Dauphin Island, Alabama

WOW! Another day, another state...and we lucked out again with the weather. It was really cloudy and stormy looking so we pedaled fast to get to where we had to be with very little stopping or picture taking along the way. We did stop briefly at the border to get a picture of the" Welcome to Alabama" sign.

At about mile 33, we got a view of the bridge that we would be crossing ahead of us at mile 36, even through the murky gray haze. We could smell the gulf,and knew we were near our destination for the day after we crossed that bridge. We knew we were in fish country. A lot of the catch is frozen. An oyster shucking factory was on our left. There were hills of oyster shells mounded up in enormous piles. Along our ride today we saw houses and even trailers high on stilts and wondered if these newer houses were because of the hurricanes that have been in this area. Even one of the streets was named Hurricane Blvd.

The bridge crossing was awesome. We started out on a long fairly flat bridge for about one and three quarter miles heading out past the pelicans and into the gulf. You could barely see the outline of oil platforms. Then the bridge arched up steeply so that large vessels could navigate beneath it. It was a steep climb and I headed back down to my granny gear to make the last 100 yards or so to the peak. I haven't been in that gear for quite a while with all the “fairly” flat terrain we've been doing lately. The wind was blowing strong, and it was a headwind for most of the climb as we completed the 3.5 mile bridge and headed over to Dauphin Island.

We decided to pull into Barnacle Bill's for lunch today. My lunch choice after going over that bridge was called, and I quote here as written in the menu, “ A Big Ass Salad!” The salad was enormous and I was the last one still eating at the table and left half of my salad. Afterwards we pedaled the last 2.0 miles to the Dauphin Island Beach Club where we are staying in some wonderful condo units right on the beach. I lucked out and got a queen sized bed in a room to MYSELF. I guess sleeping on the sofa bed in the other cottage got balanced out... We have two pools right outside out door and white sand beach beyond the pool gates. My bike tan has become more pronounced and I am sure I will look striking in my 10 year old bathing suit with my bike short, bike glove, bike shoes, striped tan lines. So fetching...

We have a day off here and I am truly looking forward to that and will post whenever I can get a connection to the internet that will work.
Love to all,
Robin