Pensacola NAS, FL to Henderson Beach State Park, Destin, FL
Departed Oak Grove Campground at 0630, and eight of us headed to the golf course clubhouse for breakfast, then departed for Destin. We will be off the official route for the next five days, taking a route along the gulf coast, rather than the northern Florida panhandle. This means no official map, so routefinding will be challenging!
I departed from the new route to go to a bike shop in Pensacola, waiting 90 minutes for the shop to open. As it turns out, I had not one, but two broken spokes. I doubt that I would have made it to Destin without breaking a third, because once one goes, the adjacent ones start to go. I truly avoided a more serious mechanical breakdown!
Back on the road, I crossed the Pensacola Bay Bridge (3 Mile Bridge) to Gulf Breeze, and rode east on US 98, shortly connecting up with Eileen, who had stayed back at the NAS so that she could visit the museum. We rode together for several miles, then I could no longer see her in my mirror. I waited for a while, but she was taking a rest break. Along came Tom C, Erwin, and Eric, so I jumped on their wheel, and joined their paceline. When it came my turn to pull, I accidentally accelerated to 22 mph, and Eric shouted out "He Ed, your turn is over, and we are going to slow down the pace by 4 mph!" We still did 18 mph down US 098, with a slight tailwind.
It was my night to shop and cook, so I was pushing it to get to Destin so that I could shop with Joe. The four of us realized that we were not going to get there in a timely manner, so I forged ahead when Erwin and Tom stopped to refuel (food and drink). The sun was setting when I arrived at the entrance to the state park, so I called Joe, who was still at the Walmart across the street. I hightailed it to Walmart, parked the bike, and found Joe. He had the cart filled with tomorrow's breakfast and lunch, and he asked me if I would call and order pizza delivered to campsite #36. I obliged, and looked up a non-corporate pizza delivery, and selected the #1 rated on TripAdvisor. Later, when the others were dining, they commented on how good the pizza was, better than Dominos, Round Table, and all the others.
By the time we left Walmart, around 1700, it was dark, and neither of us had our headlights on. I did have a blinking red light on the back of my bike, but no headlight. The state park was right across the street, so once we went in, it was easy riding, as there was no other traffic. The campground was about a mile into the park.
We unloaded the groceries, and I set up my tent, in the dark. Pizza was delivered, and everyone was happy.
No comments:
Post a Comment