Almost all Bicycle Paths on Valentine's Day

Tony's View

 Happy Valentines everyone! It was another great day of bicycling. We started out on a crowded bike path with many walkers. We had good time wishing everyone along the bike path a Happy Valentines day. We made a lot of smiles today. After the 5 miles of crowded bike path, we got back on a very busy Highway 98 for a while until we came upon Camp Gulf. Camp Gulf is where the Kunk's have gone the last 4 summers to camp in the 5th wheel that we sold to them. We had great memories with that camper, and this is one of the places Kunk's are making memories. As you can see in the pictures, it is right on the beach. After touring it, we can see why they enjoy it.

 After following many bike paths we came upon this health food store and restaurant that had a bicycle shop next door. It worked out great. Joan could look for gluten free food and I could look for things I don't need for the bicycle. It was fun. I talked geek talk with the mechanic and Joan got a gluten free brownie and muffin. After spending much time there, we took off and hit the bike path again. We got to go through some more quaint towns, one being Grayton. At the next one called Seaside, a sign said walk your bike. Good move on their part, and since we were off our bike, we decided to stop and eat. Yes, I get a craft beer made in the previous town called Grayton Fish Whistle IPA. Once again, it was very good. The food street was a row of Airstream campers made into food trucks. Joan even found one of the campers with gluten free bread. Joan made a friend with a dog that was a show dog and very well trained. It was trained to find lost people and identify certain scents like the ingredients used in bombs.
 The older couple to the above left got our best Valentines prize of the day. They were from Michigan and were asking about the tandem as they walked by. She was taking him on a walk and he couldn't see any more. They were so nice and we asked if we could take their picture. When I took their picture, I said you may be blind, but you can smile for the picture. He then let our a big smile. Growing old in love. What a great thing to celebrate on Valentines Day. 

One other thing I did at this stop was to finally listen to my phone. It kept saying since first thing this morning, every time I turn it on, to call Matthew and wish him a Happy Birthday. All I had to do was hit the notice and it called Matt. So, I did it and asked Matt what he did to my phone? He claims nothing. After all this we took off again and hit the bike paths.
The picture on the left looks like we are on a bike path in Florida. How cool is that? The other thing nice about these paths are that they were well used as you can see from the picture on the right.

 Along the way we had many views that were very pretty. This one to the left is when were on a bicycle bridge. Speaking of bridges, we only crossed one big bridge today.

One of the quaint towns we went through had all the houses and businesses painted completely white. They even had the steel roof shingles painted white (see picture to the right). I guess if you are going to live there, you better like white😀😎 

We decided to go swimming at our place, The Pineapple Villas, because they keep the pool at 92 degrees. Joan said it was the coldest weather she has ever gone swimming in. Outside temperature was 61 degrees and windy. We walked/ran over to the hot tub and froze, but it was fun.

Joan's Extras

Today was full of great bike trails and since most of the trails went through coastal towns, we got lots of questions, smiles, thumbs ups, pictures taken of our bike, and nice comments. One lady even rolled her window down while driving to ask us who made the bike. She could tell it was custom built. 

Dinner tonight was another adventure. The lady at the front desk told us about this nice Vietnamese restaurant within sight of this place. We walked to it and discovered it is closed until March 1. We tried the bar next to it, but it only serves drinks. They told us there was a sandwich place about a mile down the road. We started walking enjoying the night air with the gulf water in view when we found a local grocery store about 1/2 mile into our walk. We decided to find some dinner there, and brought back our goodies to enjoy our Valentines meal at our mini table.

The wind was very comfortable today. It made it easier to say our daily rosary while we ride except today I had the hiccups during the whole rosary. 😵

Sunshine & Sand to Destin Beach

Tony waiting for the Garmin to access satellite

Joan's View

We slept in a bit because today was only a 48 mile ride. We started out around 10:00am











We left Pensacola Beach and had a beautiful ride on a bike trail through the Gulf Islands National Seashore.

 

                     The sign reads "Caution Sand on Road Ahead"

Miles of natural sand dunes with shimmering water on both sides. There were lots of small roadside parks, as well, which means there are lots of restrooms. Tony & I talked about bringing an RV here sometime and just lounging the day at one of the roadside parks. 

With all this sand though, we have to be careful riding through it on our bike, and it seems that motor vehicles have similar issues around here (see above). All this open area made the headwinds much stronger.

