Me, Jesse and Phil before leaving Carrollton

Jesse stayed in the main house, and didn’t end up getting home from work until 5am.  I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been, but he still managed to wake up at 10 to bring us breakfast from the house.  I felt surprisingly fresh for having danced all night and gotten so little sleep.  My only complaint is that smoking was allowed in the bar after 10pm, and so all of the clothes I wore the night before stunk of cigarette smoke.

The ride was mainly downhill and the wind was generally behind us, but our average speed was slower than I had expected under those conditions.  We stopped at 23 miles for a quick snack, and then continued on to a vineyard where Jesse had recommended we stop.  Along the way, Garmin directed us down a short, nonexistent road that was thickly overgrown with young pine trees and thorny branches.  We struggled to push our bikes and ourselves through to the road up ahead.  Maybe that’s what slowed our average speed for the day.  Once on our bikes again, Phil brought to my attention that it was an hour earlier than I had thought, since we had crossed into another time zone at some point in the last hour.

Southern Oak Vineyards (aka White Oak Vineyards) is located in Anniston, Alabama, and gives free wine tastings.  We stopped in to sample all of their offerings and decided on the Scarlet red muscadine table wine to purchase for one of our lucky future hosts.  The wines were all delicious and mostly on the sweet side.  The owner recommended a restaurant for us to try when we got to Oxford.

When we got to Oxford, we went straight for the restaurant, but it was closed until 5pm.  It was going to get dark soon, and we still needed to find a place to set up our tent, so we went on down the road to seek out a patch of grass somewhere.  We ended up at the First United Methodist Church of Oxford.  The pastor, Chuck, initially told us that we couldn’t stay there because the church would be full of boy scouts that evening, but he agreed to let us pitch our tent on the grass by the church.  Almost as soon as we had finished setting up the tent, he came back outside to tell us that there was a scheduling confusion, and the boy scouts were actually coming next weekend, so we were welcome to stay inside if we wanted.  Since it was going to be in the 30’s overnight and we were already cold, we gladly accepted.  Chuck showed us inside to the youth recreation room, which was full of couches.  He is also a cyclist, and offered us any of his tools if we needed to fix anything on our bikes.

We went back to the restaurant that was recommended to us, but after looking at the menu decided it was too pricey (Chuck had warned us of this, but the reviews online did not seem so bad).  However, just the thought of all the other options around there made me think “heartburn”.  We decided to part ways for dinner and Phil went to Waffle House while I splurged at Garfrerick’s Cafe and enjoyed a heartburn-free meal of tuna ceviche, pan-seared fish and risotto, and cranberry-pear bread pudding for dessert.  Phil and I met up again after dinner and biked back to the church to get some rest.

Thursday was sunny, but much colder and windier.  We got off to a rather late start, first biking 2 or 3 miles to find breakfast and not taking off again until after noon.  Our host for the evening, Jesse, had to work at 5pm, so we had to race to try to get there before he left for work.

In our haste, we somehow got separated when Phil and I turned opposite ways onto route 166.  I stopped to wait for Phil at mile 27 and continued to wait for a suspiciously long time, so I phoned him to see if something was wrong.  He was about 7 miles away from me, heading east instead of west.  After back and forth map checking and some discussion, Phil told me to go ahead at my own pace and he would meet me at the address I gave him.  I went on for the second half of the ride alone, riding as fast as I could.

The hilly terrain and nasty headwinds prevented me from going as fast as I would have liked, and I ended up arriving at Jesse’s house not 5 minutes before he had to leave for work.   Jesse’s dad was outside with their mini Schnauzer puppy, Muffy, and he led me behind the house to the cottage where we were to stay.  Jesse told me to make myself at home and to let him know when we were ready to go out into Carrollton, and then he left for work.  Phil arrived shortly afterwards.  We showered and ate some food that Jesse’s dad brought over to us before texting Jesse, who left some friends in charge of the bar while he came to pick us up and bring us into town.

Jesse tends bar at the Alley Cat (which is nothing at all like the Alley Cat in Providence), one of the four options for food and drink in downtown Carrollton.  We relaxed at the bar with Jess and his friends for a while before going across the street to a restaurant called Plates, where Amber, another couchsurfer we had contacted, was singing that night.  The Cowtown String Band was between sets when we walked in, and Amber sat and talked with us until she had to go on stage.  I hadn’t been to a show since I was living in Newport, and this one was great entertainment.  When they were finished, we all walked back to Alley Cat, where they were having a dub step dance party.  This was my first time experiencing this type of music and dancing.  My ears were still ringing from the loud music the next day (hopefully it won’t be permanent), but it was quite fun.  Although, it still doesn’t beat salsa dancing.

When we were ready to go home, one of Jesse’s friends, Jay, kindly drove us back to Jesse’s house.  I tried to catch up on blogging, but it was already after 2am when we returned, and I ended up falling asleep without finishing.

Me, Phil and Doug before leaving Athens

This morning my legs did not want to work for me.  I don’t know how late I slept, because I didn’t look at a clock until we were leaving the bakery we had biked to for breakfast.  After eating breakfast, Douglas led Phil and I for the first 7 or 8 miles out of Athens.

