Cycling Ellen

42.4 miles today
2524.6 total

Sweet Home Alabama.  Home for these two days is a condo on the beach at Dauphin Island.  There’s a pool outside the door, the white sand beach that goes for miles just beyond that and oil platforms way beyond that out in the Gulf.  The schedule for today, our rest day will be a challenge.  Yoga before walking on the beach?  Swim in the pool or the ocean first?  Read a book or write in my journal?  Ah, decisions, decisions.  As soon as the condo office opens, though, my first order of business is to get a new battery for our smoke detector.  At 1:30 a.m., it started beeping every 30 seconds.  First, I climbed up on a chair and got the battery out but the detector is hardwired and now beeps because it doesn’t have a functioning battery.  I did finally sleep for a while with earplugs, a blanket and a pillow over my head, but Genie, my roommate, said I was calling out in my sleep and not happy sounds!  I was dreaming I was in an insane asylum and no one would believe what I was saying.  Now, where did that come from?

Yesterday’s ride was an easy one.   Alabama is flat!  Before we got to the state line, a few of us stopped at an alligator farm in Mississippi.  Most of the other cyclists went right past, even knowing it was on their cue sheet, because it looked like another building on the side of the road.  Behind there, though, was a bayou sort of area with some huge ‘gators hanging about in the water and on the little islands.  One went right under us on a boardwalk and it was easy to imagine being back in time when reptiles ruled.

This is hurricane country.  At the alligator farm, there was a sign where the water line was marked from Katrina.  After we crossed into Alabama a few miles down the road, I started talking to different people about their experiences living in this part of the country.  Every one of them said that being part of the storms is part of life here and they would miss it if they were away.  One fisherman near the bridge to the island said that he has stayed in his home for every hurricane.  “It’s crazy to go north because there is too much traffic, no gas and no motel rooms anyway”.  He has survived several hurricanes from his home “in the woods”.  I could see several new buildings, many of which are built high on stilts.  There are lots of businesses still closed here and along the way.  Apparently, the tourists are still slow to come back.  It didn’t seem like that yesterday, a Sunday, when we arrived, but now on this Monday morning, it’s very quiet.  Maybe that’s because I’m writing at 6:30 a.m.

The bridge to the island is 3 ½ miles long with quite a climb up over the middle of it.  Candice, who has had a serious bridge phobia, was the star of the day as she successfully rode over it.  We all shared in her accomplishment last night at yet another margarita state line party.  There’s only one more!  Linda cooked jambalaya and Southern style banana pudding for the occasion.  We also celebrated Linda who is featured in an article about traveling cycling cooks in this month’s Bicycling magazine.  As she pointed out, both she and Patrick Dempsey are in the same issue.  Congratulations Linda and Candice!

Before I took a long walk on the beach yesterday, I cleaned my bike so I can spend the rest of today exploring and making all those tough decisions.  But first, that 9 volt battery…