The snow started to fall around 11 or 12 last night and I'm pretty sure it kept coming down right til morning. Despite the snow, it didn't feel as cold as it could have! We definitely had the perfect place to set up our tent for the night in the little "hallway" outside. The wind was blocked and we were protected from any rain or snow that could fall. Somehow, since I wasn't feeling like I was completely frozen, I ended up being pretty productive. I typed for quite a while without falling asleep like I normally do! It was tough getting out of the sleeping bags this morning because once I did fall asleep last night, I was out like a light and actually felt very comfortable temperature wise, all night long. What a relief! The snow was coming down pretty good this morning when we woke up and we noticed right away that there was a tiny bit of accumulation on the ground. We noticed that my back tire was a little flat this morning. We weren't sure if the patch just didn't hold, or if I had hit something else and now had a slow leak. We decided to just put some air in it for now and see how it did. Once we were all packed, we headed over to the Piggly Wiggly to pick up some milk. We knew that there were tables inside because Joey had scoped it out last night so that we would know for this morning. There was an outlet right in the little "cafe" area where we could charge our phones while we enjoyed our breakfast. Afterwards, I washed out the bowls in the nice hot water in the bathroom and was happy to not have to do that outside. The wind was still against us, but not even close to as strong as it was last night by the time we had gotten to town. It sure would have been a miserable ride had we decided to keep going and try to make it to the next town that was about 22 miles away. I know for a fact that we wouldn't have made it before dark. With face masks and all on, we were pretty comfortable temperature wise. The only thing that had any inkling of being cold when we started were our feet, since our shoes were still a little damp from yesterday's ride in the rain. The first part of the ride was relatively flat. We pushed against the chilly wind and made some progress. At one point we turned to head to our new road, hwy 27 (that we will take all the way into OH). The road that we turned on to get there had quite a few big steep hills to start off. As we were approaching highway 27, there was a big hill in front of us. We drew closer and closer to it, but knew we wouldn't cross it yet as 27 paralleled it. The road eventually flattened out before crossing under the road we would be getting on. Another little hill to get up to the main road and we were off again. This time the wind didn't seem like it was quite as bad coming from more of an angle instead of the front. Highway 27 had some rollers, but for the most part was pretty flat as it ran through the valley between the big hills. We stopped for a quick check of my slow leaking tire and Joey put a little more air in it just to be sure. The first town we came to was called Spring City. We took a quick bathroom break at one of the gas stations and from there were going to head over to the grocery store and sit in the laundrymat nearby to eat. On the way there, we saw a Chinese buffet. That looked SO tempting, and so we went to see how much it was. We figured if it happened to be 5 bucks a person, we would do it. After all, it would serve as two meals, so it would be worth it. When we found out that the buffet was 5.90, we decided to just go for it anyway. Before he started to eat, Joey took my back tire off and changed it since the slow leak would end up being a pain later on. There was a nice spot with a couple chairs at the front of the restaurant where he could change it inside where it was warm. While he was working on that, he told me to just go ahead and start eating (since I'm such a slow eater). There was a nice older couple and a man and his two kids there in the restaurant. Somehow, I got talking to them and answered any questions they had about the trip. The man with the two children just couldn't believe that we rode all the way to Alaska on those bikes. I gave him one of our little make shift business cards so he could have our website. After talking with him for quite a while, I learned that he used to live in Fairbanks for a while and that the mother of his two kids is from Syracuse, NY!! It's so much fun talking to people because you just never know where they've been or if they have anything in common with you, and you are almost always surprised, after-all, it is a small world. The man and his children had finished their meal and were heading out the door before Joey had gotten done with the tire. Right after they left, the waitress came over to clean their table and said to me "he paid your bill." I couldn't believe it! I ran outside hoping that he hadn't left yet so that I could thank him. Luckily I caught him right before he got in his car. What an amazing surprise. The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me. Little things that we will never forget. When Joey joined me, we enjoyed the rest of our meal and enjoyed talking with the older couple that was there. Such sweet people. After our bellies were all full, we headed back out into the cold and wind. We continued down 27, still riding alongside the same long hill. After a while, we passed through the cities of Rockwood and Harriman. There we stopped for a quick internet check at McDonld's and then continued on and stopped at Walmart for some groceries. From there, we had a bit of climbing in store for us. Highway 27 turned into the hills to go North West. At first it was a very gradual climb as we were getting into the hills. Eventually the gradual climb became steeper until it was to the point that we really felt like we were climbing. Although we've been looking at a thin layer of snow on the ground all day long, it was refreshing riding up into the hills. The snow on the trees and rock was beautiful. Every once in a while we'd ride by a little trickling stream with a few ice cycles hanging from the rocks here and there. Such a beautiful ride. Despite being tired and now riding more into a headwind, the scenery helped keep it enjoyable. We climbed for quite a few miles. At one point, we climbed over the top and saw a gas station. Since I had to pee, we stopped there for a quick