Day 48 (Riding Day 36) – Port St. Joe, FL to Crawfordville, FL: Rain-Soaked Again!

We looked at the weather forecast the night before and it looked like heavy rain all day, but when we woke up in Port St. Joe, Florida, it was sunny, so we were hopeful the forecast was wrong.

We made it to Apalachicola, Florida before it started to rain.

As you can see on the welcome sign, Apalachicola is the oyster capital of the world. Dave and Kevin have been eating their weight in Oysters every night since we hit Louisiana, so we planned a lunch stop at The Station Raw Bar for them to get their fix.

By the time we finished lunch, the rain started. We put on our rain jackets and shoe covers. They kept us dry for about ten minutes with the amount of water pouring down and splashing up from the road. To make matters worse, Dave got a flat shortly after we left Apalachicola on the middle of a crazy long bridge. I didn’t realize he stopped until I had made it about three miles ahead. Fortunately, the SAG team hadn’t made it too far ahead, so they unhooked the Bronco and Kevin raced over to save the day by bringing Dave a new wheel and parking behind him to protect him from oncoming traffic until he got everything repaired.

Meanwhile, I hung out under the drive through of an old bank to stay dry until Dave and I were reunited.

That was the last time either of had any shelter from the rain for last 55 miles we had to ride. On the other hand, Tom and Kevin enjoyed the dry confines of the RV and some backgammon.

To be fair, they were watching the radar and let us know it looked terrible. They offered to pick us up early, so we could try again tomorrow when the weather looked better. The rain was relentless but so were we in our determination to make it to our destination. So, we thanked them but kept pedaling.

Eventually we made it and immediately headed for hot showers before we started planning for the next day’s ride.