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.
We pedaled through historic Wrightsboro and learned how it was settled continuously since the early 1700s. A sign said that in the 1800s, all able-bodied men between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five had to donate 15 days of labor per year to road maintenance. The roads were peaceful and quiet and the scenery all looked so familiar. I’m from the city, but these hills look like the same hills whenever you leave Atlanta for the surrounding areas.
We stopped for lunch in Crawfordville at noon after around 30 miles. I spoke with an elderly gentleman who was sitting on a bench on the sidewalk under an awning downtown. He told us the restaurant we had seen, Nick’s Place, was good and the only place in town. We stopped and ate a pretty good meal and charged up our batteries for almost an hour.
Back on the road, we made good time until the sky started to darken. We pulled into Union Point, GA and off of the road under an abandoned gas station’s awning just as it began to rain. What was first just a sprinkle grew into a torrent and the most significant rain we have run into during the entire journey. We watched the radar and killed time looking around the old station. When the storm cleared, we headed west.
We crossed over Lake Oconee twice and I thought I recognized a place I have seen before from boating on the lake. We rolled through Buckhead and joked about the other Buckhead and how we must have gotten off course. Finally, we rolled into Madison and our waiting hotel room. I’m feeling both exhausted from riding and exuberant to be returning home tomorrow. The weather should be good and Dad rode tomorrow’s exact route less than a year ago and said it was a great ride. I’m looking forward to a strong finish.