4states4days

Hey y'all.

I know it has been forever and a day since my last post, but perhaps this one will be all the more juicy, as we have made it out of Florida, have successfully traveled through four states in four consecutive days, and have spent the past week in New Orleans.

Some observations about the South thus far: Churches are more abundant here than Starbucks is in the North. Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, you name it. There is no shortage of prayer and preaching, and I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have been told, "Bless your heart" - not just out of the blue, but when I was in desperate need of medication for the poison ivy that had taken over the lower half of my body. There is also no shortage of money, it seems, for some of these church communities. Since when do places of worship have movie-theatre-sized TVs, soda fountains, and guitar hero?! My second observation: Southern hospitality exists, and it is alive and kickin' in a very big way. In fact, some southerners will go so far as to ask about my experience with the folks down here upon finding out that I'm from New York. "We teach our children yes sir, yes ma'am down here". That is for sure.

As I mentioned earlier, we made it safely out of Florida along US90 (in general, the riders have developed a love-hate relationship with this road, as it gets us from A to B, but often surprises us with hills that look like verticals at times when you feel like you just can't pedal any further). Interestingly, I have found that regardless of how many miles we ride each day, whether it's 60 or 100, I always feel refreshed and energized in the morning, but then start to wonder what on Earth I was thinking when I signed myself up for this about ten miles before we reach the host location. But, it is this feeling - the pressure from the saddle (seat) on my butt, the 95 degree heat, the lack of energy or will to keep going - that makes getting to the host site every day that much more rewarding. I never thought I would say this, but church=home.

Some of the most memorable things about our rides in Florida include taking detours from our specified route and swimming in some state park we happen to come across. One day, a large group of us stopped in the morning at Falling Waters State Park on our way to Defuniak Springs, and swam in our shammys (bike shorts) and sports bras. At this particular state park, there was supposed to be a water fall, but sadly it was dry, and so our disappointed (but happy to have taken a dip) group more accurately renamed the park "Sometimes Falling Waters, But Not Today". That afternoon, my friend Anne and I pulled over a second time to swim in a Spring (my first time). It was refreshing and beautiful, and we spotted a little boy with a mohawk who I should have taken a picture with, but didn't. Oh, I think I forgot to mention that I now have a mohawk. Yeeeppp.

And just like that, we crossed the state line into Sweet Home Alabama, which was really not so sweet due to a series of unfortunate events which I will now relate. Our ride from Pensacola, Fl to Mobile, Al was our first century ride (100 miles), and on that morning we awoke to some pretty substantial T-storms that postponed our departure time two hours. At mile 60, we were supposed to take a ferry at 1:15 to get from some place to another (I don't remember where exactly) and leaving 2 hours later than we expected made some nervous that we wouldn't miss the ferry. I personally wasn't worried about missing the ferry, because I generally ride at a pace that would get me there in time. BUTTTT things happen, and my friend Graham who I was riding with got a flat, and then another flat, and then shreaded tire in the middle of a bridge to accumulate a grand total of three flat tires in one day, and so we were starting to get a little behind schedule. But all was still okay until we reached Alabama and all of a sudden pedaling at 14mph was a struggle (for a reference, I usually ride at 17, 18mph) due to raging headwinds, and time was beginning to run out. But it was still okay, and we were still on track to make the ferry, when at mile 50 my ride group suffered a not-so-minor collision (no injuries, no worries), and just like that myself and about 4 other riders had missed the ferry!! So at 2:00 we hopped on the next ferry, and at mile 65, we see lightening. Bad news, because we're stranded on a thin stip of land surrounded by water on both sides with no shelter in sight, and we're pedaling as fast as we can INTO the storm, and then a few minutes later the sky opens up and the rain gods do their magic and we're drenched and thirty miles from the host site when all of a sudden we spot a sea of bikes and blue jerseys hovered under a little shack on the side of the road where our entire team had been waiting out the storm. Several snickers bars later, the skies had cleared up a bit and we set out once again toward the church in Mobile, and ten miles later, it starts to thunder and lightening AGAIN. Fortunately, we all pull over to a produce/fruit market and indulge in fresh plums and peaches and a very very interesting and tasty creation... BOILED PEANUTS. they taste like beans. Okay, so long story short (well not really), but twenty miles later we made it to Mobile and celebrated our first century ride at the Golden Caral (spelling?) - an all you can eat Buffet (our third one that week) and gorged ourselves into oblivioun. Pure bliss.

Okay I must go even though I have so much more to say but I will be back soon to finish my tale!

To be continued, and
Bless your heart,
Erica