Surprise 90 miles into Pensacola & U.S Air Force Encounter

One thing that makes Bike and Build interesting in the South is all the historical places we get to hit. Although their was literally nothing to do in Defuniak Springs. On our way out of the town we got to see the world's second most circular man-made lake (The other is in Switzerland) AND we got to see a few of the total of 250 historical registered homes and buildings on our way out.

Heading into Pensacola I think was the hardest day for everyone. We prepared our minds for an 80 mile ride which turned into over 90 miles. It was ridiculously hard, hot, and draining. However, there was much room for a lot of interesting things to happen as well...

Biking along the coast and back roads we have been able to see a lot of Air Force and Military covered lands. We had a free show of the Blue Angels which is the Air Force Air Craft flying groups that do awesome tricks and fly in packs of 4 literally 100 feet above your head. We also biked by many bomb and gun testing sites. Let's just say the Air Force has a lot of property.

Cycling across the country requires a lot of bike maintanence and being ready to change flats almost everyday. One rider in the group I was riding with got a flat tire, so we pulled off the side of the road so that he could change it. As he was changing it a solid group of about 5 of us (Jill, Zack, Scott, Adam, and I climbed up this small stone wall to sit, wait, and much on our snacks. Ten minutes later three U.S Air Force men are running down along side the other side of the wall. We all quickly jumped off and before we knew it they had jumped this stone wall that literally took us each ten minutes to get up. Two minutes later an Air Force SUV drives up out of no where on the side of the road and they confiscate all six of our ID's and tell us to wait. After they returned with our ID's we were showed that we were unconsicously trespassing by sitting on the wall because every 100 feet were no trespassing signs. After apologizes were said we got to tell all U.S Air Force men that we were biking across the country. We slipped them a card to track us and got a photo of taken to remember this unexpected encounter.

After this surprising event, we climbed a bridge onto the beach side of the ride and went through a very beautiful National Reservation. It was like a winter wonderland on the beach. The sand was so white it was blinding and their were sand dunes and interesting wildlife everywhere. The oddest part were these small segall like birds. I guess if you're a bird living in a sand desert, they don't typically see much color. My vibrant green helmet sent two birds diving into attack my head and claim the territory I was invading. Of course I am just fine! It made me bike a little faster... haha weird birds...