2017 11-04 Dauphin Island to Pensacola Naval Air Station (56.3 miles)

We broke camp, had breakfast, made lunch and headed over to the ferry landing, which was scheduled to depart at 8 AM.  Some decided to wait for the ferry at the landing instead of hanging around the camp ground any longer.  Those that waited at the landing were treated to another fantastic sunrise, one made especially beautiful by the fact that it was over Mobile Bay! The sunrise was short lived, so hanging out at the campground even 5 more minutes would have caused one to miss this treat. 

Taking the ferry was a relaxing way to start the day, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the bay.  We were treated to sea gulls being fed at the back of the ferry by some car passengers who were throwing them bread, and whipping them into a feeding frenzy.  Several pelicans flew by, some landing on the pilings along the shore.  They are indeed an interesting looking bird.  As the ferry docked on the east shore of the bay we spotted several dolphins just breaking the surface of the water close to the ferry, but none stayed on the surface long enough to capture on camera.

Located a short distance from the ferry landing is historic Fort Morgan.  Several of us decided it was worth a stop, delaying the days ride a little longer to sample some history.  Fort Morgan is located on Mobil point, at the end of Fort Morgan Peninsula.  It stands guard where the bay meets the Gulf of Mexico, and played a major part in the Battle of Mobil Bay in August of 1864.  It was constructed between 1819 and 1833, after the war of 1812 made it clear the United States needed better defenses against invaders.

The ride from Fort Morgan to the second stop of the day, a lunch stop, was pleasant, relaxing, enjoyable and refreshing.  There is just something magical about cycling near water.  Our lunch stop was at LuLu’s , a very nice sea food restaurant on the water.  

After enjoying a great seafood lunch, we cycled on to our destination, a campground on the grounds of the Pensacola Naval Air Station.  By the way, some of us would rather have climbed onto a hammock instead of our bikes after such a filling, delicious lunch.  Four of the riders from the group are retired military personnel, which is the only reason we are allowed to stay at this facility.  They have easy access to the base, the rest of us are their guests, and we must be accompanied by one of them to enter the base.  While it is interesting to stay at this facility, it makes exploring on a layover day a bit of a challenge.  Chris decided to stay at a hotel and that his freedom was more important than staying at the base, and perhaps he made the right call.

While cycling to the base after lunch we achieved a big milestone, we entered the seventh and final state in our journey, Florida!  Reaching this point of our journey gives one a feeling that can not be easily put into words.  To date we have cycled 2494 miles, and we still have 9 more days of cycling, and about 450 more miles to pedal, but the end is so very close.  We will be deviating from the official route for a few days, as many of the riders want to spend more time along the Gulf shores.

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2017 11-03 Ocean Spring to Dauphin Island (57.7 miles)

Some may be growing tired of seeing pictures of sunrises or sunsets, but on this trip they have been a treat that is always welcomed.  And this morning the sunrise was another one to remember.  It was a perfect way to start a great day of cycling. 

Half of today’s ride was along route 90, and this was our way to get back onto the official route.  Route 90 has wide shoulders that are generally in good shape.  The traffic was at times heavy, but the wide shoulders made it safe and thus not stressful.  While on 90 and shortly before resuming the official route, we achieved another milestone.  We left Mississippi and entered Alabama! 

In the afternoon we cycled along Mobile Bay!  It was scenic, interesting and relaxing!!  Crossing the Gordon Persons Bridge, we arrived at Dauphin Island where we will camp at the Dauphin Island Park camp ground.  This is a very nice camp, clean and well laid out.  It has excellent shower facilities and a recreation room for relaxing. It is also conveniently located a few hundred yards from the ferry, which we will be taking in the morning to cross Mobile Bay so we can continue our ride into Pensacola, FL.  Yes, tomorrow we will achieve another milestone, entering our seventh and final state.

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2017 11-02 Poplarville to Ocean Spring (68 miles)

We started our day with breakfast in the bunk house, and the day was promising to be a pleasant one, warm, dry and a cloudless sky.  If we were going to stick to the official Adventure Cycling route, we would be headed for Vancleave to stay in a local camp ground, but that has been closed for several months now.  So we are headed instead to Ocean Spring to stay in Camp Journeys End.  At last night’s map meeting we discussed how best to get there since our maps will not be of any use.  Many different routes were selected by individuals in the group as “the best” route for them. 

