day 6: DeFuniak Springs to Pensacola

Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow.

Psalm 25:4

70.37 miles – 1,253 ft climb

Well, we made it to Pensacola! A few days ago we didn’t know if this would be possible. We didn’t see too much flooding along the way which was surprising. Bruce was having a little bike issue (the rear skewer wasn’t tight – if that means anything to you –no? me neither) and so we had to drive towards the coast to find a bike shop. Shout out to Bike More Bike Shop for quickly finding and fixing the problem! Anyway, on the way there we saw quite a bit of limbs etc that had come down. But this city is efficient. They were already chopped into neat little bundles at the side of the road just waiting to be picked up. The biggest problem in Pensacola is the lack of power. Most of the restaurants and businesses have been without power since Wednesday. A few got it back just this afternoon. There were electric trucks all over the place. We were lucky that our RV park has power, many still don’t. But sadly, their wifi is down so my pictures may not be able to upload until tomorrow.

This morning Bruce took off around 8 AM. When I found out that the highest point in Florida was close, I decided to head over to see it. I didn’t know Highest Points were even a thing until a few weeks ago. Thank you to Ryan and Pam Lemon for enlightening me. I think Florida’s was the perfect one to start with. It’s only 345 feet. I basically pulled off the side of the road and ran over to the sign in my flip flops. No hiking involved.

My next stop was a little produce market at the side of the road. Among other things I bought some Boiled Peanuts. I had seen signs for them and assumed it was just another way of cooking them to end up with the salty, crunchy snack I know and love. WRONG! The kind lady who owned the shop opened this hot crock and spooned out some mushy peanuts still in the mushy shell for me to sample. Not exactly eye appealing. I kinda smooshed it open and pulled out the peanuts. They were salty and kinda reminded me of a pinto bean. She said they eat them as a snack, but I can’t imagine choosing that as a snack over … anything. But since it’s a popular southern thing I bought a bag. I think I’ll try serving them as a side, like a bean full of protein. I gave one to Bruce when we met for lunch and he was not impressed. I think they have to grow on you.

The other big news today is that most of the gas stations around here don’t have gas or else don’t have power for the pumps to work to get the gas into your car. We saw this on the news yesterday and so decided to fill up in DeFuniak Springs. But the gas station there was out of gas already! We ended up finding a little gas station in Mossy Grove that had gas and no line. I wasn’t even all that low, but the thought of not being able to get gas made me a little nervous. I’m not sure how Bruce would have liked riding the rest of the way across the country with me on his handlebars.

I finally caught up with Bruce in Milton, FL 50 miles from DeFuniak Springs. Did I mention that my husband is one FAST biker! As I pulled into town, I got stuck in traffic at a traffic light that was out from the storm. But up ahead to the right I could see this biker with a yellow helmet and a green kit (that’s biker speak for uniform/outfit/top & shirt) zipping along in the bike lane passing everyone up. Did I mention that my husband is FAST! He pulled over in a parking lot a little farther up to wait for me. Coincidentally (or maybe NOT) there was a little craft brewery right next door. It was called Beardless Brewhaus, which was a funny name since the owner, who makes the beer, HAS a beard. After his pb&j lunch and a few tweaks on his bike chain, Bruce headed over to get a sample … and a Crowler. A new word I learned today. A Crowler is a Growler in a can.

Just in case you think it’s all fun and games I feel like I need to tell you the rest of the story. I could drive forever on those back country roads. I absolutely love them. But unfortunately those darn cities keep getting in the way. Mom and Harriett, you should probably stop reading right here. In Pensacola Hwy 90 split into 90 and Alt 90. I would like to know why they couldn’t come up with a different number for Alt 90. Really? How about Hwy 437? Well I turned on the wrong one and too late realized it still had lots of trees down and crews working. So I turned off on the first street to go around the block. But unfortunately it was a narrow neighborhood street with more trees down and crew trucks. I couldn’t go through. I sat there for a little bit debating which I would hate worse, trying to back out onto the highway or trying to turn around. Both seemed impossible and scary. I opted to turn around. I pulled into the first neighbor’s driveway and then backed out onto the narrow street and tried to turn sharp enough to actually BE in the street. All I could see in my backup camera was a giant Rose of Sharon bush coming closer and closer in the neighbors yard behind me across the street. I finally managed to get backed out without too many bush branches stuck in my bumper and only minor RV tracks in the manicured lawn.

By this time I was getting calls from Bruce to come pick him up to take him to the bike shop. As I headed to find him, somehow the highway split again and I ended up on the wrong part AGAIN. I whipped (as much as you can “whip” in an RV) into a parking lot to reassess. What I hadn’t thought through was that now I had to cross 4 lanes of busy traffic with no stoplight, to go left. When I finally made it across, my lane immediately ended and cars were zipping by me like they were on a race track. I just sat there crying until it cleared up. Uggh! I hate cars buzzing around my RV. I guess I could just take the stance that I’m bigger and badder and they best just watch out for ME. But that will most likely never happen unless I morph into one of my daughters on this trip. So I finally picked up Bruce on Brewster street – an appropriate place for him- and we headed to the bike shop. On a side note: highway 90 was also called Caroline street part of the way today. We also drove by Dad’s street and Bruce street. Tomorrow maybe we’ll see Josh and Annie streets.

We had a delicious dinner of grilled Salmon, roasted green beans and Josh’s sweet potato jumble. Now we are just hanging in the RV hoping it quits raining soon. It is supposed to rain through the night and all day tomorrow. It’s not raining hard but it still complicates things immensely for Bruce. So please pray that it STOPS raining. We don’t want to miss any more days even though it’s NOT A RACE. We are looking forward to getting to Mobile tomorrow and hopefully finding some sunshine some where soon. Bruce is looking ahead longingly to Scotsdale where it was 102 degrees today.