As we left the park we rode through an area of nice beach homes. Lots of new construction going on, and Tony is doing his usual checking for new ideas for our upcoming home build. I found this unique home along the route that looks like a celebrity lives there, but opted to skip that encounter.     ➨➨➨

We stopped for lunch at a roadside seafood market with an outside food truck. The owners were originally from Mississippi and moved here after Hurricane Katrina. Since it was their first week with the food truck open and they were a little slow yet, the one owner sat with us while we ate and shared his story about his Katrina experience. They also gave Tony some free beignets because we had to wait for the etouffee rice to cook. Another yum yum stop.

Excuse the hair. It was windy again.

After lunch we rode mostly along the main road that connects these Florida panhandle cities so there were lots of touristy attractions which meant the roads were busy. We had to ride over one bridge today that was only 2 lanes and no bike lane. We had to "own the lane." We both were thinking that Tom would have had a few comments about that bridge. 😣 As we got closer to Destin, the traffic was heavy and we were without a bike lane again. The signs obviously read 🚲share the lane, but I guess there are some drivers who are still learning what that means because a few drove within 3 feet of us, beeped their horns and gave us a look. 

We are staying at a really nice motel with all the amenities. They even gave us a loaf of lemon poppyseed bread for breakfast. Better yet, Tony's insulin pods were here waiting for him. Tony soaked a little in the hot tub while I just put my feet in. We ate dinner at Miller's Ale & Grill. It was a Tony kind of place.

Craft beer heaven

One more item to note. We now have 2 people who have acknowledged that they read Tony's Extras. Tisha was the first to make his day, and now Mary texted that she does too only she sort of averages the results. 

Tony's Extras

Average the results, doesn't sound so good for me.😂 One thing I continue to be amazed at is how good people are. We stopped at this one park where their was a guy mowing, and he just waved and gave us a great smile. Later, we past him again when we were leaving and we got his big wave and loving smile. We see so much of this on the ride and it reminds you that people are good. I saw this sign and it remind me of my fishing neighbor and friend, Bud.

Maybe Bud should be fishing in Destin, The World's Luckiest Fishing Village. There were miles of areas where the traffic was busy with no shoulder where we were riding in the middle of the lane. The majority of dirvers were very cooperative. Only a few were tempermental. I had a beer at Miller's Ale House that was called Good People IPA. Ties to my theme above although just coincidental. It was a good beer and was from Birmingham, Alabama. It was almost as good as Boat Show from Yellow Springs Brewery, which is my most favorite beer. Tomorrow we plan to check out the campgrounds that Jeff Kunk and his family goes for their summer vacation. Jeff bought our 5th wheel camper and truck a few years ago. 

One last shout our to my cousin Karen, who is a faithful reader of our blogs. Probably my only family member that reads it. I am pretty sure my brother and sisters don't read it. Most likely because it is too technically involved.😁 

Walking Beaches and Pump Troubleshooting

Tony's View

The day started off with saying good bye to Cindy and Tom. After they left, we decided to go for a walk on the beach. The beach was just cleaned, so Joan decided that it was a good idea to make a heart in the sand and get our picture for Valentine's Day. Yesterday I got her a small sugar valentine heart, saying be my valentine and today she wanted a big heart. While walking on the beach we saw the surfers and if you look in the picture with Joan looking out into the water, you will see a surfer.

The beach is super long and beautiful and when we looked back, we could see our footprints, before they disappeared. Along the way, we found a beachball to play with saying Pensacola Beach. The only thing was that it was on top of a water tower. We really enjoyed our long walk along the beach until my Insulin Pod started buzzing loudly. The only way to turn it off was with my OmniPod PDM back at the Airbnb. So we listened to it the rest of the way back.

I disabled it when I got back. I now had 2 Insulin Pods go bad in the last 12 hours and they are supposed to work for 3 days each. Now my supplies are low. I called Omnipod and waited on the phone for ever. Finally they answered and are going to send 2 Pods to the next hotel overnight. Well, I got that taken care of, kind of. One hour later my PDM screen went blank and stop working completely, Thought it was the battery and changed it out. Wrong. Back on the phone with Omnipod, and after another long wait, they are overnighting a new PDM. I had to get my backup out, and you guessed, another Pod. What a frustrating afternoon, but better to happen on an off day. All is good for now.

I got the chains oiled up again and finished cleaning the bicycle. Made some minor fine tuning on the cable runs to make turning easier since they weren't quite run right.

Joan's Extras

It's a chillin out day and it feels nice 😎.

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. 

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