Summer returns!

DeFuniak Springs to Pensacola/Gulf Breeze 77.8 miles

Another wonderful wonderful day! It began with a strange wake up, since we were spread out in different smaller rooms in the church. It's weird how quickly I've come to rely on peppy, loud music to kick me into gear at 5 am. Since we had changed to central standard time the day before, we decided a 5 am wakeup wouldn't be too bad. It would feel like a 6am sleep-in to most of us east coast-ers. A quick route meeting and we were on our way. I started out biking with Mark and Galen. Our directions led us down a road that used to be smooth until someone had a pebble surplus and paved over it with little pebbles...or at least that's what I'm telling myself. Because really, who in their right mind would pave a road with that horrible quality of pavement? Not to mention that the road was also super hilly and the hills were the same curvy type where you can't ever see the top. The scenery was fairly unchanging since we were right next to Elgin air force base. I did see a "BEWARE hellfire missile test site" sign that was kind of amusing. We mad it to first lunch in good time, but Mark got a slow flat at first lunch, so I stayed behind while he fixed it and the rest of the group went on. There was a little confusion at lunch about some mislabeling of highways and a reroute. The first group took the reroute and ended up going 7 miles over big hills in the wrong direction before realizing that the original directions were correct! Oops!  Mark and I set out and soon passed all of the groups that had left us behind at lunch. They all had flats :( Coleman had a massive nail that completely went through both sides of his tire! We powered our way to second lunch. I was amazed when I looked down and saw my speedometer at 19 and 20 consistently. When did that happen? I have always thought of myself as a really slow cyclist, but to see the progress that can be made with 9 days of nonstop cycling is amazing! Mark and I even made it to second lunch before the van! We ended up riding 5 miles further with the "A" team and I managed to (pretty much) keep up. I couldn't quite talk, signal, or drink water, but I managed a 21 to 22 average for 5 miles...wow...not something I want to do often. We had a lovely lunch, then decided to take a detour suggested by Josh E, who is from the area. Instead of staying on the same 28th St-like street (for everyone in Grand Rapids) for 10 miles, we crossed a bridge, rode through Fort Walton beach, a scenic highway, Pensacola, then another bridge before arriving at the church. It was such a gorgeous ride, totally worth two extra bridges at the end of a long ride.  Because we were on an island there was water on both sides of us. When we were on the scenic highway we were surrounded by white sand beaches and crystal blue waters on both sides. Just wonderful!   I had another one of those "I could ride forever" experiences on that island. Arriving at the church just after the first group,we waited for Lyndsey to arrive so we could unpack the van. We firelined everything up to the second floor (ughh) and claimed our places. I was super excited to see all of the futons (and I may have even claimed one :) ) after a shower I got a text from Summer telling me her flight had landed. Lyndsey and I jumped in the van and picked her up from the airport. We had lots of fun navigating around Pensacola. We gave the Best Buy guys high fives and I got laughed at by the man in the auto parts store because my tan lines are apparently very funny :) which they kind of are, but the real world is just strange after so much time in our insular world. We bike, we build, we eat, we sleep. Theres a bit more to it than that, but that's he basic gist of our lives right now. 

We arrived back at the church in time for a cookout dinner. This church was a little different, since it is the home church of both Noelle and Josh E. They had lots of family and friends at dinner and Noelle even bright her dog! We gave our presentation, balanced in a human siting chain and then were told to go outside. Two words: bounce castle! Since day one of our trip, our leaders have been talking about getting a bounce castle donated, kind of like a pipe dream that won't come true, but you aspire to it anyways. 12 days later we have a bouncy castle for keeps. It's chilling in the trailer right now. After tiring ourselves out from jumping and laughing at other people attempting to jump, we headed to bed.