Day 5

We spent last night at the Hilton Hotel. Actually, it was the Motel Hilton! Although rather well worn around the edges, I must say it was really much worse. Why would we select such a place? The easy answer is that it saved us seven miles of extra biking. First, the soda machine stole Bill's dollar. Second, it was only after an unpleasant encounter with the manager, that it was retrieved. This was followed by several drinks of the day, Nati Lite, served off the back of a pick up parked next to our room. Several late afternoon conversations carried on until early morning and involved no volume control and was without adequate filtering for the ears of young children. Pizza was delivered and we never left the room again until our departure at 6:15 am.

We traveled 122 miles @ 16 mph. This was a long long day. It was mostly flat and as it got hotter the terrain got harder. Scott, the salesman, arrived as Bill and I sipped some Gatorade and provided each of us with a buffalo bar. We have yet to taste the offering.

Now for the Friday afternoon tour of Mobile. This was an extra 20 miles at the end of the day. Not just any day, but Friday during rush hour. As we entered the city from the east we could go into a tunnel or take an alternative route. The first person we asked about going through the tunnel suggested it would be suicide on a bicycle. Okay, we can take hint and off we went on our tour of approximately three hours. It would have been much longer if Sheila, Jerome, and Clarence hadn't come to our rescue.

Sheila said we shouldn't be in that part of town! I took this to mean it was similar to going through the tunnel. With limited chances of survival, Jerome took us around the back streets and had us follow on our bikes. I want you to know that I don't think 25 mph is very fast, but on a bike after 100 miles it feels a lot faster! Muscles twitching, adrenaline flowing and with no intention of commiting suicide they guided us to a location and then provided detailed directions that helped us to complete our safe arrival.

We were so late in arriving that Ashton found us sitting in a parking lot in front of a Subway sipping on a root beer. The real beer was to follow as Ashton patiently listened to the tales of the day.

All is well that ends well, I suppose.

Over and out from The Old Land Cruisers