Helllllo! We've been having a great time in New Orleans...hence the delay in blogging. BUT here is the update on us:

On Friday morning we left Ric & Kim's house & had rain ALL day. We rode in the rain for about 50+ miles until I was just over it. Joe was having a grand ole time :P but I didn't want to ride in the headwinds and rain anymore so we started looking for places to camp in Gulf Port, Mississippi. The RV park wouldn't let us camp there for some weird reason and the fire station had no place to camp or any better ideas than a hotel...so we ended up getting a hotel that night.  I was just so happy to be out of that rain. The next day was much easier. We were headed to New Orleans!!

Saturday we did about 75 miles. It was sunny and we had a tailwind so it was a really awesome day. Joe and I had no place to stay Saturday night. We contacted about 15 people and 1 person got back to us (Emily) and said she couldn't have people stay this weekend. So we were on our way to New Orleans and really didn't like the idea that we had no place to sleep. Mainly because there are very sketchy areas and we don't know the town...and we definitely didn't want to camp. We still headed there anyways hoping that we would figure it out. About 20 miles away from the city Emily asked us if we had found a place to stay and she ended up getting her friend Owen to host us! SWEET we have a place to stay. Both Emily and Owen just got back from a bike tour through California so we were stoked to talk to them. Even though Emily couldn't have us at her house, she did say she would show us around town!! Both of them met us at the New Orleans Museum of Art and all of us biked around town. We went to a drive-in daiquiri place! But biked of course...then went to The Fly (a park) and watched the sunset. A lot of people were hanging out there on blankets and just enjoying being outside. It was awesome :) After the park we got some sushi at Origami YUMM! Joe said it was the best mango sushi he's ever had. Then we headed to their friend, Luis' house and had a couple drinks on the back deck. It was an awesome day & I'm glad we met Emily & Owen! OH & both of them lived in Charleston before New Orleans...how crazy?!

Sunday morning Joe and I woke up early and went to breakfast at this cute bagel place called the Humble Bagel. You can watch them as they make all of the bagels from scratch! Then we just moseyed around to another coffee shop. Later on Owen took us on a bike tour around town. We went to Cafe Du Monde and had some coffee with beignets! I loved biking around the city...we did about 15 miles today just going around! Time to get back on schedule in the morning. 530am alarm!

Gulf Shores, AL -> Grand Bay, AL: 55miles
Average speed: 12mph
Time on Bike: 4:30hrs

We went slow this morning and had our complimentary breakfast from the hotel :) Once we realized we weren't getting our mail in time we decided to forget about our packages and start biking. We got on the road at about 11am and of course 10 miles down the road we got a notification that our packages got delivered. By that time we didn't want to go back. We had to catch a ferry to Dauphin Island and didn't have time. 20 miles later...with some headwinds, we made it to the ferry and could tell it was about to start storming soon, but the ferry ride was really nice! Once we got off the ferry we checked out a local art gallery. Then we headed towards Grand Bay where we knew we had a house to stay at.  We knew we were heading straight into a storm, but we just went for it. Joe ended up getting a flat tire just as this black cloud was about to come over us. That was probably the fastest I've ever seen someone change a tire. But he got it fixed and we basically rode in the rain he rest of the day. Joe & I didn't mind at all...we kind of enjoyed it for once. Anyways, we made it to Ric & Kim's house. Once again, super nice family. They host SO many cyclists that their future plans are to make their back shed a bunk room for travelers. They made a delicious dinner with asparagus, broccoli, pasta salad and pork! They even had like 5 options for dessert YUMMMMMM We can't thank them enough! Ok, off to bed. Sorry if this was boring...I was trying to have a conversation while writing this at the same time.

September 9, 2015
Pensacola,FL  -> Gulf Shores: 42miles
Average Speed: 11.8mph
Time on Bikes: 3:30hrs

We left Tony & Charyse's house after having cinnamon rolls that they made us (YUMM)! Our goal for the day was to make it to the post office in Gulf Shores to pick up a package we had sent there. So we rode a little bit then had a coffee break (as usual) at Mojo Cafe. We met a guy there that gave us $5 off this place for lunch down the road which was very nice of him, but we thought it was too early for lunch. We were almost to Gulf Shores when BAM we made it to Alabama :) After a week and 540 miles of being in Florida, we finally made it to Alabama. On top of that, we were on the beach for once! I knew I had to enjoy it, because it would be the last time I saw the coast until we got to California. Shortly after getting into Alabama we got to the post office. However, the package wasn't there yet so we decided to relax near the beach :)  We had some lunch and drinks at The Hangout. Later we were biking around looking for a place to camp when Joe pulled up to the Holiday Inn Express and had already reserved a room for us. What a treat!! :) I was so excited! In just over a week on this trip, I'm appreciating everything like a big bed, shower, AC, a nice breakfast, internet, outlets...tiny things in life that you wouldn't think twice about. 