break. As we were pulling up, a couple guys saw us and came outside. They started asking us where we were riding to. We told them and the one man said "Yeah.. and the next thing you're going to tell me is that you rode them things down here..." I had to laugh a little, but told him that we did, with a detour to Alaska and San Diego first. The men just couldn't believe that we had ridden almost 14, 000 miles on "those bikes." We talked with the two men and the one man's teenage son for quite a while. They even asked to get our pictures taken with us- we were like celebrities. They told us to email them the pictures and they would put them in the local newspaper, neat-o! After talking with them for a while, we learned that their son was headed off to their church in Wartburg (our destination for the night) for youth group. They said that we should stop there and we would most likely have a place to stay there and almost certainly at least be able to set up our tent there. With only about 15-20 minutes left of light now, we rode as fast as we could to get to town. The guys offered to put our bikes in the back of the truck and take us there, but we figured we could use the extra miles. It was about 5 miles or so to get to town, with a few more small hills in between. We found the First Baptist Church without too much of a problem and knew that we had the right place because we saw the boy's truck out front. The whole parking lot was full of cars. When we walked inside, we saw a huge gymnasium and peeked in the window where we saw the group of teens. We were welcomed into the youth group discussion and after some of the kids asked the usual questions, we heard a lot of "Wow's, etc." The teens thought that our trip was "so awesome" as they put it. We listened in on their discussion and afterwards relaxed for a bit while waiting for the adult bible study to finish up so that we could ask the pastor. Once they were done, the youth pastor introduced us to Bro. Danny and we found out that it would be fine to set up our tent. They told us a nice spot where we would be able to get out of the wind a little bit, which would be very helpful. When the pastor double checked with a couple of the other guys at the church, he came back and told us that we were welcome to stay in the gym tonight so we would be out of the cold!!! How lucky are we!?!? Not only that, but they recently had a lock in for the kids, so there were a few extra pews still in the gym that we could push together to make a little make shift bed. Brother Danny showed us around and said to help ourselves to any of the food that was in the kitchen, including the ice cream in the freezer! Oh and it get's better- there are shower's in the bathrooms we can use AND a place to do any laundry that we need done! We were so happy. All this because we happened to stop at that convenience store. So, we had a very comfortable night in store for us. We each took showers, had a bowl of ice cream (since we were inside warm where we could enjoy it!), and even had a few Doritos. While I typed, Joey walked to the gas station and bought some more milk for tomorrow morning. We did a little load of laundry, which was very helpful because we would have a dry towel to put away and clean warm gear for tomorrow. After 66.33 miles today, we would have a great nights sleep in out of the cold!!
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Both of us had a fantastic night's sleep last night. We woke up around 7:30 and just relaxed in the warmth and comfyness of our guess room. When Alicia and Cassia woke up, so did Sweetie. She came running into our room and I got to have some puppy time. It was so cute because she would jump all over on top of the bed rolling around and burrowing her head in the pillows. Such a cuddly puppy. When Ed woke up, he made us some yummy scrambled eggs with cheese and we somehow finished off the remainder of the loaf of the amazing homemade bread topped with either honey or homemade strawberry jam. A great way to start the day. The weather, as we knew was not looking too good today. We had the option to stay another day with this wonderful family, but decided that since we actually have somewhat of a deadline now (to get to Wheeling, WV by the 20th if possible), that we better keep moving and get a few more miles out of the way. We both had such a great time last night and would have loved to play some more Twister or possibly Monopoly, tonight, but regardless of the weather, we have to try to get as many miles done as we can. So, with our bellies full, and our bags all packed, we headed out for the day. It was a bit sad saying goodbye. Unfortunately, I didn't see Tomato out and about this morning, so I didn't get to give him a hug before I left, but I'm sure that Cassia will make up for that. I hope that when we get a kitty someday, that he is as lovey as Tomato is. Although it was overcast and we knew the rain would soon be approaching, we were very happy because we had a great tailwind. Once we were back out on the main highway, the entire northbound lane was closed for construction, but had a great asphalt surface to ride on- so that's what we did. We just cruised along with our wonderful tail wind without a care in the world- no traffic to bother us and all the room in the world to ride. It was great- reminded us of that one section of the I 40 we had to ride for a few miles that had the same kind of thing back in Dec. on my birthday. The great treat of a road all to ourselves lasted about 5-6 miles and then we were on the shoulder again, which was none to shabby to say the least. It was nice and wide for almost the entire way before we had to make a turn onto hwy 30 to go towards Athens. Somewhere along the way, I hit a piece of glass and so, had a flat tire on my rear wheel. We pulled into the closest place where we could get off the road, and it happened to be a Dollar General- since those seem to be in every little town. My sweetie, as usual, did all the hard work in fixing the tire, and as usual, I was the tool getter girl. We got the first 13 miles done really fast, but once we turned our beautiful tail wind turned into a side wind of course, and along with it came the rain that we've been expecting. We got poured on the entire rest of the way to Athens. It wasn't terribly cold, so it wasn't unbearable, but like anytime riding in the rain, it's still not