day 7: Pensacola to Mobile, AL

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity. but of power, love and a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7

47.7 miles – 1542 ft climb – 6 inches rain

Well, today was interesting. We saw LOTS of trees just knocked right out of the ground. Hopefully I can post pictures tonight because we are at a hotel. Yay! I was again reminded how different Bruce and I are. Today was exhausting! For me mentally, for Bruce physically. It rained the whole way from Pensacola to Mobile. More on that later. So we get to the hotel and I’m ready to crash and call it a night. Bruce comes out with a little piece of paper and says, “I got this great little seafood place called MudBugs that the locals love where we can go for dinner.” What? We are going out in the cold again? I was just getting settled! But since we ARE in Mobile, AL and we ARE experiencing the country I will rally and I will be happy that I rallied. I’m so thankful that God gave me an energetic husband with a major zest for LIFE to gently push me out of my box.

The big news today is that we are completely changing our route to Texas. Although tropical storm Beta won’t directly affect us, she is causing lots of rain and there is more possibility of flooding and flash flooding in southern Louisiana. We are VERY sad to miss out on Biloxi and southern Louisiana and visiting our friends Bob & Evelyn in Baton Rouge. Bruce has promised me that we can take a road trip to Louisiana next year. But NOT during prime hurricane season. I will try to get our schedule updated and posted on the Our Schedule page tonight or tomorrow. Basically we will be heading northwest from here. We will go through Hattiesburg, MS and Natchez, MS and then cut over through Coushetta, LA and in to Carthage, TX where we will rejoin our original route. (haha – that makes me laugh. This route has evolved so many times it’s hard to remember what the “original” route actually was.)

**update — Unfortunately Mud Bugs closed at 6 PM. I know. Weird! So we found another place to eat that was probably twice as expensive but delicious. Bruce had Shrimp & Cheese Grits and I had Red Snapper with a yummy sauce. Seafood twice in one week. We are not big fish people, so that’s saying something! After dinner we went on a quest for ice cream because Bruce was starting to get the shakes (he is a bonafide ice cream addict). After Yelp led us on a wild goose chase looking for a local ice cream shop, we stopped at a MickeyD’s and then a Burger King – both who told us their ice cream machines were not working. By this time we were just ready to get back to our hotel. I love Harvey, but I must say it is nice to be in a hotel. (I miss my emojis – I need to figure out how to add them on this.)

There were a lot of huge trees knocked over, broken in half or uprooted. But these amazing crew guys already have the debris off the road. Unfortunately it is still on the bike path, so Bruce had to ride in the street most of the time today. Fortunately no flooding.

As we left Pensacola this morning it was actually dry and just starting to sprinkle. It wasn’t long before it began raining harder. We made a pit stop so Bruce could add his helmet rain cover and shoe covers. We decided that I would just go 10 miles past him and then wait for him in case he needed anything or just wanted to towel off. This worked pretty well the first few times. You should have seen my amazing backing skills when I thought I was pulling into a church parking lot, but actually pulled in to a little drive that went no where BUT it was paved and had a little brick building and an off shoot to back into and turn around. I was awesome. Wish someone could have seen me back this baby!

Though we were still following Hwy 90, in one spot it took a weird left turn that looked like you were turning on a side country road, so needless to say, I missed it. After I turned around I decided that I should wait for Bruce because I was afraid he would miss it too. Unfortunately his phone was whack today and I couldn’t find him on Find Friends and whenever I tried to call it went right to voice mail. I sent him several texts which he did not respond to, so basically we were living like back in the 90’s when you just had to hope and pray things would work out. I waited for him there for a while, getting a little worried that he hadn’t showed up. After a while I thought he either missed the turn and I didn’t see him do it or he made the turn and I didn’t see him do it. I decided to go ahead and drive towards Mobile, knowing that if I didn’t see him I could always turn around and come back. The drive to Mobile was awful. Lots of traffic, rain, leaves and tree branches making the bike lane unusable and no Bruce in sight. Finally when I was passing across what I later found out was called the Causeway, I got a call from Bruce. He had flatted out and was at a restaurant about a mile further down the Causeway. Times like this are when I am reminded that a LEGION of angels are accompanying us on this trip. Bruce could have flatted out anywhere along the treacherous ride to Mobile, but it happened in front of a restaurant with a big covered deck where he could change the flat and a huge parking lot where I could wait. AND he was in front of me and not behind me. Thank you all for your prayers. They matter!! He fixed his flat and headed off … and then flatted again. Two flats in the rain are enough to make you decide to go ahead and ride in the RV to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel, he went back out and worked on his tire in the RV. It ended up having a little shard of something in it. Now it should be good as new.