Day 44: Sunday 04/17/16, Dauphin island, FL to Milton, FL

A roadside scene shortly after riding through Pensacola, Florida, on our way to Milton, Florida.

 Day 44 distance: 86 miles

Total miles:  2388 miles

Elevation gain: 1163 feet

Map of today's ride:

Today was one of the harder rides on this year's C2C, due to 25-30 mph headwinds for about 50 miles of today's ride. But, lets back up to the start of the day.

We spent our second night at the Dauphin Island Campground, once again listening to the strong wind blowing all night. The ferry had not run on our day off due to wind, and if the ferry didn't run today, we would have been shuttled close to 2 hours by car to get to where the ferry could deliver us in about 45 minutes. Fortunately, the ferry captain is one of  Bubba's many friends, and determined it was safe to transfer us across the bay. With that said, the crossing for this year's C2C group was the only crossing made for the entire day as the ferry was immediately shut down for the day once we were across.

Once across, the work began, We faced 25 to 30 mph headwinds for about the first 50 miles before they settled down to a more manageable strength. In the first hour of hard pedaling, I covered 8,5 miles, versus a more typical 14-15 miles. We were bicycling right along the ocean where the wind is always the strongest. There is a reason people go to the ocean edge to fly kites!

If there was an upside to the ride, it was that the sun was out and the views along the ride were interesting. About 30 miles into the ride, we crossed into our 8th and last state we will be riding in on this C2C, Florida.

Some of the coasters waiting for the Ferry Captain to arrive for our 8:00 am departure. Note the sign stating "Ferry Closed." Bubba's business is successful, in part based upon friends and acquaintances along the route, with the ferry Captain being one example. (No, our safety was not compromised during the crossing.)

Bubba and "Curly" (John McIntyre), or is it Moe and Curly?  Waiting for the ferry.

The coasters rolling their bicycles onto the small ferry. The small Penske truck that travels with us, and Bubba's motor home were already loaded. As it happened, there was one pickup with two people that happened along as we were loading, and they were the only non-coasters who also got a lift from the island to the mainland.

As this picture shows, the water was rough!

The ocean side of historic Fort Gaines.

Darned if this seagull floating along in the air with the ferry doesn't look like an owl.

Again, I thought I was taking a picture of two seagulls, but what is the leading bird?

A closer look at a natural gas extraction platform.

A couple "classic" looking sea-side homes.

On the bicycle, riding up the Alabama coast.

Hmm, Bubba never mentioned this enterprise, although he has had about a half dozen of the homes he owns across the US marked on our cue sheets to look at as we ride by. :)

Almost the entire coastline along the Alabama coastline consists of high-rise residences.

About 30 miles into the ride we crossed the border into Florida.

The sand along the coast in both Alabama and Florida is very white. There are areas with many of the homes as shown above, built on stilts for high tides during storms. In many instances, it felt like we were riding in a sand blaster as the wind was picking up and blowing the fine sand into our faces and bodies as we rode into the wind.

The Florida coastline consists of many inlets with marinas and expensive residences.

We saw several of these very long causeways and bridges built over vast expanses of water around Pensacola.

Another inlet along the road about 20 miles before reaching Milton, Florida, where we camped for the night.