much fun getting soaked. We rode through the downtown portion of Athens, past the Tennessee Wesleyan College, and over a few more hills as the rain continued to come down harder. We planned on stopping for lunch a little early with the rain if we happened to find someplace to go inside for a bit. Sure enough, once we got over another hill, we saw an Ingles grocery store. It was perfect because we could put our bikes under the overhang and they would stay out of the rain, and we could head inside. There happened to be some tables inside AND free wifi! It was the perfect place to get out of the rain for a little bit. Originally we planned on cooking up something for lunch, but neither of us were in the mood for that, so we just split one of the Ingles Subs (and I got a few donuts from the bakery, too, just because they looked mouthwatering- and they were!). The sub was delicious- and SO much cheaper than going to Subway, that's for sure. Since we had Wifi, we checked our emails and the weather. We knew it was supposed to get bad, and sure enough, the dopplar radar showed a bad storm headed right our way. It was moving pretty fast, and after lunch, I was being productive with my typing, so we decided that it would be much nicer to just sit tight and not get caught in that nasty storm. There were supposed to be very strong wind gusts, lightning and thunder (which we heard and saw just before getting to Ingles), and possibly hail- which we definitely didn't want to get caught in. Time went by and we watched the storm on the radar getting closer and closer. When it hit, we were SOO glad that we just took the time to just sit tight where we were. A really loud clash of thunder and "boom" the power in the entire store just went out! The rain was coming down like a monsoon outside and the thunder and lightning continued. We were SOOO glad that we weren't out in the storm, even if we had only gone about 25 miles so far today; it was still better than nothing, and once the storm passed, we would have some time to get some more. After the 2 hours and 45 minutes or so that we spent in the store between lunch, waiting for the storm, and waiting for the storm to pass, our jackets had dried out nicely and our pants were working on doing the same. So, the only thing that was soaked were our shoes. Right before the storm was over, the backup battery that the registers were running on ran out of juice and so the managers decided to lock up the store and make it officially closed. When that happened we went outside and sat next to our bikes under the overhang, just watching the rain. It is still amazing how things work now a days. Years ago, there was no electricity, but yet stores were open, now if the power goes out, the entire store has to close. Around 4 pm, the rain stopped and we headed off. It ended up not raining on us at all the entire rest of the day- I guess it's a good thing we waited out the storm. We had more hills on the way to the next town of Decatur. Unfortunately though, since we were heading West to get over to hwy 27, the wind wasn't helping us at all anymore. If we had somehow already made it to Decatur we would have made it to hwy 27 and would have flown the rest of the way to wherever we decided to stop today. If only we would have left a bit earlier today- and didn't have that flat tire-then we might have made it just a little further before the storm really got us. A couple miles before getting into Decatur, the wind started to get really bad. It made me think that I was back in South Dakota again!! With that wind blowing the way it was, and the fact that it was already after 5, we knew we wouldn't make it to the next town. A bit of a disappointment, but at the same time, we did get SOME miles done, just not as many as we would have liked. We found a little library right when we got into town, and since we knew we weren't going to make it much further, decided to just go there until it closed. I got quite a bit done that I wanted to get done and we were in a nice warm pace out of the wind. It as nice. Upon the library closing, we scouted out a place to pitch the tent for the night. Tonight, with the wind and possibility of snow- we needed an overhang (since our tent doors don't shut anymore and would leak) and maybe a wall to camp next to where we could get out of the wind. Well, our hopes were answered- right away we found an outside hallway with an overhang at the Baptist church in town. There wasn't anyone there at the time, but we thought that would be a pretty ideal place to be for tonight. Since it was only 7 and neither of us were hungry for any dinner or in the mood to cook for that matter, we decided to head over to Subway to sit inside for a while. That helped me too, because then I had a nice warm place to sit and type. We stayed there about 45 minutes before heading back to the church. Still no cars there, but at that point it didn't matter- we needed to set up somewhere and this was the perfect spot. Amazingly, as we were sitting in the tent, the tablet connected to an open Wifi network from who knows where, but we were at least able to check on the progress of our other cycling friends who are down where it's warm. A pretty crazy day though to say the least. Our miles only totaled 37 today, but we still made a little headway, so we were glad for that. The wind is supposed to be just as bad tomorrow, but will be from the W/ NW mostly- which will be even worse. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