Anyways, we enjoyed every minute of it and had a delicious complimentary breakfast an hour ago. Complimentary breakfast is awesome when you're on a tour! You can eat as much as you want haha. We stayed the night in Gulf Shores hoping that our package would arrive this morning, but it doesn't look like it is going to. We are probably just going to head out in an hour and forget about the package...we realized that we need to send ourselves stuff MORE than a week in advance. Ok, we're off...on the road again...

We all just woke up :P

De Funiak Springs, FL -> Pensacola: 81miles
Average Speed: 13mph
Time on Bikes: 6:14hrs

On the road again!! We were headed to Milton which would be 60 miles for the day. However, we decided to go all the way to Pensacola because there are Warm Showers (the service available for cyclists to stay for free at a house) available. So we got in touch with Tony this morning from Warm Showers and he said we could pop our tent up in his backyard. Sweeeeet! We are almost there, just taking a quick break at a coffee shop just about 20 miles away from his house. He just texted us "Please arrive hungry. I have dinner for you two. (Or as you would say...yall) ".  I think we can arrange that haha. 

This morning we had a kid ask us to borrow a cell phone and it ended up that he just got out of jail and needed a ride back home to Alabama! He was at least 70 miles away from home. We were cautious but let him use our phone to call his uncle. Anyways we thought we were out of Love Bug country, but we are definitely not! We go through swarms sometimes we have to keep our mouth shut so we don't eat any :P For lunch we stopped by a cute little diner and just as I was going to pay I realized that I didn't have my wallet (a little plastic bag with my money in it). I checked a few bags then got worried. I remembered using it the night before to get a few things for dinner. Then realized it must be at the Fire Station 40 miles away. They weren't answering their phone and I was just really bummed. Then Joe found it at the bottom of one of his bags! "Angels singing" Thank goodness! I had everything in that little plastic baggie. I even ordered a wallet a few days ago (to help prevent this from happening) and I'll be able to pick it up tomorrow at the post office. 

For a while we rode on the old SR 1. It was built in the 1920s and brick paved. Its now a off road bike path. Bumpy but nice to be off the road for a while! 

Ok, we're off to Tony's house....20 miles to go & pretty hectic traffic this way. 

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Worst traffic that we've had so far. People were not very considerate and just flew right by us, but we made it. Tony and his wife made us spaghetti and garlic bread. He got us fruit, Oreos, and chocolate milk before we arrived :) So awesome how thoughtful that was!! They even invited their kids and grandkids to have dinner with us! My favorite was hearing stories from Tony's past tours :) Such interesting stories! 

September 6, 2015 

Tallahassee, FL -> Marianna: 75miles
Average speed: 11.9mph
Time on bike: 6:29hrs

Our day was originally going to be 40 miles and sort of an easy day. However the planned destination turned out to be not all that exciting and had no where for us to camp. So we decided to tack on an extra 35 miles or so and make it to a state park that has camping and a tour of some underground caverns that we are going to tour this morning. The riding to the park was enjoyable, it was a bit cooler than normal and the hills have flattened out once again. Right of the bat out of Tallahase we got out first flat tire from a staple of all things! We sorted that out quickly and we're back on the road. The next break we took was in Quincy, where we met a guy who was walking around the country. We are both very happy to not be moving that slow and at least we have a breeze on the bikes to combat the blazing Florida heat. We ended up staying at the camp grounds at the caverns so we could wake up and catch the first tour at 9:00 am. Its a beautiful camp site and its a bit cooler tonight! And we biked into a new time zone!!!

September 7, 2015

Marianna, FL -> De Funiak Springs: 64miles
Average Speed: 12.7mph
Time on bikes: 5hrs

We got to sleep in this morning!! We wanted to see the caverns in Marianna before we left town so we grabbed the 9am tour. The caverns were awesome! The tour was about an hour long and we walked room to room and saw all the different formations. This particular cavern was never know about until a tree fell down and its root ball pulled up a small section of limestone which caused a collapse in the cavern below and exposed the first known entrance. We got a pretty late start once the tour ended and we were dragging so we took a pitstop to drink some coffee and get moving. The day was easy for the most part and we didn't see anything too exciting. BUT we did get to the end of the first map, De Funiak Springs!!! Map 1 out of 7 down, but that's just to San Diego. There will be more maps after that of course. Now we're at the Fire Department in De Funiak and they are more than welcoming once again. It's awesome and we are sooo very thankful. We have our tent popped up in the back of the station and thats all we need! However, they did let us use their stove, laundry, & shower :) Laundry was much needed!!