Hold Tight and Fly: Segment 1: Ride Day 3

Route: Claxton, GA (First Baptist Church of Claxton) to McRae, GA (McRae United Methodist Church)

Distance: 63.71 miles

Ride Time: 4 hrs: 32 mins

Average Speed: 14.0 mph

Max Speed: 24.4 mph

Weather: Muggy (is 99% humidity possible?). Hot (above 90… but this morning was cooler then yesterday afternoon for sure so no complaining here). A little on the windy side (crosswind in the morning becoming a headwind after lunch). Cloudy but only a few sprinkles to show for the nice storms we were thinking might come today.

Highlights

This morning started early at 5am. I slept in the closet of the unoccupied, expansive parsonage that we were graciously allowed to have free reign of for the night. Needless to say, although I do love small spaces and it was quiet, my feet were a little too long for it and the AC was awfully cold for this desert gal. But with the exception of disturbing dreams about how lovely it would be to be in a warm sleeping bag, it wasn’t a bad night of sleep.
Breakfast. Was. Amazing. Ok, imagine every breakfast food you have ever had for breakfast. And then imagine all of those foods being at the same breakfast… and no, it wasn’t even a potluck. This morning we were treated by the family of two of the riders, Caleb and Christina (siblings), who showed us some amazing, southern, hometown hospitality and an elaborate spread… at 6:30 in the morning.
Water lilies. At several points on the ride to break up the stately rows of lovely green pine forests there were several ponds that were scattered across by beautiful white water lilies.
Today we moved onto more back roads but, although we saw a couple dogs, none of them decided to make a lunch of any of us. I still maintain, however that Chihuahuas have issues and should really just be in the cat family or something.
Today we left behind the flat coastal lands and headed into our first gently rolling (but ever insistent) hills. As one of the other riders said, somewhat convincingly, “They said it was gonna be hilly. What are these, speed bumps?? Pitiful. Bring it, Georgia!”
Musical interludes. Yup only the third day of biking and we are already occasionally breaking into song (today it wasn’t even started by me). This makes me indescribably happy.
Strip of death. Whoever thought that having the white line also serve as a 4-inch-wide rumble strip on an already-narrow and well-travelled back road was clearly not a cyclist. My bum hurts. This didn’t help. I’m not whining (Trip rule: No whining). Just stating facts. ;)
At the end of the ride we arrived at the McRae United Methodist Church and were greeted by people from the church who scooped us up in various vans and cars and SUVs and took us to their own homes for showers. I headed out with Alex, Midas and Mary and our wonderful shower hosts Ken and Betsy. When we walked in then not only had two showers ready for us but had laid out piles for each of us. Each pile had 2 fluffy white towels, 2 fluffy white washcloths, a new bar of soap, and a mini-bottle of talcum powder (to combat that lovely southern humidity). In addition to all of this, Betsy had also prepared an amazing bean-guac-tomato-green chilies tortilla chip dip, chocolate chip cookies and, best of all, big glasses of the iciest of ice water.