Redneck Riviera

September 5, 2016

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Jeanna has done a superb job planning our routes and accommodations. But today we discovered a small chink in her armor. She routed us over a 4 mile long toll bridge and didn't tell us ahead of time to bring our Sunpass transponders so we could pay the toll without having to stop.

This is unexpected, we are coming to a toll both.

Forgot our Sunpass! I guess we'll have to take the manual lane.

No wonder we had to pay, this is a really long bridge.

We had nice cloud cover for the first couple of hours.

The toll bridge took us across Choctawhatchee Bay to the beach. The beach is very developed, to the point where it was rare to actually see the beach or the Gulf. There was often a solid wall of condos or hotels blocking the view.

People started arriving at the beach well before the sunshine arrived.

The beach side development also brought a lot of car traffic. For many miles a pedestrian/bike trail ran alongside the road. The path got a lot of use from walkers, runners and cyclists. We haven't seen that many people on foot since the W&OD trail near Washington DC. We alternated between riding on the road and the trail. The trail had some gravely sections and some congested sections, the road sometimes lacked a good shoulder or was congested with cars and trucks.

What's the best measure of the quality of a bike trail? If it's the number of people using the trail, this Florida coast trail is one of the best. It didn't have the peace and quiet of the Natchez Trace Parkway, but it had a lot more people using it.

I do enjoy seeing people getting outside and moving around. When I was 20, there were many more male runners than female runners. Today female runners predominate. The majority of cyclists are still male. Perhaps men like messing with greasy chains and fixing flats more than women do.

Some of the prettiest places were when the road got away from the beach.

The sections away from the beach also were less congested.

You can see how the view from the beach side road might include more high-rise buildings than unspoiled nature.

The vast majority of motorists we have encountered have been polite. This afternoon we got a taste of driving that reminded me of South Florida. We were in a bike lane approaching an intersection. A driver on our left suddenly decided that he could not bear the wait to get up to the right turn lane and decided to veer into the bike lane to bypass the 4 cars between him and the right turn lane. Fortunately I have had lots of practice anticipating stupid drivers and was able to slam on the brakes and veer off the road without getting hit. My stoker gave him some colorful verbal feedback strongly suggesting he refrain from such behavior in the future.

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