April 22, 2021
Day Four: Americus, Georgia to Eufaula, Alabama
I was in no real hurry to get out this morning, since it was in the low 40s. A few days ago the TV weather people were issuing dire warnings about this cold snap, which seemed like a comical overreaction to me at the time, but now that *I* had to go outside with only shorts and a jersey and wool undershirt, and no gloves or ear warmers, it didn't seem so funny.
The room was cold, so I turned on the heater, which immediately triggered the most ear-piercingly shrill fire alarm imaginable. I quickly called the front desk, and spoke to a bored-sounding woman about it. Fortunately the alarm stopped on its own before she had to take any action.
I obviously couldn't postpone my departure until the early afternoon, when it was supposed to warm up to 60-something, so I went outside and rode the bike onto the busy highway, then onto some busy streets, and then finally onto a quiet country road.
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I was heading toward the town of Plains on super quiet back roads. Very nice. Once a couple of angry dogs came out, but my stern "NO!" was enough to get them to back off. I still haven't had to pepper spray any dogs on this tour.
Plains, population 776, is famous for one thing, and one thing only: It's the birthplace and home of the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter.
(Plains is also famous for peanuts, I guess, but I assume that's because the 39th president was a peanut farmer.)
A statue of a peanut that looks like the president greeted me as I rode into town:
Plains is a pretty little town. A little touristy, but not obnoxiously so. I parked the bike and walked around. Now that I wasn't riding, I was cold, so I walked into Plain Peanuts, where the soft-spoken lady there cajoled me into trying samples of various items, including the peanut butter ice cream ("our own special recipe") which wasn't initially enticing on a chilly day, but which I eventually purchased. It was very good. I ended up buying everything else I sampled except the boiled peanuts. They were a let down.
As I was getting ready to leave Plains, an older man walked up. Was he going to tell me I should "put a motor on it"? No, he wanted to talk about the tires. "You'll go through several of those tires" he said, upon hearing my itinerary. Even though he was very, very wrong about my excellent Teravail Sparwood tires, he was a nice guy, and we parted on good terms.
Plains was the only town I'd ride through today. Until I arrived at the Alabama state line I was mostly on ultra-empty roads, and I didn't talk to anyone else.
It was a very pleasant ride, but nothing too memorable happened. One nice diversion: Two miles on a hard-packed red dirt road.
The terrain was much more interesting today, with some good-size rollers the last third of the day. I have a perhaps perverse preference for climbing, so I was happy about this.
It's interesting that there are so many country churches on these back roads in the area, but almost no homes. Most of the churches appeared to be well maintained and operational, so what is the source of the parishioners?
I stopped for a while at one of the few churches that seemed abandoned, checked my map, and looked around the cemetery, searching for "amusing" gravestones. I had to settle for this one:
I was a few miles from the end of the network of empty roads I'd been riding for hours. Soon I had to ride three or four miles on a busy state highway and cross the Chattahoochee River into Alabama.
As usual with these things, the bridge crossing was unpleasant, but certainly wasn't in the top ten worst ones I've done over the years while touring.
I made an immediate left turn upon entering Alabama, got a room at a motel where most of the guests were fishermen who were participating in a fishing tournament the next day, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that I had "gained" an hour by riding into the Central Time Zone.
For the fourth day in a row I ordered a pizza for dinner from Domino's using their delivery web app, a technology which just might justify the decades long development of the internet and the world wide web.
That streak will end tomorrow, though, when I plan to stay in a "cowboy cabin" in the middle of nowhere. Or at least the middle of rural Alabama.
Today's ride: 75 miles (121 km)
Total: 309 miles (497 km)
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