Day 59 - Nov. 2 I rode 65 miles from Dauphin Island to Pensacola Florida. Please look at the picture below as it was the only sign I could see letting me know that I have entered Florida. This place looked like one wild spot!! The road today was along the Gulf Coast and I could see the ocean a great deal of the time. Last night we stayed in the Dauphin Inn B&B on Dauphin Island. The Island has a population of about 1200 permanent residents but can grow to 5500 when all the snowbirds come back in the summer. Driving around at dusk you would not see a light on in 80%-90% of the homes. As quiet and nice as it is...it is prone to hurricanes! We enjoyed the stay at the B&B and the opportunity to talk to the owner and other guests. Yesterday evening we went to the local eatery and I had a "Landshark Beer" and Barbara had the "Big Ass Salad" - honest this is what was on the menu!
I also met 2 riders on my route coming from the East. One was a German man of 22 years by the name of Marcus Schorn who was riding his bike around the World (with some help of ships in between). He started in Germany in February 2008 and traveled to the Netherlands,England, Ireland, Iceland, Nova Scotia and then New York to Jacksonville where we then turned West on his route. He will continue on to Texas and then South through Mexico and proceed to Argentina where he will take a boat to New Zealand and Australia. (www.markusschorn.de) So far he has been traveling for 270 days!
The other young rider Raul Gonzales is from Jacksonville and he has hooked up with Markus above. Raul is riding to Los Angeles and expects to be back home by Xmas. They both have full backpacks and are very self contained. They sleep where ever they can find flat ground at night. They are taking a much tougher trip then I would take. I may ride more miles in a day than they do but I carry about 50+ lbs. less and sleep in a bed every night! (Some day on this blog I might tell you about the 400 mile bike trip I took when I was 18, riding a single speed bike, no sleeping bag and only a canteen and extra set of clothes. REAL CRAZY!) Good luck to Markus and Raul in their biking adventures.
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