Cheryl posting for Chuck tonight.

Note about the blog:
Some of you may have noticed the site was down for quite a few hours today. My apologies. Seems the company that hosts our website had a problem with one of their servers — the one that contains all of our websites and blogs — and took it off-line today to do a major overhaul. Hopefully the problem is solved…

Black Water River State Forest to Pensacola, FL
52 miles

While talking with Chuck on the phone tonight, I overheard Bob tell the host at Pensacola Naval Air station’s campground, “It’s the heat that kills ya,”when he asked Chuck and Bob about their ride.

“So you haven’t been in Florida in the summer?”

Chuck and Bob laughed. “We’re from Florida.”

“I feel sorry for you guys. I’ve done that trip and its hard enough going by motorcycle!”

Chuck told me their host is a great guy and is really helping them out. He’s even charging Chuck’s GPS for him tonight because their tent site tonight is ‘primitive’ which means no water and electric, just a place to pitch their tents. The campground does have nice shower and laundry facilities, though and Chuck said, “the place is packed” with RVers.

Chuck said they rode 52 miles today. “It was a hard day. The first 25 to 30 miles were okay, but the last 6 were torture! But I’m not complaining,” he laughed.

Oak Grove Park at Pensacola NAS, where the guys are staying, is nicely located near the beach and the museum on base. Because Chuck is a retired Marine, he still has base privileges and today it came in handy when looking for a campground in the area.

They did need to do some shopping tonight, though, and ended up at Walmart. Chuck said he needed to replace a strobe light and a water bottle and cage that were broken when he fell a couple of days ago. I asked him why they went to Walmart instead of the base exchange, as he told me last night that Bob was looking forward to checking out the BX.

“The BX was 5 miles from the campground and Walmart was 2. We already put in a long day and didn’t want to ride another 10 miles round trip. Walmart was closer!”

As they left Walmart, they did have another mishap. Bob’s chain popped while at an intersection and he couldn’t go forward or backward and hit the pavement hard. Chuck said he’s okay, but it’s another case of equipment malfunction and working out all the kinks as they go along.

The boys plan to relax tonight and stay over tomorrow. They have some chores to take care of with maintenance and fixes on their bikes and some laundry to take care of, but they’re also going to watch the Blue Angels put on a show in the morning and then check out the Air Museum. Chuck said there is also a lighthouse “somewhere around here” and that “the beach is beautiful with that white sand” so I bet they’ll spend some time checking it out too.

The plan now is to head out again on Wednesday, and within a couple of days they should all be crossing the border into Alabama and leaving Florida behind.

52 miles to Pensacola