I made time for a short early morning beach walk in Gulf Shores, and was sorry that I couldn’t stay longer. Today I ride about 36 miles with Doug and Steve before we split in downtown Pensacola. They head south for a two night stay in Fort Walton Beach area, and I ride north then east, with pannier luggage (filled with dirty laundry), to a remote spot on Hwy 90. There I will begin again on Sunday after a two night family visit to see Nancy and her daughter’s family: Sarah, Blayne, and two-year old Leila.
There are several interesting bridge crossings for all of as we enter downtown Pensacola, but I will miss the three-plus mile bridge that Doug and Steve take heading south from downtown to Pensacola Beach and beyond. I solo ride from downtown on a 9 mile stretch of Scenic Highway bordering Escambia Bay. There I enjoy a DQ ice cream and sardine lunch as I view I10 bridge and the older Hwy 90 bridge just beyond to the north. This too is about a 3 mile crossing. FYI, the I10 bridge you see in the foreground was closed for about two months in the eastbound direction due to damage by Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004. All that interstate traffic had to be diverted to the older Hwy 90 bridge that I take today.
I enjoy a great Italian dinner with Nancy that evening after she picks me up past Milton that afternoon and get a shower at her condo. I basically picked a point on Hwy 90 that matched my progress for the day, with a target of 4:00 PM finish.
