Atlantic Coast Tour
April 5th, Jonathan Dickinson State Park to Sebastian Inlet State Park

One of the things that we enjoy most about camping is the challenge of cooking all of our meals. This morning is no exception. Bec agrees to start breakfast while Louie breaks camp. Today's special is banana pancakes. Bec fires up the stove and begins cooking. Soon she realizes that the pancake is stuck like glue to the pan. Louie says, "Oh, let me try." He serves up one scrambled pancake same as Bec. Finally, we accept the fact that we have ruined our fry pan cooking over the campfire on our last tour. So we scale back the size of our hotcakes and cook them in our mess kit, which works great. Louie is happy to toss the pan because he had been fussing all last night about carrying too much stuff.

After breakfast we meet a tandem couple out for a day ride. We talk tandem with them until Bec discovers that the captain is a diabetic same as she is. Talk turns to insulin pumps and then back to tandems as Louie instructs the captain on different ways to ship their tandem.

We hit the road about 9:00 AM. It is already warm. We stop at a local library that we had been told has wifi. We sit out front because they are not open and take care of our business.

Back on the road, we have a wonderful tail wind and an ample shoulder. We have to cross a few bridges today. On one of them, we have to ride on a narrow sidewalk. The wind is blowing so hard that it is difficult to keep us on track. Somehow we manage to survive.

Once again we find a beachside park for lunch. We see that a wedding had taken place on the beach moments before. There are tropical decorations placed in the sand where they must have taken their vows. A photographer is directing the bride and groom and they come into the shelter where we are eating lunch. We watch them have their picture taken and congratulate them before they leave.

The temperature as we ride seems to be getting warmer, but actually, it is a result of having no breeze. This is because we are traveling directly with the wind. The good part is that we are doing 20 mph at times. 77 miles into our ride we arrive at Sebastian Inlet Park.

Arriving at the park, we are not surprised to see that the sign says that it is full. We are not worried because the ranger at the last campground assured us that Florida State Parks would never turn us away if we could not make it to the next campground. Not so! Apparently this park's overflow is for RV's only. Fortunately for us a Travel Angel appears out of nowhere. She offers us her site that she is vacating because a storm is coming. The ranger puts up all kinds of barriers to our acquiring that campsite. Finally, she agrees that we may have it after the travel angel asked what we would need to do to make sure that these cyclists get their campsite. The travel angel has to fill out all sorts of paperwork. We almost have to hire a lawyer to enable her to will us their spot. We have a home for the night and just in time. No sooner do we set up camp, get showers, and have dinner when we hear the storm rumbling in. We batten down the hatches and call it a day.

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