Blog 4/18/10 Big Surprises

Yes, we had a couple of wonderful surprises today, but first, the numbers.  We rode about 90 miles today, from Pensacola to De Funiak Springs, FL.  Total mileage is 2683 for 36 days including four rest days.  More headwind today, but another beautiful day, pretty much a carbon copy of so many others.  The wind wasn't quite as strong as usual, a nice change.

Heading east out of Pensacola, we went through a beautiful old neighborhood full of great big magnolia trees and majestic, big houses with terrific porches.  We thought we were seeing the classiest homes in town until our route took us up some bluffs overlooking the Gulf east of town.  We're talking some of the biggest, fanciest homes we've ever seen here, some with Rolls Royces parked in front.  Who lives in them?

We spent the first 25 miles on US 90, which sounds pretty awful but really wasn't bad at all.  New pavement, nice bike lane, not too much traffic because it parallels I-10.  A bit after we stopped for our second breakfast in Pace, FL, the route turned on to a bike path which was really pretty (and well wind-protected) for 10 miles until we ended up on some very rural side roads for another 30 miles or so of totally bucolic riding with great pavement, and amazingly, no dogs either.  Gently rolling terrain, lots of woods, a few nice farms, and essentially no cars at all.  Really, riding doesn't get much nicer than on those roads.  But eventually the route stuck us back out on US 90 for the last 30 miles or so, though the good pavement and nice shoulder remained.

Our surprises began when we got to De Funiak Springs, which to me at least, is not a particularly preposessing name.  Ws knew there was a motel on the main road coming into town, and it looked pretty cool--50's styling, not a chain, well-manicured outside, what Kathy & I call a Mom & Pop motel--a favorite for us.  But Kathy's nose pulled us on into the middle of town where we found the DeFuniak Inn, which appeared closed, but upon closer inspection not only is open, it is beautiful, with a lovely lady named Kate running the place.  Antiques all over, stained galss window (it was originally a Masonic Hall) and 14 foot ceilings, even on the second floot!!!  AS it turned out, only the attached restaurant was closed ( on Sundays).

Kate told us we simply HAD to go for a walk around the lake just off the highway we'd come in on, and are we ever glad she did.  I fear to think that if we'd stayed at the other motel, we might have missed the south side of town entirely, which would have been a terrible shame because, quite frankly, I think it's even more beautiful than St. Francisville, the town on the Mississippi I was raving about a few days ago.

The story is that a Mr. DeFuniak, who owned the Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad, decided to organize a place for recreation, education and religion back in the 1880s or so, and he picked this spot next to a spring-fed lake--which his railroad conveniently ran right through--to set up a park-like camp.  It's a very nice maybe 20 or 30 acre spring fed lake right next to the meticulously restored train station.  There's a public walkway all the way around the lakeshore, then manicured woods around fifty yards across all the way around, then a street (Circle Drive) running all the way around the woods, and on the other side of the street one drop-dead georgeous post-bellum mansion after another.  Some are just huge.  Most are in great shape.  One big one is for sale.  Kate says it's $1.5 million--in a town of 4,000 souls, and believe me, it would take at least one person working full time to maintain it--probably more than one. Honestly, it's hard to find words to describe how beautiful it is right here.   It's two blocks off the highway and you'd never know if you didn't know to look.

Our hotel has four other cyclists in it tonight, two couples, one from Massachusetts riding from St. Augustine to Baton Rouge, and the other from Arizona doing the same route we are, but on a tandem and a bit more slowly.  They are all retired and roughly our age and it's nice to have a chance to talk with them.  We talk about whats gone right and what's gone wrong and how we've solved problems that come up. 

Seeing them reminds me of all the other people we've seen along the way--hardy souls every one, from Fred the triathlete who did the entire 3100 miles in fifteen days all alone, to the young newlyweds on a recumbent tandem carrying camping gear and their own vegan food so their bike weighed well over 100 lbs and who looked pretty beat up after 1200 miles even though they hadn't hit a single really hard climb yet (traveling east to west).  Any way you look at it, this is a big, big ride, and in some ways the hardest part is waking up each day realizing I have to go spend six or seven hours on the bike.  Somehow, after begin up and about a while, chowing down (and having the sun come up), my feelings turn to anticipation.  Once we're out there, Kathy & I still turn to each other and say something to the effect of "it's great to ba back on the bike again, isn't it?"

Doug