Day
10, Friday, April 24, 2015
Last night I was able to complete my blog while most of
us were downstairs in the breakfast room.
We were having fun and drinking coffee.
I also finished my pictures, labeling them and posting some on
Facebook. J.B. and I were the last to
leave the breakfast room. I went into my
room and C.E. was already sleeping. I
tried not to make much noise. My alarm sounded
at 7:00 AM and C.E. was already awake.
We got dressed, packed and took a couple of bags down to our Motorcycles. We didn't have to get up very early because
we didn’t know the situation with Jake’s Motorcycle. We had breakfast and then we all went to our
rooms and gathered the rest of our stuff and packed them in our
Motorcycles. Jake and Bruce were still
in short pants. They told Chuck that we
should just go because they had plans to go to a museum. What?
Chuck told Jake that we would meet them in Tallahassee. Jake said, “OK” and Chuck said, “Bye!” Chuck told Jake to keep in touch. We left at 8:40 AM, leaving Jake and Bruce
standing, looking at us leave.
Chuck led us onto Pine Forest Rd. and then to Highway
297. We rode on Highway 297 until we got
to Highway 90 and then east. Prior to
leaving, Chuck was leading and I was next.
He gave me a list of Highways that we were going to take to get to the
south end of Pensacola to try and avoid downtown. As we were going on Highway 90, Chuck turned
right onto “A” Street. What? A couple of blocks down the road we stopped
at a stop sign. I asked Chuck why he had
turned and not stayed on the planned route.
He told me that he didn’t know why he turned and then said that he
wanted to get closer to the water. Yeah,
right! We stayed on “A” Street until we
got to the end of the road and then Chuck turned left onto Main Street. We continued on in what appeared to be the
very old part of Pensacola. The street eventually
met up with Highway 98, the road that we were eventually going to get on. I saw at a distance a long bridge over a
large body of water, Pensacola Bay, and a lot of vehicles on it. I looked at my navigation system and saw that
the bridge WAS Highway 98. I told Chuck
that the bridge WAS Highway 98 and he said, “I know.” Again, yeah, right! As we started to go over the 3.5 mile long
bridge, there was a sign at the beginning warning people to check their gas
gauges to make sure that they had enough gas to go over the long bridge. I guess there have been prior vehicles
running out of gas. As we got to the end of the bridge, there was a “Toll” booth. The charge for each Motorcycle was $1. Chuck told the clerk that he was going to
tell all of us that the charge was $5.
Nope, that didn’t work. We were
now in Gulf Breeze, on Pensacola Island.
It was a nice looking little town with all kinds of things to do, you
know…Tourist Trap. We continued on
Highway 98, made a u-turn and then turned onto Highway 399. Chuck had seen a sign that said that 399 was
a “scenic” road. We followed Highway 399
with the Bay to our Left and the Gulf to our right, and white sand on either
side. We stopped at a parking lot at
Navarre Beach at 9:44 AM, after riding 34 miles. We parked our Motorcycles and took some
pictures of the Motorcycles and of us with the Motorcycles. Chuck, Jan and I walked down to the water’s
edge and took some pictures. Chuck took
the opportunity to test out his “waterproof” new boots. We returned to our Motorcycles and continued
east. We left at 10:02 AM. For your information, we were all running on
fumes and our “low fuel lights” were on.
We continued east and after riding for 5 miles, we
stopped at a Citgo Gas station at 10:11 AM in Navarre Beach. We all gassed up and parked the Motorcycles
together. The guys went in and bought
drinks and came out. I was sitting on my
Motorcycle. Jan, Ken and C.E. were
standing next to me when I felt something small hit me on my back. Jan told me that a baby sparrow landed on my
back. I told Jan to take a picture and
gave him my camera. Jan took three
pictures. The bird then flew away. We were done with the break and we left at
10:43 AM with Jan leading.
