Thursday September 29, 2011, 45 miles (72 km) – Total so far: 554 miles (891 km)

We were up at 0630 but didn’t get out of the park until 0930. I had some work to do on both bikes that took over an hour. Then it was time to break down the camp. Everything was wet from the night’s heavy moisture. Of course I asked our new biker friend about what to do with a wet tent and stuff. Dominic said dry it out as early as you can or it will stink. Of course! He has been mostly camping for about two months now. I looked at his few things and all of all stuff and thought what camping kooks we are! We’ll get it down even if it takes until California.

We got on the road and looked and looked for a breakfast place in Santa Rosa Beach but it is all resorts including condos and houses for rent. Lots of real estate offices for no food. We finally found a good place back on HWY 98. After that it was a stressful ride negotiating the roads and sidewalks of Destin and Fort Walton Beach and beyond. I ended up crossing one of several bridges walking my bike. The shoulder abruptly ended going up and so did I. I yelled to Jocelyn to keep going. These roads can be very stressful. I finally called for a timeout where we stopped in a tree garden and chilled. Our goal for the day was to get to Pensacola but due to the slow riding we couldn’t make it. We stopped in Navarre Beach as there is only one more motel on 98 West. So we did only 45 miles today short of another 30 to Pensacola. We didn’t want to arrive there after 8 so here we are drying out the camping equipment, laundry, and all that mess with the bike stuff. Good times though. I think we will be in Alabama tomorrow!