It was a cloudy, relatively chilly morning today. The wind was still blowing a bit and still from the same WNW direction. That of course made it feel even chillier. Once we were all packed up, we headed back to the Harvey's grocery store that we stopped at last night. Our usual favorite breakfast, cereal and milk, is always the main choice, despite the cold. It fills us up, cleanup is easy and we just plain old love cereal. We ate outside the store between the big flats of top soil/ mulch in hopes that that would block the wind a little bit. By the time we were having our last bowl of cereal, I headed in and sat in the "breezeway" of the store just to be where it was a little warmer. Joey soon followed and we were both glad that we did that. Unlike TX and a bunch of other places we've been, we haven't noticed any tables inside the store near the deli or elsewhere, lately. It was always so helpful, whether it was cold or not. With breakfast all done, I washed the bowls and spoons in the sink in the nice warm water in the grocery store. I get a kick out of seeing how people take second looks as I'm carrying a couple bowls, a scrubber and a little half used bottle of soap through the store. But, I don't mind one bit, because I will tell ya what- it is just SOO much easier and more enjoyable to wash things in a sink with warm water than outside with a water bottle, especially if it's cold out. It will be strange getting home and doing dishes in a sink every time and in the same sink, too, for that matter. It gives light to the idea that when we get home, there should never be procrastination when it comes to washing dirty dishes because it will be just SO easy to wash them. Before heading too far out of town, we made a quick stop at a gas station because we decided it was cold enough to put our cycling pants on. We knew this day would soon be arriving, and here it was! Somehow, the clothes in the bottom of my waterproof bag were a bit damp from when it downpoured the other day. So, I spent a bit of time drying out my pants under the hand dryer in the bathroom as to not totally freeze when I put them on. Although it was windy, like yesterday, there were a few times where the wind actually helped us a bit. We rode through a couple small towns before stopping in Cordele for lunch. After asking around, we found out there was a grocery store a little bit in the wrong direction, but it ended up not being that far away. Somehow, we ended up seeing a Walmart before the grocery store, so we went there instead. We bought some pasta, a couple little cans of tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatoes, and a small bag of cheese (and a Hershey's chocolate bar for each of us) and then headed off to find a place out of the wind to cook. Back more towards the center of town was a big Methodist church with a long overhang/archway place where we could get out of the wind. As we were cooking our lunch a maintenance guy came out of the activities building, where a few other people were working, and said that we were more than welcome to sit inside to eat to get out of the cold. So, once our food was all done cooking, we gladly took him up on that offer. I even had another bathroom sink to wash the dishes in, it was perfect. Later on towards the afternoon, the clouds dissipated and we had blue skies. Somewhere around 18 miles after lunch, Joey somehow got a flat tire. We found a little pull off/ driveway that looked like it was hardly ever used and utilized that to get off the road a little while he changed it. Joey hard at work, while Emmy has already done all her little jobs of getting the pump ready, finding a new tube, etc, what better thing to do than enjoy some of my chocolate bar!!! By the time Joey was done changing the flat, we weren't sure if we would make it to the town we had planned on going to before it got dark. We remained optimistic and just pedaled our hearts out to try to get there on time. About quarter to 7 we rolled into town. The road we were on didn't have that much traffic and there were street lights, so the upcoming darkness didn't seem to be a problem. We made a quick stop at Subway to fill up on water and asked them how to get to the main part of town. It was kind of a weird set up because we were right next to the I-75, so the part that we were in was just the restaurants and gas stations for that. They pointed us in the right direction, which was helpful because its never very easy to find your way around a new area in the dark. Since we were looking for a place to set up the tent for the night we began riding around to scout out a spot. Somehow we managed to find a church that had a couple cars at it. Not only that, but we found it at the absolute perfect time. Just as we were pulling up, there was a man walking out towards his car. Upon asking him if we could set our tent up somewhere near the church, we got a very quick answer of Sure. He didn't see any reason it would be a problem. The next question he asked was if we had eaten any dinner yet. Since we hadn't we told him so and were in for a real treat! The church has a little fellowship dinner on Wednesday nights, just like my church at home does. They were just leaving from that and there was some chicken, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and chocolate cake left! We couldn't believe it! Had we been just 30 seconds later, we would have missed our opportunity to meet Ken, and then an amazing dinner too! It really did make our day. Ken joined us while we ate and the rest of his family who were waiting in the car when we got there came and joined us too. We had a blast talking with them and telling them some stories. It's kind of a cool thing this bike travel, because since so few people do it, anyone we meet has a lot of questions about it. I rather enjoy sharing stories and answering questions because it gives me a way to remind myself of what we are doing and of some of the places we've been, people we've met and things we've experienced. After we were both stuffed to the brim, we double checked on where it would be ok to set up. Ken told us a few different places where we would be out of the way and under an overhang just in case it rained. Then, he offered a plan B- to sleep in the outbuilding that had electricity, but no running water. That was even better, then we didn't have to set up our tent at all, just roll out our sleeping bags!! So, that was what we were going to do, or so we thought Right after he proposed that idea, his son Adam came over and told us that Kellie (his mom) offered for us to just come to their house for the night. So there you have it, on to Plan C. We couldn't believe it. The night just kept getting better and better. We truly are blessed. The Day family lived about 12 miles outside of town, so in order to do Plan C we had to make sure our bikes fit in the back of their truck. Sure enough they did! Joey and I rode with Ken and, Victoria, one of his 5 daughters (the oldest, Ashley, is away at college and the other three daughters-Amelia, Elizabeth and Evelyn were riding with Adam and Kellie ). It was a good thing our bikes fit because after a long day of cycling, I don't think we had another 12 miles in us, nor would we be able to easily figure out where to go in the dark. Before we knew it, we were pulling into the driveway of their beautiful, over 160 year old farm house. We were greeted by their dogs and I was of course thrilled to get a little "puppy time." Joe and I got what we needed off our bikes and left them right in the back of the truck since Adam would be going through town tomorrow morning on his way to class. For the rest of the evening, we relaxed with the family and even had a chance to take a nice hot shower! How fortunate we've been to have gotten to enjoy so many showers since we left Orlando! Nothing better than a nice hot shower after a day in the saddle. An incredible night indeed. We feel so fortunate that we had a chance to meet and get to know the Day Family; they really are just such a wonderful family. When it came to be bedtime, we were both so happy to be in a bed. We knew we'd get a wonderful night's sleep Since it was a pretty nice day weather wise with mostly sunny skies, we managed to get in 83.72 miles today. Another productive day. Hopefully that cold weather will stay away so we can get a few more big mile days.
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