It was a cold night for sure. Unlike last night, zipping our sleeping bags together didn't help at all. In the middle of the night we had had to unzip them and zip them individually. Joey didn't sleep good because he was freezing. Somehow, I was warm enough that I was able to sleep good, which is strange because usually it's the other way around. The pastor arrived around 8 or 8:30, so we packed up as fast as we could and ran inside where it was warm. Angela told us to take our bikes and put them into an extra room in the church so we wouldn't have to worry about them outside. Almost right away, we were enjoying snacks, and soon after a breakfast of fruit, "arroz con leche" (which was my favorite), donuts, and a few other yummy things. Everyone arrived, got their plate of food and headed into the sanctuary. It is kind of neat because the way they do it here is everyone has breakfast during worship, which helps the families because the kids always got really hungry. The best part about this church is that it is bilingual. Worship was conducted in both English and Spanish, which was just so cool. Joey and I really enjoyed that, especially since we are planning to try to learn Spanish when we get back. This congregation is full of lots of kids, and I was surprised to hear about all of the activities they have for their youth. Everything from dance and music to a whole bunch of other things! The most memorable part of the service today was the kids sermon. It was so fun. They did a song about following God they had learned yesterday at one of their big youth activities. It started with one boy and as the song went on, he would point to random people in the congregation and they would join the line to "follow God." By the end of the song, the whole congregation was up and walking around the church. It was lots of fun. I have to admit that I'm a little jealous that my church didn't have that, well of course it would have had to have some more kids there when I was little. After the service, Angela and her husband Curtis asked us if we were in a big rush to get on the road. Since we knew we had a place to stay about 80 miles away, we really weren't in any rush. Angela and her husband Curtis insisted on taking us out to lunch if we weren't in too big of a hurry. Of course we would love that! So, we left our bikes in the church and hopped in their car to head to a restaurant. With so many choices, we decided to go to Applebees. I normally get pasta, but I saw a cheeseburger that someone had ordered and after that, all I wanted was a burger. Joey of course got his usual, a bacon cheeseburger. We had a great time talking with Angela and Curtis and are so glad we had the chance to get to know them a little better. They said that if we wanted to get any dessert to just go right ahead and get some. At first we were thinking maybe we would split (my favorite dessert!!) a triple chocolate meltdown, but they said that we should each just get one. So, that's what we did- boy are those desserts just heavenly! After getting back to the church, we took a couple pictures and then were off on our way. It was a very fun morning indeed. By the time we left it was almost 2 pm, it had stopped snowing, and it wasn't quite as bone chillingly cold. It was however, still windy- a head wind of course. and chilly. We made a quick stop at Lowe's so that I could get another pack of wire for me to make little bikes with. The wind slowed us down a lot today. We had hopes of making it to Chatsworth, but we knew we would be pushing it. While riding through one of the tiny little towns, we stopped at a gas station for a quick break. When Joey pulled out of the parking lot, he noticed that he had a flat tire on his front wheel. Bummer! So, we headed for some place that we would be out of the way and out of the wind a little while he changed it. We ended up finding a church with a little porch on it that did the job. Poor Joey froze his fingers off a little changing it, but it is really only a one person job, and if I was doing it, we'd be there for an hour. As usual, I did what I could by just getting out the tools that he needed. Those darn pieces of wire from the tractor trailer tires, the get us every time. After having that flat, we knew our chances of making it to Chatsworth like we had hoped were even slimmer now. We still were going to try though. When we were getting close to being done with our ride, a nice guy slowed down in his car to see if we needed any water or anything, but we didn't. Such nice people always looking out for us. Once the sun went down it got really cold! After getting into the little unincorporated town of Ramhurst (which was about 6-7 miles away from our goal for the day) we headed to find somewhere to set up. We saw a sign for a Baptist church, so we headed in that direction. When we got there, the parking lot was full of cars. We saw the sign that said service had started at 6, so we figured they would be done shortly. Joe and I would have gone in to join the service, but we didn't want to go in when it was just about over. Since Angela gave us a whole bag of goodies, from crackers to cookies, we had a little snack of those while we waited. When church was over, a flood of people came out, and with it a TON of youth. Still so nice to see so many kids involved in the church, that is has been a frequent occurrence down here. We peaked our heads in the door and then once some of the congestion cleared out, went in to look for the Pastor. A nice man greeted us and welcomed us, since we were obviously newcomers. He pointed us in the right direction of the Pastor, and when we told him our story, he was just so thoroughly impressed. The pastor said that it would be absolutely fine to set up our tent there for the night. As we were getting our tent set up, a parishioner (the first one that had initiated contact with us), Philip (and his wife Sherri) invited us to come to their house and sleep inside where it was warm. We were obviously up for that!!! Upon asking how far away their house was, we learned that it was about 5 miles away. Knowing that we were probably tired, it had gotten really cold out and that it was not very safe to ride there in the dark, Philip ran home, got his truck and came back to get us. A couple other parishioners waited with us so that we could wait inside out of the 30 something degree temperature. We got the bikes all loaded, and headed off to Philip and Sherri's. It worked out very nicely because they lived in Chatsworth, the town we had been hoping to get to today, so we ended up there anyways. Upon arrival, we got settled, each took a shower, and then enjoyed an amazing dinner of sloppy joes, beef pasta noodles, macaroni salad, strawberry pie, and sweet tea. We had a great time talking with Philip and Sherri and relaxing in the warmth on the sofas. Later on, we watched the movie Wedding Crashers on their nice tv before going to bed. Both of us slept in living room- one on couch and one on air mattress w/ a comfy little mattress on top of that (I got the mattress!!!). Joey and I were just SOOO happy to be inside where it was warm! Despite riding in the cold and wind, today was an amazing day. Somehow we still managed to ride 42.07 miles, even though we didn't leave until after 2.
