Thursday, September 30, 2010

Blue Skies Smiling At Me







After our delayed rain start yesterday, we had nothing but blue skies on Tuesday 9/28. We lingered over breakfast in Defuniak with a couple riding from Austin Tx to Jacksonville. It was fun sharing information with Paul and Barbara from Sacramento who are very experienced bicycle tourists. We also stopped at the post office before leaving town to divest ourselves of 9 pounds of "stuff" that we mailed home. We needed to lighten up! On the road, an SUV pulled alongside Norb. The driver shouted "Guten Morgan". Norb replied, "Guten Tag". The driver than began a rapid fire conversation in German while driving next to Norb. Norb could at least understand that the driver was asking where we were headed and replied, "San Diego". The driver became animated, pumping his fists, laughing, and shouting some kind of encouragement in German. Norb began wondering how this stranger could possibly know he was born in Germany. An "aha" moment happened: our CMN jerseys are black, gold, and red like the German flag. The driver assumed we were from Deutschland. A stop in historic Crestview for gumbo at Uncorked Bistro. I can share the recipe for anyone interested. It was the best ever and they were nice to share. While navagating a series of backwater swamp roads, bordered by beauty berries and hummingbird vine, we saw a sign "Bridge Is Out". A detour would have required biking on a road packed with red dirt and sand. Just the kind of grit we didn't want in our deraileur or the links of our chains. We took a chance and continued for the bridge. We came upon an enormous crane that spanned the width of the bridge and was surrounded by a work crew. The crew was gracious in allowing us to squeeze by. We rode 9 miles on The Blackwater Trail while mocking birds serenaded us from dense thickets of Sea and Wax Myrtle. We arrived in Milton, our last overnight in Florida, after a good and varied 65 mile ride.

2 comments:

Kelly said...

Great news! The hospital IT department has fixed the problem with employees being able to post via hospital computers! I have sent an e-mail out to all department heads reminding them to keep up you all through the blog and map in the cafeteria. I also updated the map today. It was great to hear from you yesterday and hope you are really enjoying yourself! Keep up the good work and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Norb and Ann said...

Great news!