Bike Ride to Defuniak Springs

Panama City to Defuniak Springs: 63.4

Total mileage: 550.2

 

After experiencing a hot and humid Panama City morning, the group voted last night to wake up slightly early, hustle to pack/load our bins and be out of our host by 7:15. While there were some grumblings about the early 5:30 am wake up call, and let me tell you that this hour is almost unheard of for most people our age, we ROCKED the morning routine and were able to hit the road by our agreed upon time.

Ben, Holly and I were setting a pretty good pace and after passing a lake decided that we should double back to check it out. Turns out that it was in a new development, but was beautiful none the less.

Half way between our morning start and lunch several bikers pulled over to grab some fresh blackberries off the side of the road. One group had accidentally run into the bushes during a water break and thankfully decided to share the wealth with those who were following. Let me tell you people, if you do not have a blackberry bush of your own, you should at least let your berries warm up on the porch before eating them - LIFE CHANGiNG!!!

 

Lunch, as I am sure you know, is always halfway and thanks to a killer tailwind we arrived at mile thirty by 10am; while lunch did not happen at a real world time, the leftovers from dinner last night were certainly appreciated. A challenge was posed to the group a few days ago to find some kind of a marker which would help riders find the lunch spot. Last year they found a life size cardboard cut out of David Hasselhoff. Yesterday while some of us had gone to Panama City to check out the beach, myself and two others went to try and DM (donation magic) a blow up pool alligator. Thankfully we were successful and now the 2012 SUS crew has our own Hasselhoff which had its debut at lunch today.

We did come across these crazy bugs when we stopped on the side of the road

The remaining portion of the road twisted through farm and horse country. Thankfully one of the pastors from last night's host suggested we take a country road which would keep us far away from the Memorial Day traffic on 98. Some of the locals had warned us that we would be hitting some hills in the later portion of our ride and they were not joking. With the sun hot and high in the sky, the group made good time up several large climbs with all the rides arriving by 2.

This week our group is on laundry duty. We were ON POINT and done within an

And so I sign off and am sure that several bikers and I will be dreaming of the homemade pancakes we will be eating in the morning thanks to our super hosts here in Defuniak Springs.