It was a very cold morning, indeed. We both struggled a bit to get up, but we knew had to get on the road. We packed up as quickly as we could since it was so cold and then got ready to head the little bit back into town to get milk. Just as we were leaving the church, a car pulled in and we had a chance to talk to one of the parishioners/ or pastor, I'm not sure which. When he saw us with the bikes, he figured out pretty quick that we had slept outside back there. He didn't have a problem with it and wished us good fortune on our travels. Once we got our milk, we looked around for a warm place to eat breakfast inside. After a bit of searching without any luck, we ended up going to post office. We took our bowls and spoons, cereal and milk, and went and sat on the floor in lobby. It must have been pretty funny for people to see that came in to get their mail. No one bothered us though or seemed to have a problem- I guess they understood that it was cold out and that's why we were in there. Crazy little memories of strange things that we have done while on this trip, but that kind of stuff all comes with it. After we ate, I rinsed out our bowls as fast as I could in hopes of not freezing my fingers off, and then we were on the road again. After only going a couple miles down the road, we had to stop and add some more layers- face masks and thicker gloves, it was just that cold already. Chills right to the bone.We had quite a few enjoyable roads to ride on today. Some had a pretty small shoulder, but the traffic wasn't going that fast so it was nice. The wind, yet again, didn't seem to help us at all. It just made us colder and slowed us down. We made it to a little town and since I was already getting really hungry and "feeling a little shaky" as I get when I haven't eaten, we had a quick granola bar break in a parking lot before continuing on. The hills at first today, were big rolling hills. After the town of Douglasville, where we stopped for our snack, the hills were still big an rolling, just much steeper. We crossed over into another of the hundreds of counties we've been to- Paulding County, which is the home of Country Music Star Travis Tritt. After making it to the town of Hiram, where we planned to stop for lunch, we at first got a little worried. The tiny little old downtown section didn't have any restaurants, or stores. We were really hoping for someplace we could eat indoors, just to get out of the cold. That is one thing about this last leg of the trip- with the cold weather, our food bill will definitely go up, but there is no sense in freezing our tooshies off either. After a couple more hills, we went from being surrounded by trees to a major highway and every store you could possibly want. We found ourselves a Subway restaurant and went there for lunch. We made a quick stop at Wal-mart to get some food for dinner since we weren't sure how far we would make it and if there would be a grocery store in the place that we stopped. Not too long into our afternoon ride, snowflakes began coming down. They were small and nothing was sticking to the ground, so it wasn't a big deal. I do prefer snow though, if it is this kind- because even though it's cold- we don't get soaked like when it rains. The hills continued after lunch; up and down rollers and then a pretty long climb right before getting into Cartersville, the town we had hoped to make it to today. We were definitely getting into the foothills of the Appalachians now. When we rolled into town, we saw our favorite place, McDonald's and took a little break to check the internet figure out where things were in town. Although there were a few churches in town, we had a hard time finding a church tonight. We looked all over for a church with a car and for a church that would actually be suitable to set up at but didn't have much luck, until we went to the Bilingual Methodist church. we saw a few lights on and a car outside. We knocked on the door and a funny thing happened. At first, we didn't hear anyone, but then just as we were about to walk away, we heard someone knocking back. We said hello through the door and eventually found out that the guy inside was the cleaning guy. He was nice enough to give us the pastor's number. We gave her a call and didn't get an answer at first. Then a little while later, as we were still riding around looking for a place to park for the night, she called us back! Her name was Angela, and she said we were fine to camp there at the church under the pavilion by the fire pit! She also invited us to breakfast/ church in morning. It was a perfect spot, especially since we were expecting some more snow tonight. For dinner Joey and I had our favorite meal, but this time a family size bag that we had to cook in two rounds because our pan was too small. Since it was so cold out, we cooked right in tent. It's not the best thing to do, but it sure did get us warmed up a bit! There was a really nice bathroom for a change, at the gas station across the street. That was a life saver, because I found out that my turtle kneck was damp from the downpouring rain we had a few days ago. The water proof bags do a pretty good job of keeping everything dry, but anything in the very bottom of the bag usually gets a tad bit damp from the condensation. I was able to get my shirt nice and dried out, and warm, using the hand dryer. I typed for a while, again, completely inside my sleeping bag. That never seems to work very well, because after being cold, once I finally get warm, I just fall asleep-right in the middle of typing. I woke up at 2am this morning, with the tablet still in my lap. As I was putting it away to officially go to sleep, I heard things hitting the walls of the tent. It was snowing like crazy again. We're in for a wild ride for the rest of the trip-after all, we're not even out of GA yet!!! Our miles totaled 58.75 today.