Tom and Joe headed out of Poplarville on Route 53, one of the several options discussed last night.  After riding only a short while they were passed by a lady who yelled out her window that they had missed their turn.  She pulled her car over on the shoulder a few hundred feet down the road and waved them down.  When they described how their route was changed due to the lack of camping she was horrified.  “You do not want to ride this road” she said.  “It is too dangerous.”  After discussing the choices with her, Joe and Tom decided to take back roads, and Neil, who had ridden up as they where talking, decided to continue on.  They were more than happy to change their route as the first few miles on 53 where loaded with traffic and there was no shoulder.  It did not feel safe!  After turning off 53 as suggested, the entire ride changed to be more peaceful, relaxing and with hardly any traffic.  Again “a road angel” saved the day.

The majority of the ride was now on very relaxing country roads and the weather was perfect. 

Dinner tonight was at a great BBQ, The Shed.  The food was out of this world. 

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2017 11-01 Franklinton to Poplarville (50 miles)

We woke up today to skies that shouted “Rain”, and it was to remain overcast and cloudy all day.  Most of us made it to camp, the Hass-Cienda Ranch RV Park in Poplarville, before the rains finally started.  And when the rain started it came with full furry; it has been teaming out side since around 2 PM and still is at 7 PM.  We are all in the warm dry shelter of the bunk house.  All but one that is, Eric.  He stayed overnight 30 miles before Franklinton so he had almost 80 miles to ride today.  His longer mileage meant he was on the road longer, and therefore he road almost 40 miles in the teaming rain.  A most unpleasant experience for sure.

Rolling into Bogalusa around lunch time was perfect as it is the last place along the route to get food until we reach the end of the ride.  A nice little local dinner was closed, so we headed to a McDonald a short distance down the street.  How ordinary.  The local dinner would have been much more enjoyable.  While leaving the McDonald after eating, we ran into a few of the other riders who recommended a great donut place just around the corner.  One thing about a long bike trip, you never pass up calories, especially delicious ones.  The apple fritters they sold were the best any of us have ever had and boy were they hugh!!  We’ll ride harder the second half of today's ride to burn off this wonderful treat.

Another milestone today, crossing over the Pearl River we left Louisiana and entered Mississippi.  It has been a good time in Louisiana and it would be nice to explore all that this state has to offer more completely. 

The camp ground staff prepared a fantastic dinner for us tonight consisting of a rather large piece of steak, a baked potato with sour cream, and green beans. It was a most delicious meal.  The rest of the evening will be spent in the bunk house, relaxing before going to our tents.  And by the way, the tents are all set up under one of two large shelters, out of the rain!

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2017 10-31 St Francisville to Franklinton (82.4 miles)

Some short days have many highlights to write about.  It seems that it should be OK then to have a long day that has few, it just feels strange to be wordless.   Today was such a long day with no memorable highlights.  That is not to say it wasn’t a good day, because it was a very good day for cycling.  The sky was clear, there was no humidity, and a perfect temperature all day.  The roads where in good shape, with nice wide shoulders, and the traffic light, all making it pleasant for cycling.  The ride was for the most part along country roads, with an occasional small town now and then, perfect for a short stop to recovery and rejuvenate.   

Again, it was a perfect day; just that it was a long day, especially after coming off a layover day.  Interestingly, there was a lot of climbing today.  The climbs weren’t long, just one after another.  We climbed up a hundred to two hundred feet then down the other side, over and over and over again.

The last few days has seen the group go in all different directions.  Eileen, Erwin, Eric and Tom C went to New Orleans to spend the layover days.  Chris and Neil didn’t like the idea of a 91 mile day today, so they actually didn’t take a layover day and broke the ride into two days, one around 60 miles and the other around 30 miles. Joe, Tom R, Ed and Ken all stayed in St Francisville and enjoyed the sights it had to offer.  The New Orleans travelers woke early today and drove back to St Francisville and then did the long ride to Franklinton.  It makes one tired just thinking about doing that.

The official route for today was to be 91 miles.  Most in the group found ways to shorten today’s ride to between 80 and 85 miles, and there where several different routes selected by small groups of riders.  Once again, we all did are own thing today.  All this helter-skelter must be the end of trip fever setting in.  After all, we have only 14 more days until this trip is finished and we reach St Augustine.

