Day 2 - Feb 16 - Brrrrr

So the word for the day is: fun. No, my brain must be frozen. What I meant to say was: cold. Frigid, in fact. It was 26 degrees when we awoke this morning. Brrr. My feet were blocks of ice, even though I had on 3 pairs of socks. I also wore to "bed" thermal pants and a second pair of convertible pants, plus a thermal top, a fleece jacket and a windbreaker. All this in a sleeping bag rated to 20 degrees. It's only supposed to be 31 tonight, but I might wear my sneakers to bed. It's very hard to sleep when my feet are frozen solid.

                                                                  (Having breakfast)

Okay, that's my whine for the day. Otherwise, it was a beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky. We road along the beach most of the day headed toward Gulf Shores, AL. Sugar white sand. The wind was not strong, but what there was of it was cold. It never really warmed up during the day.

We missed the ferry to Dauphin Island by about 10 minutes and had to wait an hour and a half for the next one. The ride to the island was, you guessed it, cold. But neat. Mobile Bay is HUGE.

                                     (Mike and I on the ferry on our way to Dauphin Island)

The campground was very near the boat dock, so we didn't have to bike far to find "home" for the night.

Then some of us rode 2 miles to a restaurant that turned out to be closed for Mardi Gras, but we found another one close by and had "prepared" food. It's wasn't spectacular, but it was warm inside and the food was hot. It's nice to have someone prepare food for you. And something other than rice or noodles or oatmeal.

We would have been to the island early today, except we got to Gulf Shores just as their parade began, so we had to wait an hour and a half to cross the street so that we could continue on. Oh, well. We collected beads and an occasional moon pie that was hurled our way.

We had a fairly light day today with only 30 miles or so. The plan was to stay on Dauphin Island tonight and then do a 70 mile day tomorrow to reach a wilderness area, since there are NO places to camp that we know of for quite some miles. But as they say, it's not what you know, it's who you know. My friend, Meredith, with whom I work, has family in Hurley, Mississippi, so I called her and managed to yogi a place to stay tomorrow, only 52 miles away, rather than 70. Thanks, Meredith!

Okay, so that's all for now. Cell service was sketchy, so I couldn't post until now. I'm using a computer at Meredith's parents' house. I may not be able to post every day for lack of cell service.

Take care and think of me/us when you're warm and snug in your bed.