It was nice to wake up and be able to eat our cereal and milk right away without having to worry about looking for a warm place to eat. We had a table in the library of the fellowship hall that made it even more enjoyable. It didn't take us too long to get packed and say our goodbyes to Barry. We were on the road just a little after 8 and were hoping to at least get over 60 miles today. The hills became more frequent and longer, which was expected as we remembered NW Georgia was hilly from the last tour. The good news was that the sun came out today! When we started off this morning, Atlanta was less than 75 miles away and was only about 22 miles away by the end of day. Not that that was of any importance to us as we planned on avoiding that area because of the high amount of traffic. We also had quite a few suggestions from people that we've met to steer clear of that area just for that reason. At some point before we made it to the town of Griffin, where we would stop for lunch, my bottle of sunscreen fell off my bike; lost somewhere on the side of the road. A little bit of a pain, but not that big of a problem since it was getting close to being empty and it will most likely be cold enough for the rest of the trip to be living in our pants and jackets and not need much sunscreen. We planned on having lunch at Pizza Hut, but when we got there, we found out it wasn't worth it- they had no salad bar!! Although it was only 5 bucks for the buffet, without a salad bar, there was just no point. I hope that it was just this Pizza Hut and that Pizza Hut's everywhere aren't changing the way they do things. So, since we still wanted to have a buffet so that we wouldn't have to have dinner later, we headed over to the Chinese Buffet instead. It really did hit the spot! For the price of a buffet, it almost makes more sense to do that when it's cold than to go someplace like Subway, especially for the fact that the buffet serves as 2 meals. The hills continued as we meandered our way over to Fayetteville. The sun warmed us up quite a bit, but as it got later that didn't last long. Upon getting into Fayetteville, we had a question on which road we should take and just happened to see a lady out on a walk. I asked her for directions and had a nice little conversation with her. A very sweet lady. She had asked where we were staying tonight, and said that she would have invited us over if she wasn't jumping on a plane to go to NY for her grandson's 1st bday. Such kind people in this world! Once we knew where we were going, we headed through town and took a little break at Dunkin Donuts. We saw that there were quite a few churches listed along the road that we were going to be on, so we decided to keep riding. We ended up continuing on farther than we thought, an extra 13 miles or so. It worked out well because we made it to Fairburn, which was a strange little town. Quite a few of the businesses had bars on all the windows which was a little unsettling. After riding around town, we looked for church for a while, but couldn't find any with cars. Somehow we found one out of town just a little ways that had a fenced in area in back to camp in. We called my Grandma to have her check the weather to see if it was going to rain or snow, but the chances of precipitation was minimal so we figured we'd be ok. So, we figured we would be ok without an overhang. By the time that we got the tent set up, it had gotten really cold. Since we didn't have to make any dinner after going to the buffet for lunch, we just got right in our sleeping bags. Tonight we decided to try zipping them together, which actually helped today. Sometimes we end up being too cold because of the big opening between us, but tonight it seemed to work ok. It was cold enough that in order to type my blog, I had to be completely inside my sleeping bag. Hopefully it will get a little warmer tomorrow, but if not we have been expecting the ride back to NY to be a cold one. We ended up with 65.73 miles today!
Both of us slept so well last night and woke up to a yummy treat. Elizabeth, Victoria and Adam were busy in the kitchen making eggs and pancakes. What a great way to start off our day. Unfortunately, Ken left for work bright and early, so we didn't get a chance to see him again, but we did get to see everyone else. After breakfast and getting all packed, we were ready to go. Since Adam would be heading through town this morning on his way to his college class, we left our bikes right in the back of the truck last night so we would be ready to head back in the morning. Adam was going to drop us off right back at the church, but from the intersection we had gotten to when we reached hwy 41 it was still 2 miles away in the wrong direction. To add to that, Adam would be heading in the opposite direction to go to school. It just didn't make sense to go all the way back to the church. At this point in the trip, it doesn't matter to ride right from where we ended yesterday just for the sake of two miles. We found a parking lot to pull off in and get the bikes unloaded. It really was just so great to have met the Day family, I'm so glad that it worked out that way. Today was another cloudy, windy day-that wind sure made it feel even colder. It was a pretty easy ride to the city of Macon since the roads were relatively flat. When we got closer to town, the road we were following jumped onto a busier 3 lane road with no shoulder. To avoid riding with the faster moving traffic, we took the business route through the city. It sure did get hilly! Almost right away it went from being pretty flat to pretty steep long hills. It was pretty nice taking the business route though because if we hadn't, we wouldn't have seen any of the little city. Macon was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be! Shortly after getting back onto our main road that we would follow out of town, we found a bike shop. We stopped in and picked up a new tube, patches, and new break pads. Shortly after stopping at the bike shop, we found somewhere to eat lunch. About 5 miles down the road was a Kroger Grocery Store. There were chairs and even a display model of a hammock outside the store to sit in. We ate the rest of the pasta lunch from yesterday and had a few snacks of Clementine's, Triscuts, and a can of peaches each since there wasn't much pasta left. Once we left the city there were a few rolling hills before it flattened out again. We passed through a few little tiny towns that had the railroad running right through it. The strong headwind just killed us again. We had hopes to make it another 15 miles down the road to the next town, but it was already about 5 when we arrived in Forsyth. Our first stop was McDonald's. Once we got onto the internet, we got a message from Lynda, who we stayed with in Jasper. She told us our SPOT wasn't working. I checked it and sure enough it wasn't. We figured out pretty quickly that it was because our SPOT subscription ran out. Joey had gotten an email about this back in December and when the subscription didn't run out at the end of December or January we kind of forgot about it. The only reason it didn't re-subscribe automatically is because of the bank changeover we experienced in the beginning of the trip. Either way, even though we only have a month left, we decided to re-subscribe. Joey was able to get that all fixed without too much trouble, although we were worried that we would have to re- do the link and everything on the website. We made a stop at Walmart, to get some stuff for dinner and some cereal for breakfast in the morning and then headed out to find somewhere to set up our tent. The first church that we found cars at we stopped and asked. They didn't have a problem with the idea of us setting up, but they were worried about our safety because the church was "not in a very safe area," which was evidenced by the cop cars down the street. So, we headed to a different area of town and found another church that had some cars at it. All of the doors were unlocked, but we couldn't find any one there. Just as we were about to leave, we saw 3 people walking down the sidewalk that were all dressed up. They looked like they could be heading towards the church, so we waited for a minute. Sure enough, we were right. We talked to them and they said it would be fine but they would rather put us up in the fellowship house, where we would be warm and get a shower. The intern Pastor, Barry, from Atlanta was there tonight because they were setting up for a funeral tomorrow, so we would have some company! It really was amazing. We got to cook our dinner on the stove, wash our dishes in a sink with nice hot water and enjoy a nice hot shower. We spent quite a while talking with Pastor Barry since he was pretty interested in our trip. It was a very pleasent evening. And to top it off, I got a call from my BFF Kelly and found out that her and Will had just gotten engaged!!!! It surely made my day as if it hadn't been made already. We rolled our sleeping bags out and slept in library of the Fellowship House and were again, so thankful to be inside where it was warm! Our miles totaled 56.44 today.
