Day 27 - September 1 Destin(ed) to the Crescent City

After an enjoyable dinner at the Gibson Inn we all retired to our rooms for the night.  The hotel staff reassured us that the bridge we came in on doesn't get shut down until there are sustained winds of 45mph or more.  Lucky for us, we're headed west in the morning and we wouldn't be passing over that bridge.  As we prepared for bed and the morning, our phones kept going off with Emergency Alerts. Each of the 6 warnings that came in between 9:51pm and 11:29pm reminded us that there was a "Hurricane Warning in this area" and to "Check local media and with authorities."  At 5am two more of the same alerts came through and served as our wake up call.  It wasn't raining at that time but in the process of getting ready there were brief episodes of heavy rain.  At 7:30am it was 77 degrees at not raining.  We took this as our cue as our time to go.  We were geared for rain. 

Within 5 minutes of being on the road, we were in light rain.  I say light because in the last two days of riding we experienced enough variations and intensities of rain to now know the difference.  The rain lasted about 20 min and by the time we hit Port St. Joe, FL the skies had cleared and the rain had stopped. Unsure about what lay in wait ahead of us, most chose to keep their rain pants but shed the jacket.

US 98 took us along the coast line and then through Panama City and into Destin.  The HD store was still closed but we snapped a few pics outside The Bass Pro Shop. 

 



 Then we stopped by Crystal Beach.  The ocean was rough and the surf was high.  The waves were really starting to crash in.  The sand was fine and white like sugar, which is what this area in known for.

From Destin we took the Mid-Bay Bridge over to FL 85 and then to I-10. This took us into Alabama.

As we made our way toward Mobile, we passed the USS Alabama at Battleship Park in Mobile Bay. We visited the Mobile Bay HD and grabbed some lunch before heading back to the road.

Our visit to Alabama was short.  Back on I-10 to the Mississippi line and then on to the Biloxi HD.

From there it was a short way to the Louisiana line.

New Orleans, the Crescent City, was our final destination for the day.  Anyone want to take a guess at what time it was as we were pulling into NOLA?  That's right, it was almost 5 o'clock, of course.  We thought we'd be out of it as we were heading into town and the daily commuters should be using the oncoming lanes to return home. That was true for the first few miles. But then our little cruise came to a screeching halt and from there in we moved as a crawl. Naturally it hot and humid as one might expect this time of year in New Orleans. We haven't seen a drop of rain since Port St. Joe this morning. It was reminiscent of our visit to the Bay Bridge a month a go.

  
We were all glad to get the bikes parked and be off them for the day.  There's just something about these late afternoon traffic jams that sucks the life out of you. 

Total miles today: 389.9;
Total time to travel that far: 9.75 hours
Total Cumulative miles: 9774.9
Tomorrow: Who Dat? TX