Crossing state lines and looking mighty fine

After waking up from the power line sleep we biked ourselves out to the Alabama gulf coast. As usual- first stop was gas station coffee. We filled our water bottles with coffee and had ourselves a little breakfast picnic on the beach.






We hung out and took in the sun rays until we felt ready to cross the Alabama-Florida border ( ie after the opening time for the florabama bar where we were told by many folks that we needed to stop). We arrived at the florabama, met one of the owners, got the official tour and had one of their traditional cocktails before heading on to Florida.






One of our first Florida stops was a fabulous fruit stand where we found out Caley is actually pregnant!



The watermelon baby she gave birth to was sure refreshing and delicious.



After our fruit stand stop, we biked on to explore what florida had to offer. A couple days into florida we met this great bus at a gas station.



The folks in the bus asked us if we wanted to sign it ( we did). We got to taking and found out they have been on the road for 2 years picking up anyone on the highway who needs a ride. We met them toward the end of their journey with only 200 miles left to go. The couple driving the bus are about to have a child so are taking a break, but vow to be back on the road again in a couple years. We had never seen anything like this, and it was pretty inspiring.

Later that day, we made it out to defuniak springs and decided that after crossing 3 state lines in our fabulous pink outfits and given that our last shower was in Louisiana, it was probably time for a bath. We found a park with a lake, and after having a nice picnic we decided to jump on in. Here is a photo of our swimming hole.




As it turns out people are not supposed to swim in the lake. This iis how we met officer Bennett. He kindly informed us of this fact, gave us a free background check (something we needed for residency anyway) and directed us to a more appropriate lake for swimming.

We made it on down the road, and found ourselves some fairground bleachers to camp under. Fortunately for our purposes the rodeo was last week.

One thing that we have recently recognized is that we have become pretty darn good at loitering...Looks like we forgot to read the sign.





Despite all this loitering we managed to ride our bikes just outside of Tallahassee where another camp spot came to find us. The tabernacle church. They had a fun setup complete with a stage, plenty of seating, buses, a water spickett and statues of geese.



We woke up Saturday morning and rode our way through Tallahassee. We got to hop on a bike path with a lot of other Tallahassee bikers.

We stopped for pulled pork sandwiches at a county store midday and baked the rest of the afternoon away in the hot Florida sun, whew!




When we got to Greenville a cool down break was in order. While Tad and I were cooling down Caley was actually heating up with Ray Charles on the piano (he is actually from Greenville!).




That evening we took ourselves out to a country buffet in Madison, Fl and man was it th place to be on Saturday night. Fortunately we had used the ride over to get all dressed up.









We made lots of friends at the buffet, including another police officer. He kindly offered that we should camp in the towns four freedoms park. The spot is lovely complete with a stage (where we set up our tent) inspiring quotes and a soothing fountain. Here is our tent on stage:



We got another great surprise that a friend of ours, Randy is coming to join us for the last leg of our trip. We met him back in Arizona when he was headed the other way. We tried to convince him to turn around then bur were not successful. Having now touched the pacific, he has come to join us and we get to keep him for a few days, yay!




Yesterday is was real hot. So, we got to rediscover McDonald's ( and try every kind of smoothie they make- they are all delicious) and go for a midday swim in these springs.


We are currently drawing out the last few days of this adventure and trying to soak up every drop of biking, sweat, gas station coffee and most importantly each other. St Augustine watch out, we are coming for ya real soon :)

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Location:Fort White, Clori

New friends, generosity, homelessness, and awesomeness!!!

So I was feeling incredibly left out, because I didn't have any pink. So Jess and Caley remedied that for me. We have become pink attack!!! We are attempting to be accused of being triplets...we will then reply "indeed we were womb mates!" The following are the pink attack pictures. I particularly enjoyed Charley's Angels!










Below is the photo that illustrates each of our nick names. We have opted to leave them off this blog...you may ask us for the names and context in person...a much better and funnier way to find out the names!




Here's the photo of Caley, Jim, and Mary. Jim and Mary are the wonderful aunt and uncle of Caley who generously fed us some of the most fantastic meals...the food was only eclipsed by the caliber of their company!!!




We then left Jim and Mary because their passports were not recognized in Mississippi.

