Day 266
An upside down house
Well, they had promised rain and boy did it rain, all night. When we woke it was still torrential. We had 58 miles or so to our Warmshowers host so we packed up and hit the road. As we set off the rain eased, and though it never really stopped it was never as bad as promised. We both felt slightly cheated!
Our route hugged the coast. The roads were mainly empty. I was having one of those days that my old mountain biking buddy Martin dreaded, I felt good. Riding felt so easy. In just over an hour and a bit we appeared to have covered 17 miles, not bad on fully loaded touring bikes.
We flew through the cute seaside towns of Port St Jo, and St Jo’s Beach. They looked a great place to sit in a bar, overlooking the sea and watch the world go by on a sunny day. We had rain still, so on we went.
We stopped and ate lunch at the Gulf County Veterans memorial on Beacon Hill. It’s a stunning monument to all those who have served their country on land, air, and sea. We reflected on how lucky we are as we read its message, ‘All gave some, some gave all’. It feels all the more poignant in these troubled times.
Back on the road the miles continued to fly by. Riding by the sea meant we had to cross many bridges. We had been warned about the Bay County Bridge. It has no hard shoulder for us to ride on, and has four busy lanes of traffic. The wind and rain picked up as we started to ride up over the bridge. I heard Tom yell, ‘we have a police escort!’ I looked in my mirror and saw the flashing lights, staying behind us until we were safely off the bridge. Sir, Ma’am , whoever you are, thank you from Tom and I and also our mums!
On the trip here we had met two riders, Scott, and a few days later Ryan. Both said the same thing. Go stay with Jan, she’s a Warmshowers legend. Jan, a retired nurse, isn’t a cyclist, however her daughter discovered Warmshowers on a tour and knew it would suit her mum. So, for the last ten years Jan has hosted hundreds of cyclists. She provided hot showers, a great place to chill and sleep in her campervan, a fantastic meal , an entertaining evening, two dogs for us to fuss over and a really relaxing break from the road. Jan, you’re a star!
Refreshed we knew we had only a short day today, just 29 miles, can hardly call that a day’s ride!
The weather Gods were not with us today though. They blew a strong headwind straight at us, with some extra powerful gusts to test our abilities to stay upright. It was a slog from start to finish. The route was much busier too, large hotels lined the road, even the upside-down house and a ship apparently rising from the ground failed to raise our mood for long. The beach and sea looked stunning and we felt cheated. On a better day we could have relaxed with a swim, but with red flags flying and sand blowing every which way we kept on going. The film ‘The Truman Show’ was shot at SunnySide, but we didn’t linger, we wanted out of this wind.
Finally, after just under 30 miles at the frustratingly slow speed of 7.5 miles per hour we reached Marty’s. Another fantastic Warmshowers host and got out of that wind!
