Day #6 - 3/18/2011 - Pensacola, FL to Dauphin Island, AL - 68 miles

The 68 miles from Pensacola to Dauphin Island included amazing Alabama gulf coast and a ferry crossing at Ft. Morgan.  Cool!

Up early in the morning at Mark and Christy's place, we had breakfast.  Pointed out to me on the counter by Christy was the Cuisinart toaster-oven we had given to them for their wedding.  It held a prominent place on the counter and was used regularly:

Our Cuisinart wedding gift to Christy and Mark, side-by-side with a toaster and
photographic portrait.  Nice.

Christy arose extra-early at 5:30am to see us off:

Poised outside their private elevator with our bikes.

Christy and Mark had an amazing place, beautifully furnished.  Nothing would come close.

Making a graceful exit in the private elevator.

We crossed the 3+ mile bridge over the Pensacola Bay  in the morning fog:

Looking back at Pensacola Beach through the morning mist, just before the rising sun.  You really should click on the picture and take a look at it full-sized.  Seriously.  I mean it.

Pensacola was a whole lot different from Pensacola Beach, but about 90 minutes of biking brought us to Dolphin Pass  and Perdido Key:

I liked the pastel colors of the homes against all the blue.

We turned on to another fantastic stretch of road hugging the beach, marked by a small park with a gazebo...perfect for a short rest and PB&J break:

Lani prepares more wonderful PB&J

A few miles later, we came to some obvious signs that we were close to the  FL-AL border:

Florabama is a local institution.

 Florabama is a bar that straddles the border; depending on where you are in the bar, the time of day and day of the week, they may/may not be able to serve you.  So very clever.

And then...we were there...our first border crossing:

It took us 6 days of biking from Gainesville to make our way to Alabama.  We high-5ed.

For the next 37 miles, or so, we biked along the amazing Alabama Gulf Shores, made amazing because I thought the song Sweet Home Alabama was meant as irony (lordy, do I dislike that song).  In truth, this area was a vacation destination.

Lani checks her gear and we take a short break on this long, 37 mile stretch along the Alabama Gulf Shores.  It was spectacular coastline...completely unexpected.

 The road along the Gulf Shores ends at Fort Morgan, completed in 1834 and now a National Historic Site.  From here, we were to take the Mobile Bay Ferry to Dauphin Island.

Waiting for the Mobile Bay Ferry.

Pretty much wherever we went, we were approached by the curious, asking about our biking and our goals.  Here, we met a couple on motorcycles with leather chaps who were pastors from the Alabama mainland.  

Motorcycle pastors Tommy and Jean Smith from Mobile, Alabama out for a long ride.

The bicycle fee was a very reasonable $5.

On the Mobile Bay Ferry from Fort Morgan to Dauphin Island

I have to say, it was kinda exciting, like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but without that icky, classic and hysterical bed scene between Steve Martin and John Candy.

We're still on the ferry and, after 6 days, still on good speaking terms.

Dauphin Island, an Alabama town of 1371, was first mapped by the Spanish in 1519 but settled by the French in 1699.  Named originally "Massacre Island"  because of a large pile of human skeletons discovered there (actually a burial site from a hurricane), it was renamed after  Louis XIV's great-grandson and heir, the Dauphin.

Lani rummages through her pannier for her journal as Fort Morgan recedes behind us.

The first discovery of oil in Alabama's offshore waters was in 1979.  Now there are about 80 offshore wells in Alabama waters, producing 154 billion cubic feet of oil annually.

There was a lot of drilling, baby, drilling going on.

Screaming "mine mine" and following in tight formation as they drafted in the ferry's wind-wake, Ride of the Valkyries played in my head as I expected the gulls to attack a la Apocalypse Now.

Screaming "Mine, Mine" and with Ride of the Valkyries playing, gulls trailing the ferry prepare to make their move.

Approaching Dauphin Island, the cannons of Fort Gaines can be seen guarding the port.  Fort Gaines was completed near 1861 and played a role in the Civil War.  At The Battle of Mobile Bay, Rear Admiral David Farragut gave the order "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

The cannons of Fort Gaines where Rear Admiral David Farragut gave the order "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."

 The owner of our B&B recommended dinner at Barnacle Bill's, a local favorite.  The menu had its own sense of humor:

I love a good oxymoron.

I had meant to order the seafood sampler, broiled, but somehow the word "broiled" was lost.  As a  result, I was served a plate of battered covered seafood, heavy on the batter.  I usually don't expect a meal to be educational, but this one was.  I learned that, from my perspective, putting  fried batter around a perfectly good piece of food is dumb. 

Anyway, after consuming enough batter to last a lifetime, we got back on our bicycles and returned to our B&B.