Georgia Backcountry

Day 53, May 24, 2011, Georgia Backcountry

69 miles, averaging 15.8 mph

Route from Jesup to Parkwood RV Park and Cottages, Statesboro, GA

Best Moment – Having someone stop and ask me for directions!  I was consulting the GPS to make sure that I was on the right track.  It was an area where there wasn’t good cell service and a girl pulled up and asked me if she was going the right direction to get to Glenville.  Like I would know?  I got out the Georgia map and found that, yes she was going the right direction.  A good thing.

Worst Moment – Those rumble strips are a real shocker and are sometimes impossible to avoid.  Quite a shaking. 

Today, I decided that it would be faster to follow the GPS and its route to Statesboro.  Things worked well until the first turn – it looked like this – 

a sandy unpaved road that I was supposed to follow for .7 miles.  I ignored it.  The GPS recalculated.  Then the second left turn looked like the first, another recalculation.  

No more sandy roads – just beautiful Georgia backcountry. 

I was on the Cannondale again, but there were some hills, which cut into the great average speeds that I had the previous two days.   

This countryside is just amazing.  Most of the route was on deserted country farm roads through pine forests, and farms.  There were acres of corn.  It looks a bit stressed and in need of rain.  Then there were fields of onions.  These had been harvested and were lying on the ground.  This is the area where the Vidalia onions come from. 

I got to Statesboro early and took in the Novara in to the bike shop for a tune up – 4,000 miles. 4,000 miles ridden so far!! We are here two nights since the re-arrangement of the schedule so we had cable to watch American Idol.