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Trip to Date

2017 10-30 St Francisville – layover day

Today turned out to be a fantastic day all around.  The afternoon was comfortably warm and pleasant, a relief from the last two days of colder temperatures.  It looks like the next few days will be just as nice. 

Tom, Ed and Joe rode their bikes less than 2 miles to the Rosedown Plantation.  We signed up for the guided tour and soon found we had a wonderful guide named Paul, a fountain of knowledge who described the family and plantation life and history and made it very interesting.  Here is a description of the plantation from the guide pamphlet:

“Rosedown Plantation was built in 1835 by Daniel and Martha Turnbull, over the span of six months and a cost of $13,109.20.  This was a cotton plantation and consisted of 3,500 acres and at its height, 450 slaves worked at Rosedown and three other Turnbull plantations.

The couple raised three children on the plantation, two sons and a daughter.  Their youngest son, James died of yellow fever at the age of 7 and the oldest son William drowned in a boating accident at age 27, this left their daughter Sarah as their only heir.  After the Civil War, former slaves became sharecroppers at Rosedown.

In the 1850’s Sarah married James Bowman from the neighboring Oakley Plantation, and together they raised ten children – eight girls and two boys.  Four of their daughters inherited the property, living at Rosedown until the last, Nina Bowman died in 1955.”

Rosedown is now owned and operated by the state of Louisiana.

After the guided tour, the three rode into the historic section of town and then had lunch at a very nice restaurant, Magbolia Cafe.

Pictures from the plantation, lunch and the hotel

2017 10-29 Simmesport to St Francisville (59.5 miles)

Warm and comfy inside the sleeping bag, cold and damp outside.  Where would you want to be?  Right!  Stay in today.  If only we could.  Breaking up camp and packing away the tent this morning was a real cold ordeal with a temperature of 34 degrees at 6:30 AM.  Quickly do what needs to be done and get to the truck stop store and restaurant for breakfast and, more importantly, to get warm.  Take your time, no hurry to get on the road today.  The speed of the bike just adds to the wind chill – burr.  After a very leisurely breakfast, it was a good morning to dawdle, it’s on the road and off to our destination, St Francisville.  Tom, Ed and Joe started together and stayed together the entire day.  It started as a very pleasant ride on the levee road, away from the traffic and accompanying noise of cars.  Shortly after leaving town, we turned and stopped at the beginning of the levee road.  A man walks from the parking lot of a small church across the street from the start of the levee road, where we had stopped to decide how to proceed.  It turns out he is the pastor of the small church, where services will start in a short time.  He wanted to greet us and let us know we are taking the long way.  We chatted and indicated the long way was preferred as it was more scenic and peaceful.  He agreed but just wanted to make sure we knew.  He indicated he lived on the levee road and that in a few miles we would come to White Hall, a famous old plantation house whose original owner founded Simmesport.  He wished us safe travels as we parted.

We continued on the levee road for about 20 miles, and indeed it was peaceful.  For the first time on this trip, we passed numerous fields of sugar cane.  We also passed several small old cemeteries.  Due to the high water table and threat of floods, the graves are shallow and capped with large heavy cement or stone slabs.   The levee road turned to a very rough surface in the final few miles, and the pleasant ride turned into a kidney cruncher.   Reaching SR 1 was a relief and the smooth wide shoulders allowed us to sail along at what seemed like an effortless high rate of speed.  We soon reached the small town of Morganza and a possible lunch stop.  Dismounting and parking our bikes in front of a small convenience store adjoined to a small restaurant, we were greeted by a very nice lady who had just finished doing some shopping at the store.  She asked us many questions about our trip, like where we started, how long we had been traveling so far, where we would end, and so on.  She started to leave then turned and asked if she could pray for us.  Why sure.  So she said a small prayer out loud for our safe travel and successful journey.  What a kind gesture from this perfect stranger.  We meet the nicest people along the way.

It was a long day in spite of the relatively short miles.  A sign that we had a very relaxed and laid back ride today.

Tomorrow is another layover day.  Many of us will spend it visiting some of the many old plantations in this area.  For example, the Myrtles Plantation dates back to the late 1700s and is considered one of the most haunted homes in America.  Another is the Rosedown Plantation, dating from the early 1800s.  Both are located less than 2 miles from our hotel.

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