He Tipped Me Off

After breakfast we set off for our Motel at Destin. The ride was through some beautiful scenery and the roads are long and straight.

All was going well until we needed to stop for fuel. In America they don’t have roundabouts, they do U-Turns. We all pulled into the lane and Des came alongside us with Graeme and Sandra behind. Then it happened....Nigel turned a little too sharply and the front brake dug in tipping us into the camber of the road. Try as we might there was no return once the bike started to go over. Fortunately we have tied our bed mats to the sides of the bike and so it just came to rest on that rather than going right onto it’s side. I did a rather undignified dismount and we managed with a huge amount of muscle power to get it upright again....boy are these bikes heavy when loaded! Anyway no harm was done (apart from me having a very tender calf) and we back on our way with a story to tell! I would like it noted here that not one of our fellow tourers came to our assistance but they all sat laughing and taking photos....it was noted!

We stopped off at  Carabella and had a drink, then made our way to Carabella beach. The others weren’t interested in staying there so they set off for Destin. Nigel and I had a lovely picnic lunch on the beach and while I paddled Nigel had a snorkel. The water was still too cold for me which was a bit disappointing. I will have to come back in August when it is like getting into a bath!

We only had two hours there and then we rather  relunctantly set off on our way.

A very quick stop off at Walmart for some trousers and we were back on route.  We arrived at the Motel and after it taking an age to get booked in we met the others who were rather peeved at us being so late. Rachel and Martin had managed to catch us up so it was nice to see them.  They all went off for tea and Nigel and I left a few minutes later to go to a local recommended fish restaurant. It was gorgeous and after a short walk around the Marina we headed back for bed.