Day 4 Oct. 19, 2009

Wow what a day! It all started when we were in the doorway of our hotel room this morning.
I had just finished praying that we would meet people today to share our story with and the next thing I know Bill and Pat were standing in our doorway. We started talking about our adventure and the reason for it than Bill shared with us about a friend of his who has cancer. We also found out that Bill has gone cross country on his bicycle, Him and Pat are both bicyclist who enjoy riding.
We left Apilachicola and headed west on 98 for 23 miles without seeing anything but forest on both sides, got to Port St. Joe which I believe is one of the prettiest little towns we have rode through, beautiful plantation style homes on large lots, gorgeous views of the gulf. If anyone is contemplating moving to the coast check this little town out.
We headed for mexico beach that was loaded with condos and houses for sale and rent, pretty place probably one of the nicest places to vacation ( not very touristy). We headed west and north toward Panama City, there was a stretch of road that seem to be about 200 miles(actually it was about 10 miles) we were getting tired and hungry when out of nowhere we see a cyclist coming the other way, she pulled into our lane and we stopped and talked. Her name was Linda and she was on day 74 of her cross country ride. To read about her journey go to www.crazyguyonabike.com/globetrotter (Linda's Epic Journey) She will be posting on her site about Richard's Ride. It was extremely encouraging to meet a fellow rider.Ride on Linda!!
I have to be truthful about Panama City, the roads sucked! No bike lane and traffic everywhere
Hwy 98 in Panama City Beach was even worse, although they had a bike lane people were travelling 70mph right next to you.
Next amazing story: we got a room just east of Laguna Beach at the Palmetto, while we were sitting in the hot tub we met a real nice guy named Stacey , we shared with him what we were doing and he said he would donate to the website, now heres the amazing part as we were leaving to go back to our room I heard Stacey call our names and ran over and put some folded bills in my hand and told Jerry and I to eat very well . What a blessing, Thanks Stacey, by the way he handed me the same amount that the hotel room had cost us!!!
Well I'm signing off for the night we are both pretty tired rode about 77 miles with never ending wind (at least not a straight on headwind). Thanks for the comments, we look forward to reading them so keep them coming. Jerry says Hi and thanks you all for being there for us.

Tracy