Once again today I pledged I would take it easy. I started out a little early to find a mailbox to mail a letter. I found one in a Walmart parking lot; unfortunately a few other riders followed me in! Back on the road, the sight of Keith, Alex, and Brian's wheels whizzing by me prompted me to hop on. Just up to the first rest stop I told myself. This is faulty logic however, because if by the first rest stop you have passed everyone, you just cannot now let any of them pass you. You have to make the lead even bigger. The section up to the first rest stop was awfully crowded with morning traffic. Herds of us cyclists were taking up the road and not letting cars pass. Keith took off with Brian in tow. Alex and I held back - Alex commented we do have 120 miles more to ride. After passing all the other bicyclists, the traffic situation got better. We started hauling to catch Keith. We passed by Brian, apparently Keith was on a tear. We picked up Gerald as we neared the stop. Keith was there waiting for us. He said the traffic had got him going and he just wanted to get past it all. We left as a group of four - Keith, Alex, Gerald, and I. The hills were gradually getting shorter and less steep as the day progressed. One town of note was Homer - home of "The World's Largest Easter Egg Hunt".
We got into the second checkpoint. A playful black lab puppy came over and was acting like a puppy - wagging his tail, rolling to show his belly, etc. Lon tried to teach him some tricks using beef jerky as a reward. Next stop was lunch. We had some grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches. Some four-inch high chocolate chip cookies were for dessert. Lunch was at a beautiful park on a lake along the Savannah River. The weather was fabulous - mid 70's, sunny.
Two-minute lunch Larry pulled up and ate. We left with him, but since he is crew, he brought along a paint can to mark the road. After we crossed into South Carolina, he peeled off our pace line to attend to the road markings. We worked together nicely as a unit, each of us pulling for 3-5 miles each. The miles melted away. The next stop was at a collection of five or six dumpsters. I suppose they are public dumpsters, we saw more of them along the road during the day. Maybe this stops people from dumping their garbage on the side of the road? Who knows?
We kept the pace geared up to the motel in Greenwood. We averaged 20.6mph on the bike for 140 miles. Keith averaged 21 on the bike because of his tear earlier in the day. We got in first at 3pm. Mexican and a large 32oz mug of Budweiser for dinner. Tomorrow is the second to last day. Only 121 miles and less climbing should be an easy day.
Then the last day. The smell of salt will soon be in the air...
