Day 8. 62 miles (564) , left my WS stopover at the Methodist Church in Pensacola, FL and rode along the Gulf of Mexico to the Mobile Bay Ferry landing at Ft Morgan, Alabama. My plan was to catch the 330 pm ferry but the pace for the day was a little fast and I rolled up to the ferry just as the 100 pm ferry was loading. I almost decided to rest and catch the next ferry, but went ahead and boarded. Lucky I did. The fog was so thick in the bay the captain decided to suspend operations until the fog lifted, so that was the last ferry for the day (rumor was that no ferries ran the following day as well) . Lucky me. Camped at a WS host on Dauphin Island. Met Dylan, a grad student from Tulane on his first cycling tour- he is headed to meet his family in Melbourne FL.
Day 9. 74 miles (638), Feb 19, Left Dauphin Island AL and continued along the coast in fog, at times heavy, to Biloxi MS, where I stayed with Patty's cousin, Courtney Myers and her family. Managed a load of wash, which was a good thing, riding gear was getting a bit stinky.
Day 10 79 miles (717) Feb 20, Left Biloxi in more fog, too heavy to trust motorists by riding on the shoulder, luckily most of the route was along the beach, which has a sidewalk that also serves as a bike path. So I had a buffer from the auto traffic that seemed to be moving rather fast in the heavy fog. Arrived in Mandeville LA before a cold front with heavy thunderstorms, I was just about to pick a motel for the night when a cyclist pulled up and asked where I was headed. He invited me to spend the night with his family, and it was fantastic. He and his wife have a 15 yr old son, we all sat around having great conversation and eating a grilled steak dinner that was superb. It was nice to see a functional family that really gets along well, and who felt comfortable inviting a perfect stranger into their midst. The mom works for the New Orleans Saints and she has her own Super Bowl ring, which she brought out. I had no idea a ring could be so massive.
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