We headed out of Panama Beach this morning. We both agreed to take the longer but nicer route along the ocean. We were expecting crowds due to Spring Break activities….however…..there is nothing at all going on.

On the scenic route we actually saw a lot of road kill and animals we haven’t seen before. On the road kill checklist we have turtle and alligator today, and on the animal checklist is turkey…in Florida in the swamp? What’s that about?

We made it to Perry fairly early today 3:30pm(EST) and we were planning on camping tonight, but LOST is on tonight and the thought of missing one crucial episode does not sit well with either of us so we are seeking refuge again in the cheapest Motel we can to satisfy our LOST craving tonight, and I guess we are also tired and need a night off to recharge our energy.

Miles: Today-160 Total-3,350

Ryan

Hey I just wanted you all to know that we are aware of the slight glitch in our podcast recordings, and are working on fixing it for future podcasts.

We met with Pastor Paul Smith, who is doing some amazing work with his community as well as church planting around the world.  His stories about what they have done in their area are inspirational.

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After our interview this morning We followed Eric to a coffee shop, to do some updating. Then we went to Blakely Forrest, where there is some old civil war battlefields. There were also a lot of sandy roads but I managed to make it out ok.

We then went to the southern Florida coast to a campground here in Panama City.

That makes 140 miles today, and 185 yesterday. Not sure on the total miles right now, but I do know it is over 3,000.

A picture of my bike off of a sandy road.  That is as far as she made it, before I had to head back towards pavement.

We started out the day yesterday in pleasant weather.  We crossed this huge bridge, 24 miles long, over Lake Pontchartrain.  It was eerie crossing over this bridge, because it was the first bridge that I could not see land on the other side of.   When we got to the middle you could not see land anywhere, just a straight bridge and water.  We were told by the locals that it is the longest bridge over water in the country.

After the interview at Life Church in Mandeville we headed to Mobile, AL.  We rode through the coast of Missippi which was really nice, we even went through Long Beach, MS, which was pretty cool to see our sister city.  We had received an email a couple days ago from a guy named Eric Griffin, who we had never met, offering us a place to stay in Alabama.  So when we got into his area we gave him a call, and he welcomed us over to his home.  Him and his wife Jennifer fed us, and gave us warm beds to sleep in, which is really a priceless gift on the road.  They showed us around Fairhope, and took us down to the pier.  It really is a beautiful town.

We learned quickly that many people in there church community are entrepeneurs. Eric and Jennifer (picture below) started a business called B-A-Light Productions.  They are both experienced children’s ministers and so this is there way of reaching out to churches across the country that may need help in starting or building up their children’s ministry.  “B-A-Light Productions is your one stop for all your children’s ministry needs. From seminars and training to set design and construction to curriculum and ministry add-ins.”  It was cool to meet with them and learn about their passions for ministry, and how to be effective.

This morning Eric took us to his church to meet with his pastors at Celebration Church.  None of the pastors were able to be there for different reasons but we did meet a woman named Leah who told us about a ministry called Restore.  They sell these bracelets pictured below, and send the money to San Bendito, Nicaragua to help build housing, create access to clean water, and better education in their area.  They gave Ryan and I a bracelet and so we are proudly sporting them across the country.

We ended up going to another church, Loxley Church of God, for our Alabama interview.  It was a good interview, and so both of those will post soon.

Now we are headed to Panama City, FL.  We were told to take the coast for a ways towards Tampa, so we are not going to Bonifay and Lake City anymore.

Well if you do, you should join us in trying to pitch our little journey to Relevant Magazine for a story.  All you need to do is email Roxanne (roxanne@relevantmediagroup.com) at Relevant and tell her about our trip.  Here are somethings you should include in your email:

1. Our website which is usamotorcycletrip.com

2. A short summary describing what the article would be about.  You can get a pretty basic summary of our trip from the column on the right side of this page.  (If you can’t see that column, then you might need to update your browser)

3. Let them know that we will be in Orlando, where their headquarters are, later this week on April 18th.

Thanks for the support

The Holden’s, the people we are staying with, let us borrow their car, so we took it down to the city, instead of parking our bikes somewhere that we could not keep an eye on.

It was Easter, and Ryan’s bday, so we headed back down to the French Quarter to go to what was both of our first ever Catholic service.  We went to the St Louis Cathedral, which is one of the biggest Cathedrals around.  It is kind of the hub for Catholics in this area.  It was interesting, but I was so tired from not sleeping well for whatever reason, that it was hard to sit through.  I kept falling asleep, and I felt bad for the people who were piled in there standing in the back, so we left a little early, and hopefully someone else got our seats.

From there we headed back to the Holden’s and enjoyed a relaxing BBQ with their family and friends.  It was a pretty uneventful day, maybe we will do more birthday celebrating tomorrow.

Below is a picture of us with Eric and Lisa Holden