A Day of Rest

After a night of food, sweet tea vodka and cheap concession stand beer I decided to sleep in. This is not an easy thing to do when you're accustomed to waking up at 6am. Up at 6am, 6:40, 7:15, 7:30, enough is enough, I'm up already. At the hostel I had some great coffee and a bagel with Nutella for breakfast. Fritz, one of the staff members at the hostel, had some great biking stories and was really friendly. Him and a friend once stayed in an abandoned bus during some bike touring adventure. They only had two hours of sleep because the mosquito's were so bad in the bus. The next day of riding, Fritz's friend Steve fell asleep while riding, rode into Fritz's back wheel, crashed his bike and split his chin open. They rode 12 miles to the hospital, stitched up Steve's chin and finished the ride. That's hardcore!!!

Finding the hostel was a great deal. I was really lucky in that somebody cancelled their reservation for last night so I swooped in and booked it up. Considering I was three blocks away from the hostel when I found this out I was very relieved. My other option would be to spend $250 on a hotel room that I would sleep in for 8 hours.

Brett Treacy was the person who introduced me to vodka sweet tea. Brett is a musician in the Charleston area who is making a go at his passion in life. You can hear Brett's music at www.myspace.com/bretttreacy .

After a little r&r this morning I finally left the hostel and hit the road. It took me a long time to decide if I was going to ride route 17 to Port South instead of taking the Adventure Cycling route. Yesterday I told a group of people to be careful about riding 17 and today I'm riding it myself. White knuckle riding for a little bit, but not too bad after awhile. I ditched off rt 17 for a bit and nearly crashed when a road turned to sand. There wasn't any traffic on this road so it would have been a little spill, but definitely woke me up. I met a couple guys who where fishing for catfish and spot tail bass on the side of the road. After that I found a Peach Cider Shop and sample peach, cherry, muscadine and I think it was blackberry cider. I had to buy some red raspberry sauce (it's sauce not jam Jenni) and sent it back home with some other goodies. If you get a sweet tooth then try some of that raspberry sauce on some ice cream Jenni....unbelievable!!!

The woman behind the counter found me a hotel room for the night that cost $30. I was going to camp at the KOA bit for $10 more I don't need to setup camp and I'll be able to gain atleast a half hour.

Stealth camping isn't much fun in the south because of the heat and the bugs. Showers wash away a hard day of riding and ready you for tomorrows coat of sunblock.

I plan on putting in a good day of riding tomorrow. Right now I'm about 70 miles from Statesboro, GA which will conclude section 5 of my 7 maps. After I pass Statesboro I'm going to travel 37 more miles to Reidsville, GA and camp at a State Park. Tuesday night will be camping at either Atkinson, GA or Folkston, GA depending upon how fast and far I can ride. Folkston is about 10 miles from the FL border so I'm going to try hard to push through.

Depending upon how the heat treats me I'm thinking of attempting a 200 mile day someplace in FL. Tuesday I'm going to ship home the cold weather gear and some spare hardware. If I drastically lighten the load and ride a 18 mph average then I think a 200 mile day is highly possible. Easy to say after a nice light 60 mile day.

Time for me to recharge the batteries. If you're reading the blog then don't forget to post so
e messages. It's nice to hear what everybody is up to.

Untill next time, may the peach cider be chilled and the vodka sweet tea find it's way to NY.

Brad