NYC -2- ATL

Today I awoke full of excitement to ride home! I’ve had an incredible time on this journey, and in many ways I do not want it to end, but I am very ready to see my family and enjoy the comforts of home. We were packed an on the bikes by 8:30. Dad had done this exact route from Madison to home only a few months ago, so we followed what he already knew to be a great ride.

We awoke today in Thomson and took longer than usual to get on the road. Our hotel had the very rare hot breakfast which wasn’t great, but stood out amongst the routine grab-and-go variety more prevalent in the COVID era. We pedaled north of Interstate-20, through a country club and then west out into the countryside. There were more cattle today than we’d seen the rest of the trip.

I can still recall large swaths of time in my youth, long before mortgages, credit scores and 401(k) contributions, mostly in the summers, when unencumbered by school, fun was the order of the day. I would ride my bike around the neighborhood with friends, and we would play in the creeks and parks. We would go places to see things, do things just to try them, and build stuff with no concept of time. It was in those dog days of blissful youthfulness, and again only decades later for brief glimpses during vacations or a stint between jobs, that I would measure myself and my day by how dirty I could turn the shower floor that evening.

Today we woke up early to tackle what we knew would be our longest planned day. We were on the road by 8:00 and the weather was great. We made good time, but faced a bit of a headwind for most of the day. We saw a lot of agriculture today including corn, soy, wheat, watermelon and young pecan orchards.

We awoke again in Josh’s spacious home to a beautiful and breezy day. He graciously made us breakfast smoothies as we packed up and we were on the road again by 9:00. The ride today was nice but somewhat boring and devoid of many memorable stops or interactions.