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.
After a great nights sleep, we woke up to the sound of rain outside. With not too much enthusiasm for another rainy day, we decided to just lay there in the comfy bed for a little while longer in hopes that it would pass. We ended up not getting up until around 8, but were very happy to notice that the rain had dissipated quite a bit. Joey and I had some of our cereal and milk that we had bought last night at the store for breakfast. By the time we were ready to leave, Tasha had arrived to spend the day with Linda, so we got to see her one more time too! After saying our goodbyes we headed out towards Georgia. We only had about 14 miles to go before getting to the line, so we were pretty excited. It was a very cloudy start to the day, but we didn't have any raindrops fall on us, so we were grateful for that! As we were coming around a bend, we saw a big sign that we knew was the FL welcome sign even from the back. When we fully got around the corner, we were a bit disappointed though. No GA welcome sign! As we were passing over the state line where the pavement distinctively changed, there was still no sign in sight. We remained hopeful, but in the end, never found one. Although it was a bit of a let down, it wasn't the end of the world in the least bit since we can always get a picture on the way out of the state, and after all, we've already ridden through GA on our other trip! The little bit of shoulder we had in FL completely disappeared when we crossed over into GA. That, however, wasn't much of a problem because the road we were on had hardly any traffic at all on it. One of the first things we noticed in GA was that the trees had either no leaves on them or had ones that had turned red or orange. We didn't see any palm trees at all, so we were wondering if they were done for good, too. For the majority of the day, we had a side wind that slowed us down at times, but also gave us a little boost at others. After about 24 miles, we took a break at the McDonald's in Valdosta to use the internet. Joe was a bit impatient today since he wanted to get a ton of miles done, so we didn't take too long of a break. I was feeling REALLY hungry for some reason, almost to the point where I was feeling shaky, like I get when I haven't eaten in a while. I had some Triscuits and some of my chocolate bar to tide me over. It was still a little early to have lunch. We had planned on finding a grocery store or a place to get some food before heading out of town (since this was a much bigger town than the ones we would be going through in the near future. Somehow we managed to miss seeing a grocery store, and had forgotten to look it up at McDonald's because Joey wanted to get on the road. Whatever the case, we headed out of town without stopping to get something for lunch (even though we always have an emergency meal of rice and beans, we didn't really want to have that unless we really needed it). Joey was in a big hurry today and was a little grumpy at me for taking too long with my e-mail, so it was an interesting day. As we were leaving Valdosta, the road we were on turned onto the I-75 for a while, so we had to find an alternative route for those miles. Luckily it wasn't too hard to do so. The rest of the day, we just cruised right along, and didn't even end up stopping for lunch. Joey, being in a grumpy, impatient mood today, rode ahead quite a ways so he could go his own pace for a while and not have to wait for me. This ended up working out ok because he didn't have to wait and I didn't have to rush. The only bad thing would have been if I had gotten a flat tire, but I had my cell to call him had that happened. The clouds eventually went away and we had blue sunny skies for the rest of the day. The wind was sill blowing and we were starting to feel just a tiny bit cold. In the end, Joey waited for me in the 2nd town from Valdosta and then again in the town that we ended in for the night, Tifton. By then Joey was feeling really hungry, but for some reason, I wasn't that hungry anymore. After asking around, we were able to find a grocery store to pick up a "Voila" meal for dinner and then go seek out a place to set up the tent for the night. By the time we left the store, the sun had gone down quite a bit and the temperature had dropped significantly. We were definitely feeling pretty cold then, and we're not even that far north yet! After a bit of searching, we found a beautiful church that was kind of out of the way from the main area that we might be bothering anyone. The church was massive- it had 4 buildings: the church, chapel, fellowship hall/nursery, and offices. The chapel had a glass door so that you could see inside and boy was that beautiful! We didn't see anyone around, so we weren't sure if we would be able to talk to anyone about setting up the tent or not. After we knew where home would most likely be for the night, we headed down the street to McDonald's and ended up getting milkshakes. Joey got his usual chocolate shake and I got a Shamrock Shake, just because I love mint, and I had never had one before. After relaxing inside for a little bit, we headed back over to the church in hopes we would see someone to ask. Still no sign of anyone, but since it was dark, we had to set up somewhere. We found a nice corner where we would be out of the way and not bothering anyone. The wind made it feel way colder than it really was, which was probably somewhere in the mid-upper 40s. With a nice hot meal of "Voila" in our bellies, I washed the dishes and we went to bed. I was too tired to even want to type any blog tonight, so I just simply went to bed. We covered a bit more ground than we have in a while. Guess we're finally back to riding the kind of miles we used to ride on our other trips and at the beginning of this trip, or at least until the snowy cold weather north of us starts to slow us down. Our miles totaled 86.92 today. Not the best days from the trip, but we covered a lot of ground, so it was productive.
