dampening our raincoats. We did enjoy our misty, windy day with long mileage, a little over 66 miles. Yes, we got to cross another long, high bridge again today, yea! The interesting part about this bridge is that there was construction and it narrowed down to one lane. The construction workers were friendly and let us ride inside the cones. 

Not long after the bridge we entered Sweet Home Alabama. What a cool sign. After taking a picture with the sign, we had to walk one foot onto Alabama and show our respect for the Tide. Then I played the song Sweet Home Alabama while Joan danced to the music.

After we got into Alabama a little ways, I needed another potty break, and when I came out we were greeted by Maximus, the big dog. Joan wanted to pet him, but Maximus would walk the other way. Such a cute dog, so we decided to get a picture. We went on and went over another bridge and saw all these shrimp boats. I think one of these shrimp boats was actually the boat Forest Gump made all his money on. Whoever took the photograph did a great job catching the pelican in the picture. You guessed it; it was me. 😀 We spent more time in the Bayou riding through all the swamps. One thing I forgot to mention was that while driving through the swamps, you kick up wildlife. We think we saw a bobcat today in the distance crossing the road. It was a cat about 2 feet tall. We also saw Blue Herons, Egrets and other birds. We actually saw an eagle today. We would have to check with our favorite bird experts to know for sure on the types, meaning the bird sanctuary overseers, Bud and Theresa. We ran into a guy fishing in the swamp, which reminded me of Bud. We asked him what he was fishing for. He said, "Fishin for mullet to git some grub fo Sunday dinner." See why it reminded me of Bud?

 We were hearing a lot of gun shots, which I guess is normal out here. We saw many signs all shot up so we stopped and got a picture. Looks like someone didn't like the number 15.
Part of the miles today included a 4 mile ferry ride. The seagulls sat on the front of the ferry and got a free ride. Below you see us entering the ferry with Tom and I standing by our bikes.

 

I took some pictures of one of the many oil rigs we
saw along the way. It was neat to see the oil tanker going toward the rig until we started to see the waves it created which rocked our boat. That is when I stopped taking pictures and focused on looking forward. The picture below Joan took shows me focusing on trying not to get sea sick.

 I was happy when we arrived at the other side, but really never got queasy. Joan ran into someone famous on the ferry, but to find out who, you are going to have to wait until Joan's extra. Pretty good teaser to keep you reading, huh? Yeah,yeah, Tisha, I know you only read Joan's part anyways.

After getting off the ferry, we ran into some wind and Tom really enjoyed that. I told Tom the reason we cut right through the wind is that I have a motor on the front of my bicycle. Above, you can see that we have drifts down here, too, and not just you all up north. By the mailbox it was about 2 feet thick and at least 4 inches across the road. It did cause a little bit of an issue on the bike, but it wasn't that wide, so we were OK. Soon after that we went to a cool restaurant for lunch called Sassy Bass Amazin' Grilly. It refueled Tom and he battled through the rest of the windy ride without a motor up front.

Joan's Extras

We get lots of comments about our bicycle, but you know you are in the South when someone yells, "Like you alls bike!"

We ate at The Diner tonight for dinner. The atmosphere was fun and the food was satifying. Even Tom got full. Cindy & I did a ride in their car.⇓

OK, here's your answer to the suspense filled lead-in that Tony left you hanging with - the famous person in the picture with me is Matt Russell, a former #1 Motocross racer & Jack Hanna's personal mechanic. He and his wife are from Columbus, OH and are traveling with 7 Dachsunds. Now you know the rest of the story, Tisha