We Got Guts!

Day 48

Dauphin Island, Al. to Big Lagoon State park, Fl.

Got an early start this morning packed up camp with Gerry and Ron, and headed to the fort. The fort is Fort Gaines – site of Battle of Mobile Bay. This is the battle where Admiral Farragut, aboard his Flagship U.S.S. Hartford, uttered the now famous words “Damn the Torpedoes-Full Speed Ahead!” The fort is pretty amazing to walk around, it is completely open and you can explore virtually every inch of the area. It is a $5.00 fee to get in which we were told is barely enough to keep it open. It is well preserved and has many of the big guns still in place at the corners. The museum had some interesting artifacts found on site and a lot of history as well as good examples of daily life in the fort.

It was now 10:30am, we were only riding a short distance today (about 50 miles), and so we were in no great hurry, but the ferry to Fort Morgan had arrived so we needed to go - or wait an hour and a half for the next one. We headed for the ferry and could not help but notice the presence of the news media; they were there to keep track of the impending landfall of the oil spill from the collapsed oil rig in the gulf. They were not interested in us or our rides; they were busy with the “big story”. We boarded the ferry and enjoyed the ride and the awesome views we were afforded on our way.

As we were docking in Fort Morgan, we could not help but notice about a hundred people putting together containment booms, and boat after boat going out with 500 ft. sections to be anchored off shore to help protect the island. We rode down the street a little ways and decided to look for something to eat, we found a place called “Tacky Jack’s”, we decided it sounded just like us so we went in. It was a nice place and were welcomed and told the story of how this building is the only original building left in the area, it had survived all the previous storms that nothing else did.

The food was very good and the service was even better, we were wished well by the staff and were once again on the road. We still had most of our day ahead of us so we picked up the pace a bit to Make it to Big Lagoon State Park. We stopped along the way to check out the beautiful white sand beaches, and see what kind of indigenous life there was in the area (bikini watching).

The weather was warm and very humid, and it was tempting to jump in the water, but it was so far to walk over the sand and we would eventually have to get back on the bike – not fun when you are soaking wet! We continued on and before long found ourselves at a “Welcome to Florida” sigh. We stopped and spent several minutes talking about how we had finally made it our last state, and how it was starting to sink in that we were almost done. After several pictures we started off again, it was only 10 miles or so till we arrived at the state park. As we rode on we passed a fire station, the guys know I like to stop and headed right in. We talked to the firefighters on duty, they would try and send me a patch – but more importantly they told us where to go for dinner. We left and arrived at the Big Lagoon State Park within minutes, and immediately set up camp, showered and were ready to go get dinner.

Dinner tonight was at Trigger’s, a nice family restaurant, a little high priced but very good food. We sat and ordered dinner and toasted ourselves for the accomplishments we have made. After dinner I decided to have dessert, the list was long and the decision difficult – but in the end I went for the fried cheesecake. It was a piece of cheesecake rolled in corn flake, deep-fried, then covered with a hot caramel and pecan sauce. It was amazingly good! If you have the chance, go and try it!

The Garmin information for the day is as follows:

Day 48 Dauphin Island, Al. to Big Lagoon State Park, Fl. by wegotguts at Garmin Connect - Details