Day 34 – ParaMobiling

Sunday, November 23rd

Milton, FL to near Tillman’s Corner, AL (NOT through Mobile)

After talking to the local riders yesterday, we knew we had to get moving early this morning.  Hwy 90 through Milton, Pace and on the bridges over Escambia Bay gets pretty hairy once more than a few cars get on the road.  Plus, the repaving efforts on the bridges currently have the roads all torn up – Dad blew out a tire heading East over this section and we wanted to avoid that this time.  So we woke around 5am and left just after sunrise.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too chilly and, being Sunday, hardly anyone was out and about.  We pedaled hard to warm up and sped through the two towns and over the bay, then hit the hills on Scenic Hwy 90 along the West rim of the bay.  By the time we reached I-10, we both agreed we needed a break.  We returned to the gas station/Dairy Queen Southwest of the I-10 bridge and after a quick, much needed potty break we sat on the picnic tables overlooking the bay and bridge, enjoying the beautiful morning, the wonderful weather and a Reese’s.

We breezed through Pensacola, riding a blessed tailwind along the scenic waterfront.  We followed Bayfront Pkwy through the construction on Main St to Barrancas Ave and SR 292 which put us on the Gulf Beach Hwy.  We were moving pretty fast before we crossed the Intercoastal Waterway, but after cresting the bridge, between the tailwind and the following downhill run, Dad reached over 30 mph and zipped out in front of me.  I tried to catch him, but even on the flat ground, he was still pulling 30 mph.  Luckily, the Westbound bike lane on on FL 292/AL 182 is much nicer than the Eastbound one (which is covered by sand drifts and man holes) so we flew down the bike lane almost interrupted.  We startled one guy on a bike out for a Sunday ride: he was meandering around in the lane and as Dad zoomed up to him, they converged on some traffic cones set out for road construction.  Dad was about to give the guy a heads up and ride between him and the cones, but the rider wasn’t paying attention and wandered a few feet to the left, forcing Dad to swerve around the cones going 30+ mph.  The guy was a little surprised to seen Dad moving so fast, but he went about his day, not noticing my approach either.  Trying to catch up with Dad, I rolled past the guy at about 26 mph and got an amazed “woah” out of him.

We pulled over near a Publix because I thought it was our turn off, but when we realized it wasn’t, we used the stop as an excuse to take a snack break.  Before shopping, we checked my stats and found this:

and this:

To give some perspective, on a typical day, at the 50-mile mark I have around 77-78 Volts left and have used 6+ Amp-hours and 450+ Watt-hours.  6.9 Watt-hrs/mile is the lowest we’ve ever seen me use over any significant distance.  And this is averaging just under 20 mph! Thank you tailwind!

After the standard meal of Publix fried chicken tenders, Dole peaches, Dr. Pepper and Reese’s, in addition to potato salad and some hard-boiled eggs topped with honey mustard, we checked to see if the ferry to Dauphin Island was running and noted the departure times.  There was a 1:15 departure that we could make if we hurried, so we jumped back on the bikes and went looking for the turn for SR 59 which would take us to SR 180.  Until we turned off SR 182, we had had a tail wind almost the entire morning, but shortly into the stretch along SR 180, we hit a headwind.  Dad drafted and I cranked up the motor to keep our speed at 22 mph, but a little over halfway to the ferry, the winds changed and sent Dad sailing down the road at 26-27 mph.  We made the ferry parking lot before 12:45 and I checked my distance reading for the day so far.  At 78.4 mi, I couldn’t resist shooting for 80.  Dad agreed to come with me and we dove into what had been our fantastic tailwind.  We rode 0.6 miles out, came the 0.6 back and cheered as we rolled into the parking lot, having done 80 miles before 1pm!

While we waited on the ferry, Dad adjusted my rear brake while I held the bike and took pictures:

The ferry covered the 4-5 mile trip in about 45 minutes, and we spent the down time eating, drinking, resting and taking pictures:

As the ferry approached Dauphin Island, we saw a bridge in the distance.  We both wondered, “Do we have to cross that?” and realized, “Oh man, we have to cross that! (expletive deleted).”

The ferry landed on Dauphin Island at 2pm and since we were planning to stay in Bayou La Batre (only 20 miles away) we figured we had some time to spare so we rode around the corner to Fort Gaines.  We only expected to spend a half hour exploring the fort, but it turned out to be very interesting.  The descriptions offered and the fort museum are pretty limited and the staff is less than enthusiastic about the fort, but it’s fascinating to see the different components and to try to decipher them.

When we finally left the fort around 3 pm we decided we still had enough daylight to pull off a change in plans for the night.  We called my awesome sister who helped us find a motel for about half the price of the one in Bayou La Batre.  We rode down the island and turned onto Dauphin Island Parkway (SR 193), knowing we had that bridge to cross to get back to the mainland.  We didn’t know it would be like this:

I stopped to take pictures and told Dad to get a head start.  He later told me he hit the base of the bridge hammering at 30 mph and crested it doing 10 mph.  When I caught up with him at the top, I was lucky to be doing 11 mph with the motor.  It’s a BIG bridge:

We made it!

After the bridge, we turned West onto SR 188 at Alabama Port then turned North onto Bellingrath Rd and hit a heavy headwind.  We fell into formation:  Dad drafted and I cranked up the motor so we could keep up 20-22 mph.  In addition to fighting the headwind, we were racing the sunset, too.  The drivers acted pretty politely along the two-lane road, but once we turned East onto Hwy 90 at Theordore, the drivers just wanted us off the road.  Luckily, by this time our new motel was only a couple miles down the road.

We settled into our motel near Tillman’s Corner, exhausted but hungry.  So we cleaned up and walked to a nearby Waffle House.  After dinner, bundled against the cold as we staggered back to the motel on wobbly legs, a guy in a car at a stop light asked us, “You straight?”

“What?”
“You straight?” he asked more loudly.
“. . . What?”
“Are you OK?”
“Oh!  Yeah!  We’re fine.  . . . Thanks.”

So glad we didn’t go through Mobile.

Today’s Quick Stats:

Bike              Distance (mi)    Average Speed (mph)     Trip Odometer

MiniWini           110.00                    19.3                          2331.1

Sti(ck/g)          110.01                    19.3                             –

Stampedes: 2

Roadside Pees: 2