Saturday February 14, 2015

Another cold start to the day, but the weather was supposed to warm up. It was a long road to the ferry – 30 kms, along a peninsula, there were some nice houses and cottages. There were also areas like Orange Beach and Gulf Shores that were lined with big beach front condos.

It was a long road to the ferry and we had a head wind all the way. Ralf took the lead for the last hour, to the ferry.

We passed Paul, Dana and Pryce again and they caught up with us and we crossed the bay on the ferry together.

Pryce has taken quite a fancy to me and he gave me an oyster shell that he found. Dana and I chatted and showed Pryce the oil rigs in the bay and looked for dolphins. We were all really excited to see two dolphins as we came into Dauphin Island. They were staying on Dauphin Island and camping. They are much braver than we are as we knew the temperature was going to drop down again.

We headed for our warmshowers host in Grand Bay, another 40 kms to cycle, but at least we were warm.

We passed through Bayou La Batre which is where part of the Forest Gump movie was shot. We stopped in Coden for a sandwich and a drink at a small convenience store. A fella drove up in his car and went into the convenience store. Now this is not something we would normally comment on, but the guy had a gun attached to his belt. We knew people could be armed in this area, but wandering around with a gun just seems so weird to me.

When we arrived at the warmshowers house, there were two yapping dogs. A corgi and a Chihuahua, Ralf made friends with them both and we met Ric the host.

We stayed with Kim and Ric and their family of 3 children. It was noisy and chaotic but fun (for one night).

We checked out our route for the next few days following the ACA route, there are lots of camping options but not many motels. The other cyclist and Kim suggested that we continue along Highway 90 along the coastline. There are camping options and more options for hotels. The forecast for Monday and Tuesday is rain and thunderstorms. Neither of us wants to camp in the rain and the cold weather. We opted to carry on along Highway 90.