Nov. 5 – And now, the end is near……

I woke up early and put Savannah in my sights. To get there tomorrow I am going to have to put in a couple of pretty long days. I have a little extra motivation because I just found out that Max also ended up riding to Savannah and will arrive this afternoon. Remember Max? I met him and Zach way back at Middlegate in Nevada, then saw them again the next day in Austin and then ran into Max when I was down and out in Utah (he and Zach had finished their gravel bike tour and Max subsequently decided to finish a coast to coast tour in Savannah). When we had met up earlier I was going to finish in Myrtle Beach, we had not talked about Savannah, and it is just a weird coincidence that we both ended up going there. He is leaving by train on Tuesday, and we are planning to meet for a beer before he leaves. So, I rode 85 miles today and have another 90 to go tomorrow. I think I could have ridden farther today if not for two things – daylight savings time ended, so it is getting darker earlier and Google continued to route me on dirt roads all day today which caused me to ride slower. It seemed like the paved highways were running to the southwest while I wanted to ride to the southeast, and the only connectors were unpaved – or started paved and then became unpaved. These signs became the bane of my existence!

My bike is heavy and has fairly skinny tires – so it doesn’t do well in sand and rocks, which were plentiful. On the positive side it was very scenic and there was almost no traffic.

Since I was off the beaten track, it was the first time that I didn’t go through towns all day. I did, however, get chased by lots of dogs – I always take it as a challenge to outrun them rather than a threat, and I haven’t been caught yet! When I finally did go through the little town of Harrison, I happily stopped at the convenience store there for a snack, as an ice cream bar and some chocolate milk were calling my name. It was there that I ran into Gwen and her mom, who stopped in after church. Gwen was fascinated by my bike and gear and had questions galore about my trip – and fortunately, I love to talk about it! At one point she said “I wish I would have met you earlier – I would have invited you to church and fed you.” The fact that I missed out on that ( both the service and the food!) will be one of my trip regrets. I had planned to attend a church service at whatever church I passed by, wherever I was riding every Sunday, but it was a good intention that never came to fruition. My loss, and two more friendly and interesting people I was fortunate to meet along my journey.

Around dusk I came into Swainsboro, and although I was planning to camp….it was getting dark and I was tired, so I am happily relaxing at the Rodeway Inn.