The breakfast coffee drinkers have their routine down. First person up in the morning plugs the coffee maker into the campsite power outlet (see photo). Voila, 15 minutes later eight good cups. No more "cowboy coffee" with grounds in the pot!
Mitch has a good eye for local foods. As an example, yesterday we saw signs for boiled peanuts sold out of cars parked along the road. So at the grocery store Mitch picked up a can and shared the contents. The peanuts are soggy since they are packed in brine ... an acquired taste.
This morning Bob Pedersen and Rhodri brought bottles back to the cooking area for recycling (see photos). Someone saw them and said, "Hard core bikers." Yup!
Most riders went off-route to visit the National Naval Aviation Museum at Pensacola Naval Air Station, about eight miles from camp. The Museum is well worth a stop. It has over 50 aircraft on display, and aircraft carrier operation flight simulations. Bob Plant was a "brown shirt" (squadron plane captain) on a carrier during his Navy service (see photo). Andre was an A-4 fighter pilot. See the photo of Bob and Andre beside the flight deck steam-powered catapult. Andre described how he sat in the cockpit and felt before and after the catapult went off: from zero to 160 mph within several seconds!
In the photo under an A-4 plane are (left to right) Ken, Jerry, Andre, Bob Plant, Bob G, Carol, Linda, Flynn, Bruce, Rhodri and Bob Pedersen. (Terry had stepped away.)
Incidentally, Terry had a visit from raccoons or similar critters last night. He hangs his dishes and plastic lunch sandwich box in a nylon mesh bag each night to dry. The critters jumped up to the bag or climbed down to it from a branch, chewed holes in the mesh, and polished off cookie and sandwich crumbs from the sandwich box. The clean dishes were left intact, a tribute to his dishwashing.
We liked riding through the Naval Air Base on good, mostly empty roads. We then rode through Pensacola and headed northeast. This area is known as Pensacola Bluffs, and is the reason we climbed 1300 feet. At one point we came upon an old brick chimney (see photo). Turns out it was part of an 1850s lumber mill that was purposely destroyed when the Confederate Army retreated.
Several times now we have seen dirt roads that are bright red (see photo). Iron pigment??
Our route today included six miles on the Blackwater Trail, a nice bike path. While riding we got to talking with Joel from Milton, a town we just passed through. Turns out he's a serious triathlete and has done an Ironman. We had fun talking about rides in the area. He asked about our ride and Adventure Cycling. After answering his questions, we invited him to stop by for dinner, which he did. He also talked with Flynn about triathlon training. A benefit of this type of ride is the opportunity to interact with others, and the information exchanges.
Tonight we are camped at Blackwater River State Park, another nice Florida state park. It's a good place to canoe and had a beach. The river gets its name from tannin that darkens the water. Joining us tonight is Linda's daughter, Elisabeth, who drove all the way from Atlanta. Linda and Bob G made dinner tonight. When someone asked Bob last night what would be for dinner, he pretended he didn't know and said he had outsourced the cooking to someone from out of state. Well, Linda + Elisabeth + Bob came through, with traditional Southern tomato pie, a shrimp boil with corn on the cob, and green salad. Excellent!
Andre kept busy, catching up on the news with today's and last Sunday's New York Times. He and Ken also imparted camping and bicycling lore to a curious young lady camped nearby. (See photos.)
Tomorrow night Carol and I are cooking dinner at DeFuniak Springs. So tomorrow's blog post may be a late appearing.
Bruce
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