LONG Bike Trails, LONG Bridges 

Joan's View

Today started out misty and foggy, but it was fun because we rode on a long bike trail in Gulf Shores that was like a state park trail system only it was all nicely paved. There were benches, trees with

Spanish moss, long wooden path bridges, beautiful landscaping, and most importantly...restrooms😊

Tom usually provides his humorous instructions as we are biking, but today he stepped it up and said, "Pedal Joan Pedal." He realized that I have a competitive nature and tries to feed my competitiveness. Tom is definitely getting faster and stronger too the more we ride. Today is his last day of him riding with us until we get to Gainesville. He is taking our Sherpa with him as well so our next ride we'll have our paniers loaded on the bike.

We entered Florida today. Tom is happy to be in his home state, and we are closer to all the snow birds that we know in Florida now too. 
We stopped at the Florida information center, one of the nicest information centers. They had some cool lion fish in a tank. Tony even gave me a Valentine's present that he picked up at the Visitor's Center, but I forgot to get a picture. It was a candy heart. Aww.

We stopped for lunch at Joe Patti's, a seafood marketplace with other food. Sherpa Cindy had to backtrack a little to find us. We ate outside on the patio, and I had some of my favorites, sushi and tiramisu. Yum Yum! 

Meeting the staff at Joe Patti's

We rode  some highway and some traffic signal areas, and we did more bridges that expected - 5. Cindy told us there were no bridges today. Haha. The longest bridge, 4 miles long, was right after lunch. The sign at the start of the bridge read, "Check Fuel. Long Bridge." Lucky for us we had just fueled up with lunch. The bridge traffic was moving faster than the speed limit and the shoulder was a little narrow with parapet sides. Tom was ahead of us. His lunch must have super charged him because that was the fastest we ever saw him pedaling. He said later he was glad to be over that bridge. Me too though. Tony, however, was excited about the bridge construction going on next to our bridge. I'm sure he wanted to stop, but instead he handed me his phone to take pictures while we were riding.

We had another first as well. We went through our first toll on bike. Actually, Cindy used her Sunpass through the toll and we followed the bike route markings that took us around the toll.

Closer to the AirBnb, we found this cool sign that reminded us of a family member. Guess who?

Dinner tonight was Tony's favorite - Mexican. Cindy was willing to drive 20 miles from our place to try this California Mexican restaurant. Thanks Cindy!

Finally, it's Grandma Monday and I am missing my 2 adorable grandsons so y'all get to share in the picture I received today. Miss you Luke & Todd ❣

Tony's Extras

Well, I had good news this morning in a text on my phone when I got up. Tisha let me know that she reads my part too.😀 The only other people that read my part are my kids, that I know of. They only read my part to make fun of my grammar and snicker. We had a very good route today. We got off the beaten path and no gravel roads or paths. As Joan said we were lucky enough to go over 5 big bridges and one of them had a construction site along the way. You can see from the pictures how cool it was. Joan started a version of Oh Happy Day, Oh Happy Day, when Jesus was, (come on sing it with us). Joan could tell how excited I was about the bridge construction with the several cranes on the barges. We got to our destination and I spent time cleaning the sand off the bicycle. I was getting it ready for final cleaning and chain oil tomorrow.