Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Ride Day 49

I spent yesterday afternoon and night at Dauphin Island Alabama. I enjoyed the little island. It was nice to be back near and on a hot tropical beach. I set up my tent at the campground near the ferry terminal and then rode my bike around the island for a few hours ending with a few beers at a pub. There were lots of people fishing along the coast and they were catching quite a few fish. I saw spanish mackerel, drum, speckled trout and some others that I don't know the names of being caught. I wanted to get out there myself but the license was too expensive for just one day. The pub was entertaining. It was all locals but me and they were talking politics which basically means they were trashing Obama. They were trying to decide what color dress he would look best in now that he announced that he was gay. What? That was quite a jump of logic but I just ignored it and listened to them chat. After my few beers I went back to camp and cooked and ate some food then sat around talking to some other campers for about an hour before the mosquitoes drove me back into my tent. The night in the tent did not go so well. I brought my water battle full of gatoraide into the tent so the coons didn't steal it. Big mistake because the top was not tight and that sticky crap got all over everything. I spent a few hours cleaning up the mess. At dawn I packed up and went over to catch the ferry back to shore at Fort Morgan. The ferry was my second problem after the sticky mess. The vibrations on the ferry set off my seizure problems. I did not actually have a seizure on the ferry but my nerves started to twitch so bad that the pain was climbing rapidly. I managed to hold on without a seizure on the ferry so I jumped on my bike and headed to Florida. As I rode the nerves and muscles started to twitch and cramp and jerk around on me. Both of my legs were involved in it. I rode on anyway because there was really nothing I could do about it. But finally near Gulf Beach just before I entered Florida my body decided to go into a seizure. I dropped down from riding my bike in sort of a controlled fall and sprawled out on the side of the road having a seizure. I think I was aware the entire time I was having the seizure but I never really know for sure unless there is someone there to watch and tell me what happened. I remember two cars going by but neither stopped. I was off the road but I was surprised that they did not notice my problem and stop to offer help. It stopped in a couple of minutes but then the pain started to rapidly climb again. I jumped on my bike and tried to find a place to put up for the night. The closest place was seven miles up the road. In agonizing pain I managed to make it to the Big Lagoon State Park where I set up camp and immediately rested for a couple of hours and ate and drank as much as I had with me. After the rest I felt better so I rode over across the street to the library to write this and do my other computer stuff. As soon as I finish I am off to bed and I hope by morning I am well enough to continue my ride and if not then I will stay here another night. I am only about 350 miles from my destination of St Augustine Florida. I don't want my body to crap out on me this close to my goal. If I have to I will ride the rest of the way on drugs. I am going to finish this ride one way or another. I took very few pics again today. More later...