St. George Island, FL. 9599 miles.

Made a quick trip back into the FQ in the early morning for some goodbye beingets at Cafe Du Monde. Even at 7 AM on a Monday morning the bars were hopping with music pouring out. Such an amazing town, I can’t wait to come back but my liver will need some time to recover.

I headed out into the bayou across US 90 and found myself in the worst rain I have run into in weeks. The middle of the LA swamp is not a fun place to get caught in a thunderstorm. There is gnothingG for miles and you can’t even duck off the road into the trees because of what is living out there. I finally made it to a small stretch of vacation homes set up on their enormous wooden pegs. I pulled underneath one of them to wait out the worst of the weather. It is a beautiful and strange place but I was still feeling my New Orleans weekend and this was not how I wanted to start a long riding day.

Luckily the rain passed quickly as I crossed into Mississippi. I’ve never been much for rainbows but seeing the sun break through the thunderheads with an enormous double rainbow I thanked the motorcycle gods again for letting me through.

Past the shrimping towns of Southern Mississippi and the first view of the Gulf of Mexico I headed back into the woods.

The ride through Mississippi into Alabama was a tour of some deep south country. The state line was a particularly eerie spot in the middle of the woods marked only by a sign and two very dilapidated old bars, one of which might actually still be open but I don’t think I want to know who would go there. The gravel surrounding it was littered with shotgun cases and used syringes and I decided I had stayed there quite long enough.

Across the line into Florida things got nasty very fast. From Pensacola to Panama City is the worst stretch of America I have ever seen. 100 miles of ugly concrete sprawl with the worst drivers I have encountered yet, I had the distinctive feeling I wouldn’t make it through without a wreck. I can’t explain the sheer idiocy and nastiness of the drivers out there. I can’t think of a place I want to forget more.

Past Panama the towns become smuch smallerand further apart and the beauty of the Gulf Coast starts to appear. Another place where terrains meet and compete from mile to mile, the swamp butts against the coast and then back into pine forests scattered with palm trees. The wind comes in off the ocean strong with large waves you cross one immensely long Bay Bridge after another and on a bike it feels like flying across the surface of the ocean with pelicans and seagulls pacing you the whole way.

I took the longest bridge of the day over 6 miles out to St. George Island to end the day. The motel is right on the beach and I walked the coastline and drank margaritas at oceanfront bars and ate gulf shrimp. I’m glad I didn’t give I totally the temptation to write the Florida Gulf Coast off, but I’m not sentirely sure I want to spend another two days heading to Key West. I’ll decide in the morning but for now I could have found a worse place to stop. as I sat looking out at the Gulf I tried to wrap my head around being in the top of the Rockies just 4 days earlier and for about the millionth time the magnitude of this trip hit me hard. I waded out into the waves with the full moon bright overhead and stood in the water for a good hour reflecting on the past month. I can’t believe I am in my final days and I really don’t know what life is going to feel like when I’m back home. But whatever comes next I know I will always remember these miles.

Wyatt Neumann was a phenomenally talented photographer and director, a loving husband and father, and a passionate motorcyclist. On June 11th he was doing what he loved riding in Delaware when he suffered a brain aneurysm which caused him to lose control of his motorcycle. He died shortly after. Wyatt was instrumental in both inspiring this trip and planning many of its routes and logistics. The title of this site was unapologetically stolen from his series of photographs from his own travels. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. A memorial fund has been established to help his family in this very trying time. Please consider donating. Any amount will help. Thank you.

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