There are many traditions in Mississippi, one of them is to lick the sign as you enter the border...you can't argue with tradition!







We camped in Airey Wilderness Area. We're pretending to be on tandems.






It was incredibly sad that we no longer had Mary and Jim with us.



Here's the meal we prepared for ourselves in their absence.




We have found a great deal of generosity in the south. This gentleman named Derrick owns the grocery store... He saw our cutting up sunscreen bottles to get every last uv protective slather. Seeing this he proceeded to give us two bottles from his store. If anyone is ever in Vancleave Mississippi try to stop at his store and say thanks again from us...he works 124 hrs a week so he'll likely be there!











One of our goals for Louisiana was to see an alligator. Alas this was unsuccessful and so we tried really hard to see one in Mississippi. We made some of our best alligator faces, gestures, and calls. Below are the pictures.







We were so inviting and convincing that it worked and we summoned this guy!!!





Then came the crescendo of Mississippi, crossing into Alabama! It was spectacularly triumphant as is depicted by the monolith that Jess and I are gazing admiringly toward!





If you've ever heard the song "business time" from Flight of the Concords the lyrics "she says, 'is that it?' And I know she means 'awe yea, that's it.'" these are the most appropriate words to describe the sentiments.

We were fortunate enough to find an additional state sign. It appears to be tradition in Alabama to throw garbage at the state sign while passing through. Bottles are frequently used.





An other tradition is to feed a creamy substance via interlocking arms to your companions at the state line.





The last tradition is to do that nose spoon thing...were all pretty good at it. Jess has been on the pro circuit, Caley retains her amateur status so she can still compete in college, and I am a veteran spoon nose thing guy from way back. We're all pretty big deals!





In Alabama we all found our inner indentured servant / migrant worker and picked some strawberries. A gallon of strawberries costs only $6!








I asked the strawberry farm owner if the field was precarious enough to warrant a helmet. "How dangerous is the field, should i take this with me?" She was terribly unamused, but Caley thought the exchange was incredible!





Then we were headed to the ferry that connects Dauphin island with gulf shores. The ferry owner informed us that the ferry had broken and would likely not be fixed until Wednesday the 25th. As it was Monday and we need to average 70 miles a day this was disheartening. Here's a picture illustrating our ferry sentiments.




We promptly got over this and we're back to our jovial selves after a quick glucose infusion.




The task of finding our way around the ferry was next. We decided more food was in order to keep moral high. Becky Selling suggested waffle house. Jess asked if it "was on our way?" Caley snappily replied, "of course it's on our way, because we're going to waffle house." Then I proceeded to laugh at the circular reasoning till my collar bone hurt!

We had a fantastic meal at waffle house. Additionally, we met the manager Elton, who is AWESOME!!!

Jess also remarked that her homeless person titters were feeling a little low. So we asked Elton if we could camp behind the waffle house dumpster and he gladly obliged!





We enjoyed dinner so much at the waffle house that we decided, well heck...why not have breakfast?! Elton joined us and very generously got us breakfast!!







Best of luck with pilot training, Elton!!! We'll let you know when our next bike touring adventure is so that you can plan accordingly!

The trip sent us through the university of south Alabama where as is tradition, we interlocked arms and took pictures.








The current flat tire count is Tad - 2, Jess - 4, and Caley - 3. This has left us with presta tubes that only have patches...onward to the OK Bicycle Shop!





Turns out that it's a bar...so when in Rome...it was also likely 5pm in Rome ;)

On Blakeley island we met a very pleasant gentleman by the name of Salem who pulled his truck up in front of us while we were picking some blackberries.

We hope your son continues scouting, your wife cycling, and your back improves so you can join her!!!! Salem also kindly bought our lunch that day!








Pizza huts buffet was closed...but dragon Chinese restaurant buffet was not!!! They unsuspectedly seated us and this is what ensued!





















































On a totally unrelated note, Dragon Chinese Restaurant Buffet has decided to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Thank you so much for the food Salem!!!!

We're moving up in the world...who knew that on one night you can sleep behind a dumpster and then sleep under power lines on the next night?! The American dream at its finest!!!









Goodnight all!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Gulf shores, AL