Days 12-14: Pensacola, Fl
Sunday February 14, 2010, 31 miles (50 km) - Total so far: 528 miles (850 km)
The past few days have been pretty great. In this span, I've met the rest of the group, who will all be introduced in a future post. They seem like a cool bunch of people. Should make for an excellent trip. I've also spent the past 3 nights at Sara's mother's house, as well as tonight. She is a delightful woman, providing coffee and some sort of breakfast each morning. Today she even bought us all some bbq, and we had a very nice lunch filled with lively conversation. The big departure is scheduled for 8:30ish tomorrow morning. I'm sure that's when picture taking will begin, as this is the official departure for Sara, and some friends are coming to see her off.
Anyway, let me talk a little about the 31 miles... On Thursday we had planned on riding the 60 miles from Destin to Pensacola, by way of a beautiful island. We ended up getting a ride from Sara about half way. When we got in the car, she proceeded to tell us that we were ABOUT to ride through some of the best scenery.I was a little bummed, to miss the scenery and the miles. I didn't want anyone to claim I didn't really ride across the country, but it was nice to get the ride, and I didn't really mind missing a little. Later that night I received an email from John and Lesa, our hosts from Destin. They wanted to meet us on the island, since Lesa had never riden it and had been wanting to, and so that we could make up our missed miles. This was just perfect. We ended up meeting them on Saturday, about 2 hours late due to Mardi Gras parades, and the weather was wonderful. We rode to the exact spot I got picked up and left no gaps in my ride. Then we just cruised down the rest of the island, with views of the water on both sides, extremely white sand, and the sun shining. It ended up being some of the best riding so far, and also the most fun! John and Lesa are a riot!
