Monday, May 7, 2012

Day 49 - Dauphin Island, AL to Pensacola, FL

Wow, Florida, it's taken seven weeks, but we're here, finally. Unfortunately, the Florida panhandle is pretty long. We'll be riding in Florida longer than any other state except Texas.

First we had to get out of Alabama and that required a ferry trip across the mouth of Mobile Bay. The ferry was smaller than I expected, but smooth seas resulted in a very pleasant ride. Scenic too, except for the oil platforms (unless you like looking at that sort of thing) the bay is littered with them.

The scenery on this side of the bay is really different, white sand beaches dotted with little (and some not so little), pastel colored, beach houses on stilts. Looks like a nice place to spend a week. A little out if the way tho.

Eventually we ran into the larger resorts, giant high-rises built right on the beach. I guess that's why they call it the "Red Neck Riviera".

At the State line we stopped in at the Flori-bama Oyster Bar. Apparently this is quite a hoppin' spot: food; drink; live music. Looked like fun to me, but there was not much going on when we got there so we pressed on to Pensacola.

Pensacola was a really nice town, at least what we saw of it. There's a big Naval Air Station here, home of the Blue Angels if I'm not mistaken, so there must be plenty of money to keep the economy going. Seemed pretty prosperous. We went downtown to Hopjack's for pizza and beer (112 beers on tap, half price tonight, Sunday), and that area was very nice.

We're all happy to be on Florida, it means were almost done. It's been a ton of fun, and hopefully I'll be able to do it again (northern tier anyone?), but I'm ready to go home.

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