We were happy to be under the pavilion last night as it rained quite a bit more. Luckily though, it was not raining when we woke up! After we were all packed up, we headed into the main part of town in High Springs. For some reason, it didn't look as familiar to either of us as Gainesville had. The only part that I had memory of was Lys's house where we stayed on our last trip, the bike shop with the big mural along the outside wall, and one of the little cafes where we went out for hot chocolate when we were here last. The part of town we rode through though didn't ring any bells. I guess we've just been through too many towns to remember them all. We found the Winn Dixie grocery store and got our cereal and milk for the morning. Across the street from the store was a church that had a long overhang and benches. Since we were a little worried that it might rain, we headed over there to eat our breakfast. Still no rain! We made it about 20 miles before it really started to rain. Like usual, it wasn't very hard at first, so we didn't get too wet. But, a few miles later it started to really come down. Since the heavy rain didn't look like it would last too long, we took refuge under an overhang to wait for it to pass. The overhang was part of the funeral home and not 20 seconds after we got under the overhang with our bikes, the door opened and the two gentleman that were working there came out to talk to us. They asked the usual questions and invited us in to take a rest while we waited for the rain to pass. We had a nice time talking with them, which helped the time pass a little bit. They, like the youth pastor at the church last night, mentioned to us about how they heard of the couple that was on a world tour getting hit and killed. It really is just so sad, and we have reminders of how dangerous the road is around us every day, and just hope and pray that every driver is paying attention to the road. As sad as it is that the cyclists were killed, it is still pretty sad that the world had never heard of them until they were killed. The news really does tell only the bad news. After about 15-20 minutes, the down-pouring rain had eased up and we were able to get back on the bikes without getting completely drenched. Not that it was THAT big of a deal to not get wet, but it was still early in the day, so the longer that we stayed dry the better. We had a quick internet stop at McDonald's and a run to the grocery store in Lake City before heading out of town. Our goal was to make it another 12 miles down the road before stopping to eat our lunch. So, that's what we did. We passed under the I-10 for the last time on the trip. I don't even know how many times we've crossed it on the trip, but it was quite a few. Lots of miles of just trees today, like so many of the stretches between towns usually are. Right after rolling into White Springs, we found a nice little park that had a pavilion and picnic tables. A perfect spot for lunch on a rainy day. We ate our favorite meal- a Voila frozen pasta, veggie and chicken dinner and an orange each. It rained lightly off and on for almost the whole time we were having lunch. By the time we had our dishes all washed (which was very easy since there was a water spigot right there on the post of the pavilion), it was raining even harder. Since we only had 40 miles, we decided to keep going. We had stayed dry for the majority of the day, so we were happy about that. A few miles out of town though, it really started to downpour. We were totally soaked in a matter of minutes. Even still, there was no point to turn back now, we were already wet. We road for about 25 miles in the pouring rain. The only bad problem was that even though I didn't put any sunscreen on today since it was going to be a cloudy, rainy day, there was still sunscreen in my bandana and my helmet from days before. The rain, like usual made it so the little bit of sunscreen that was there got in my eyes anyways. I always have a problem with that. That is the only reason that I don't like riding in the rain, boy does it sting! Eventually, despite the rain not letting up at all and a few clashes of thunder here and there, we made it to Jasper. Originally we planned on riding another 12 miles to the town of Jennings, but with the rain, we decided to stop. There was a Subway in the store and since we were already really hungry, we decided to split a sub. Our next stop was to find a place to set up our tent for the night. Since we knew it was going to rain for most of the night again, we were looking for some kind of an overhang. We passed by a church that had an overhang and a few cars in the driveway. We stopped in and asked and one of the lady's called the pastor just to be sure it would be ok. The pastor said sure and we were set for the night. Then we met one of the few ladies that was there setting up for a 100th birthday party. Her name was Kitty Morgan. She said that we were more than welcome to sleep in her screened in porch, but that she "might be able to do something better for us". She contacted one of her friends that lives alone and loves to have company. When she called her friend Linda, we found out that we were set with a place to sleep indoors! As if it couldn't get any better!! Kitty drove us down the road and around the corner to Linda's so that we could meet her and know the way to get there when we rode over on our bikes. We had fun chit chatting with Kitty, Linda and Tasha (a lady who comes to help Linda out around the house). It had pretty much stopped raining by the time we headed back to the church, so we didn't have to get even more soaked for the ride over to Linda's! We made a quick stop at the grocery store again to get some cereal and milk for the morning and then headed off down the road to Linda's. It is still amazing just how kindhearted people are. We couldn't believe that we were going to be inside tonight. That is always the best surprise at the end of the day, especially when there is inclement weather. We got our bikes put in the screened in porch at Linda's and then both got to take a nice hot shower. Later on we watched Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, and our favorite show- AFV! Linda made some "hoe cakes" with homemade pear butter (SOOOO good!!) and eggs for dinner and later on we all enjoyed a little bluebell ice cream with chocolate syrup. A great night indeed! Our miles totaled 61.54 today.
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