Jan led us north on Highway 399 to Highway 98 and then
east. We followed Highway 98 for a
while. Jan turned into a gas station in
Inlet Beach at 12:01 PM, after riding for 58 miles. Jan thought that maybe someone needed to make
a pit stop. He was right and I took
advantage, as did J.B. We left at 12:11
PM.
We continued on Highway 98. It was getting close to lunch time and Chuck
told Jan, on the CB, of a Subway on the left.
We turned in and had lunch. We
had only ridden for 8 miles and stopped at 12:21 PM in Panama City Beach. We had lunch and we were getting ready to
leave. We left at 1:20 PM and were
stopped at the edge of the drive to get across the divided highway. There was a lot of traffic going west. It was not safe for us to pull out. I suggested to Jan that we should turn right
and make a u-turn. There was a dark gray
Dodge Charger stopped in the median facing west. Jan rode and stopped in the median next to
the Charger, as did we. The next thing
we saw, and not expecting, was the Charger had a lot of red and blue lights
flashing. The Charger drove into
oncoming traffic, stopped them to allow us to turn left. We were all impressed! If only the Officer knew that he just helped six
Retired Cops from Phoenix.
Jan continued to lead us east on Highway 98. It was warm and humid. We rode for 55 miles and stopped at a gas
station/mini-mart in Port Saint Joe at 2:40 PM and after riding 55 miles. After we parked our Motorcycles, J.B.
strongly suggested that it was time for an “ice cream” break. That is what we all did. It was good and refreshing. It did cool us down a little. Chuck got on his phone and contacted
Jake. He told Jake to meet us in Quincy,
Fla, just west of Tallahassee, on I-10 at Exit 181. We left at 3:03 PM.
Jan led us back onto Highway 98 and we headed east. We rode through the middle of town on
Business 98 until the road turned into Highway 319. We rode for a while and then turned north on
Highway 65. As we were going north, C.E.
rode up to Jan and told him that he was needing some gas. He didn’t gas up at Port Saint Joe. There was no place to stop for gas. We
continued on and rode through a small town named Wilma. There was a small gas station with, what looked
like, crappy pumps. Jan slowed down for
a while. I saw C.E. indicate with his
arm to continue. We really weren't worried that C.E. would run out of gas since he carries a gallon in a can in
his trunk. We came to another little
town named, “Hosford.” We had ridden for
88 miles and stopped at 4:47 PM. We had
lost another hour! It was 5:47 PM. C.E. gassed up and we were on our way at 5:37
PM.
Since C.E. gassed up and we didn’t, Jan continued to
lead. We rode north to Highway 22 and
turned right. We continued on Highway 22
and turned onto Highway 267. Before we
knew it, there was the Holiday Inn Express that we were looking for in
Quincy. We turned into the parking lot
at 5:58 PM after riding 22 miles. Jake
and Bruce were not there yet. Jan and I
went in to “make the deal.” Chuck and
J.B. went next door to another hotel to check prices. Jan and I got a good price and then Jan rode
over to the Hampton Inn, behind the Holiday Inn Express. Jan came back and told us that the Holiday
Inn Express had the best price. We went
in and checked in. As we were checking
in, Jake and Bruce arrived.
We got our bags from our Motorcycles and took them up to
the rooms. The clerk told us that fresh,
chocolate chip cookies were just made.
We got some and then left for dinner.
We rode about three miles to the West Side Grill Restaurant for
dinner. It was suggested by the clerk
and it was good. We returned to the
hotel from dinner, parked our Motorcycles and tucked them in for the night.
Today we rode 270 miles.
We were at the beach and had some fun there. We rode in the heat and humidity and it wore
us down a little. When we turned onto
Highway 65, we headed away from the Gulf.
Our Gulf Coast ride came to an end.
Tomorrow we will head north and into Georgia. I don’t know how far we will go but Chuck
told me that we may turn westbound at the northern part of Georgia. We don’t know. So, until tomorrow…
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