715 Total Miles!
Day 9: Flora-bama, FL ➡️ Dauphin Island, AL (40 Miles)
We finally made our way out of Florida and we were on to Alabama. We ended up having to take a ferry over to Dauphin Island in order to continue on the route we were headed. We stepped off of the ferry and tried to book a camp ground but they would only take RVs unfortunately. We ended up walking to the beach, grabbing a motel down the street and calling it a night.
Day 10: Dauphin Island, AL ➡️ Gulfport, MS (78 Miles)
This was the longest day we have had so far. We started off having to bike on this 8 mile bridge that was incredibly windy because the hurricane was on its way. You probably saw the video of the 90 degree angle looking road we all posted. Anyway, we made it over the bridge and the day started to clear up. We everntually crossed our next state from Alabama into Mississippi. We had two options, to stop at about 55 miles and get up early to try and do another 30 or do about 80 today and get a little past the storm (which is what we thought). We decided to do the 80 and as we got about 10 miles out, the road actually landed us right on the water with an unbelievable view of the beach. Ended the day with 78 miles and 7 hours of bike riding.
Day 11: Gulfport, MS
This day wasn't very eventful. The only news we found out was what we thought was outrunning the storm was actually putting us dead in the middle of the eye of the storm. We took this as an off day, walked around the beach, had some food and drinks and were honestly pretty pumped for the storm the next day.
Day 12: Gulfport, MS
This was the day of Hurricane Zeta. It Started off pretty slow all day and didn't start to hit until about 7:00. Winds got up to around 120mph and our hotel lost power but luckily they had a generator on the first floor. Everyone was pretty much just chilling having some drinks besides this very drunk guy acting like he was going to singlehandedly stop the hurricane.Noone was really listening to either of them but it did get pretty windy and was a pretty crazy experience overall. We walked outside for about 5 minutes towarss the end of the night and the water was up on the road and trees were knocked down everywhere. We ended up having dominos for lunch and dinner which wasn't fun but happened to be the only option.
Day 13: Gulfport, MS ➡️ Slidell, LA (50 Miles)
On our way to Louisiana. We needed to get out of this hotel we felt like we had been there for way too long even though it was only 3 nights. We finally head out and the roads were covered in sand, trees and telephone poles knocked down, and police patrolling the highways and streets. As were biking along back roads because the main road had sand all over it we see everyone outside cleaning branches and cutting trees in their yards. It looked like a state wide clean up day. It was also incredibly windy out which was not fun because we were against the wind the whole day. We get about 10 miles out and try to book a place to stay. No campgrounds were answering so we called a few hotels and every single one was booked because of the storm. We finally talked to a random motel that had one room left that said if we were there in an hour we could have it. We were about 1.5 hours out but made it in time thank god. The place was pretty nasty but we were lucky we even found a place with power.
Day 14: Slidell, LA ➡️ Hammond, LA (57 Miles)
We are out early and on the road. It was a pretty cold morning around 52 degrees but this is the day Boston had a snow storm so no complaints from us. As we are riding we realize no street lights work and that the power is out in a lot more towns than we expected. We definitely needed a hotel to stay in so we called some spots and Lukes family friend ended up booking us a hotel because of a last minute cancellation. We were actually really lucky because all other hotels were booked again.
Day 15: Hammond, LA ➡️ Baton Rouge, LA (50 miles)
On our way to Baton Rouge. We wake up pretty early because the Lsu vs Auburn game is on at 2:30 and we were headed to Baton Rouge. Mikes friend lets us stay at his place so ince we get there qe drop our bags and head to a local LSU bar to watch the game. LSU gets smoked. We end up meeting up heading over to a Halloween party of Mikes friends. We met a bunch of nice people who were excited to hear about what we are doing and donated too!
Day 16: Baton Rouge, LA
We woke up and decided to watch some football and take this day off to get ready for a huge day tomorrow. This will be the biggest day so far so time to hydrate up.