September 1, 2016
Day 93 Mobile to Foley
We had to ride through downtown Mobile on a busy two lane road first thing this morning. It wasn't fun, but all the drivers were patient and courteous and our captains led us skillfully and safely through the traffic. Once we got through downtown, we headed north through an industrial and port area to the bridge we needed to use to cross the Mobile River. There was very little traffic in that area. We were just about to the road which went to the bridge when we came to a train stopped on the tracks ahead of us. There were just a few cars and trucks waiting. The train started to move, then stopped with just the two locomotives still blocking the crossing. An engineer stepped down from the locomotive and told us we could walk the bikes across the tracks around the front of the train. We made it around without much trouble and were soon riding along a completely traffic free road to the bridge. I don't know how long the rest of the traffic had to wait, but it was good for us.
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The bridge had a nice wide shoulder and beautiful views. We stopped for pictures but Kerry doesn't much like heights or stopping on bridges, so I only got a couple.
Our main plan for today was to visit the Battleship Alabama. We got there just after they opened and there were almost no other visitors. The staff was very helpful with letting us secure our bikes and belongings while we toured. I'm hardly "up" on battleships, but it looked pretty much like the North Carolina we visited earlier this summer to me. There is also an aviation museum with a collection of fighter jets and a submarine to tour.
We walked around for a couple of hours and went back to the visitor center to get our bikes. As we were getting ready to leave, one of the staff members came out and asked if she could take our picture for their Facebook page. That's about the fourth time someone has said they were putting us on Facebook. We feel like celebrities!
After visiting the Battleship, we had another 40 miles to ride. We followed the coast of Mobile Bay for awhile which we were surprised to find was very hilly. There were many very large, lavish homes along the shoreline.
As we left the shore and turned eastward towards Foley, we saw some farms again. We saw a lot of cotton and some soybean fields.
We're watching Hurricane Hermine closely tonight. We are well to the west of the projected storm path, but we will need to ride right through the Panhandle to get home next week. We'll see what conditions are after the storm passes and decide if we need to change any of our plans. We won't put ourselves in any risky situations and we will stay out of the way of people who may have major recovery and clean up to do. We want everyone to be safe, but we're especially thinking of all our friends in Citrus County and hoping you are all OK.
Today's ride: 55 miles (89 km)
Total: 4,459 miles (7,176 km)
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