Many times on family trips I will
throw the bike in the car and ride home. And sometimes I will ride out early
and have Kristin and the kids pick me up.
This was kind of planned and was further than I have ever gone
before. Left out of Grayton Beach, FL after
calling Robin’s Bike Shop talking to Robin.
He said, “Hwy 331 north will be good for a long ways and then you will
have to decide to hit back roads or stay on 331.”
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| The Red Bar (Where I started from and where we stayed right beside all week) |
So I left out of our Beach House at
1pm on Friday, July 19, 2013 watching my heart rate trying to keep it below 140bpm. I got to the huge bridge that crosses a beautiful
lake stretching from Panama City Beach all the way down to Destin. It has a segment going across the bridge for
3 miles at 28 mph. I wanted to go after
this segment on my vacation trip but the weather and timing never worked out. A
surprising head wind made me not even try for a good time knowing the long
adventure ahead of me. Crazy that is one of the biggest climbs around Florida
makes me glad I live in Oklahoma!
So I
pressed on to mile 20 and saw it coming right in front of me, a big
thunderstorm. I road into the storm about
18mph and slowed to 14mph in a hurry, I was riding on a shoulder about 12
inches wide and the other 12 inches were a river of water running down the
hill. I pulled over for 5 or so minutes
standing in a driveway getting down poured on watching many vehicles blasting
by. It let up a little and I took
off. Soon after this I saw my first road
kill alligator! Mental thought add that one to the list to watch out for when
biking.
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| Dead Gator |
I rolled
into Florala, AL at mile 56 and stopped for some Gatorade and check in with the
wife. She was in a movie with the kids
and I was thinking after the struggle to make it 56 miles I could be that movie
with her right then. But pressing on I
stopped at a stop light next to a policeman and ask him if Hwy 331 was a good
road. He said, “Where you headin.” I
told him I was heading north and ask if there was a shoulder on 331 or any
other road heading north. He then implied,
“son your in Alabama your not gonna get a shoulder for long ways, but Hwy 331
is the smoothest road around.” A few
miles later I hit a slow rain and this rain made me think of Forrest Gump. I know it wasn’t Vietnam but Forrest spent
some time in Alabama and after 30 miles of riding in the rain I started
thinking it was never going stop raining.
Oh and the wind was about 4 to 6 mph in my face still!
But things got better for about 3
miles and then I hit mile 90 and looked down to see a low front tire. I just put a new tire on the front but you
never know with biking seems like I’m always flatting out. So I pulled on a side road, I then wished I
had turned around and called my wife to pick me up. Not because I didn’t fix the tire but because
I froze the CO2 air pump canister to my hand and I was screaming in pain. Then I get back on my bike and remembered I
stood my bike up on the side of the road but didn’t know my right pedal was
sitting in an ant pile, a FIRE ant pile.
I was screaming yet again. I
pulled in at a lady’s house just after this wondering if she had heard me
screaming. Ask her for some water and
she said, “I get you some ice water.” I
told her I just needed the hose to get the fire ants off of me. She asked where I came from and where I was
going and how in the world I got so many ants on me. I told her it was long story and been a bad
30 or so miles but the next 25 will be good when I get to the hotel she had
told me about at Lavern, Al.
The next 22 miles were smooth and
fast mostly downhill and felt great to get a 112 miles in one afternoon the
same distance as the full ironman so pretty good training. And Hook’s BBQ is off the hook when you have
road and 112 miles and you need a good pulled pork potato and the lady ask,
“You want 3 sides with that?”
Woke up the next morning after terrible
nights sleep because my hand was just throbbing and left out about an hour
after I wanted to leave the hotel. Oh
almost forgot washing clothes in the shower doesn’t get them freshly clean and
cold air from the AC doesn’t dry them either!
Pressing on to Montgomery, Al with no shoulder and lots of cars the next
35 miles, SCAREY!
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| Great Road south of Montgomery, Only time I got to listen t music |
Finally I hit a back road and
rolled into town looking for bike shop to pick up some more air for my tire and
get a new tube and CO2 road to the West-side of town where need to say I didn’t
fit in I’m sure the old men were thinking, “That boy must be lost!” Finally found the bike shop on the east side
of town ate some lunch and heading north and got about 2 miles of tail wind to
finish my ride, then the biggest climb of the ride up a hill into Prattville,
AL mile 85.
Not a bad 2 days was hoping for
more but lazy Saturday morning and didn’t leave town early enough on Friday so
will pick a better route for next time and I’m sure get more next time.
Day 1