We stopped at a gas station for a break after 20 miles, and shortly after that we passed a pecan-cracking facility called Granddaddy’s Crack House.  I should have taken a photo of the sign.  For lunch, we stopped at the Publix grocery store in Loganville, where I found the coconut water I had been craving for the last few weeks.  While sitting and eating by our bikes outside, a few people approached to ask us what we were doing.  One of them was a cyclist driving an old VW bus who asked if we needed anything and warned us to beware of the traffic.  A woman, who was also a cyclist, with her daughter, came over to talk, and after going into the market, she came out and gave us a Publix gift card.  Once again, I am so touched by the generosity of strangers.  Everywhere we have been thus far, we have met amazing people, and I am convinced that we will find them all over the world.

We still had more than 30 miles to go from Publix, and it was already after 3pm.  Getting back on the bike after such a long rest is always the most difficult part of the day, but we had to get moving.  We were headed to a park about 16-17 miles away called Stone Mountain, where we would be able to get onto a bike path that would take us all the way into Atlanta.  Garmin wanted us to go through a gated community, and we slipped in before the gate closed after a car exited.  We ran into trouble when we were directed to go through another automated gate, that needed a key to get through from both sides.  I flagged down a woman driving by in a golf cart who informed us that we could not go in there unless we were members of the private golf course.  We had to go back out the way we came in, and find a way around it into Stone Mountain park.

Stone Mountain (not the best view, I know)

As we neared a busy highway, we spotted two cyclists up ahead, and I asked one of them for directions into the park.  We had to ride against traffic on the freeway for a short distance in order to get into the park.  There was very little traffic at this point, but it was approaching dusk, which is the most dangerous time of evening because drivers have the least ability to see at this level of light.

The park was really lovely, and the enormous stone rising out of nowhere clearly explained the origin of its name.  I only wish we had reached it a few hours earlier, as it was getting darker and threatening to rain, although, there were numerous cyclists and runners out and about.  It actually did start to sprinkle a few times during the rest of the ride.  It grew even darker after we hit the bike path, and it became difficult to see, which slowed us down for the last 10 or 12 miles.  At least the warmth didn’t leave with the sun – the temperature remained at a comfortable 70 degrees for the duration of the evening.

Drew, Julie, me and Phil, after eating pizza in Atlanta

We finally made it to Julie and Drew’s apartment at 7pm.  Phil knows Julie from Brown – she graduated at the same time as me, earlier this year.  Julie and Drew offered us snacks and beer while we cleaned up and got ready to go out for dinner.  The pizza place they brought us to was authentic Italian.  We squeezed onto the end of long table shared by other patrons and opened the first bottle of wine.  After nearly two pizzas and two bottles of wine, we all went home content and shared some pumpkin pie before passing out for the night.

Me, Chuck, Grace and Phil (and Churchill) before leaving Anderson

We had a long day ahead of us, so Phil and I woke up relatively early.  In addition to the eggs Grace made for breakfast, I filled up on cake that she had made the day before.  We left Anderson just after 10am, for our longest ride yet.

After about 15 miles, Garmin led us off the road to a path that was marked with a no trespassing sign.  Another quarter-mile down this path were more signs posted, warning trespassers that they would be prosecuted.  Having little choice, we continued down the dirt and grass road for a mile, passing two hunting shelters and a field of cattle and donkeys along the way.  At the end of the trail, we had to push our bikes through some vegetation to get around a fence covered in barbed wire.  We emerged onto a road, directly across from the Shady Lady Saloon,  just a few hundred yards from the Georgia border.

Crossing from South Carolina to Georgia

We stopped to eat lunch in a field, and the sun came out to warm us up.  The ride, while long, was not bad aside from a 9-mile stretch on a main road with fast-moving traffic that seemed to stretch forever in a gradual uphill battle against the wind that made me envious of anyone who might be traveling in the opposite direction.  Athens is much hillier than I expected.  The last 2 or 3 miles consisted of numerous steep hills, and it felt good to finally be done for the day.

Douglass is a couchsurfer who had stayed with me a few years ago during his own bicycle tour up the east coast.  Him and his girlfriend, also named Sarah, were hosting us in Athens at Sarah’s condo.  Sarah left shortly after we arrived to see a show of REM cover bands, but we met up with her and her roommate, Lydia at a frozen yogurt place after biking downtown to a sushi restaurant for dinner with Douglas.  When we got home, we were completely exhausted.  Douglas mapped out the next day’s route to Atlanta, which is as long as the route from Anderson to Athens – and he says it’s hilly too.  At least it will be a warm day, although the wind will be against us again.

On Friday morning, Phil and I woke up and walked to the cafeteria for breakfast. Danielle got us in again for free on her points, and we filled up on waffles, yogurt, granola, bananas, and (at least for me) soft-serve ice-cream. We also grabbed a few slices of bread, peanut butter and jelly to make sandwiches on the road.

Me, Danielle and Phil before leaving Boiling Springs

We ended up getting a rather late start for the distance we had ahead of us. After saying goodbye to Danielle and her friends, we had a hilly course to travel with the wind in our faces.  We ran into two segments where the road had been closed for construction, including one area where we had to walk our bikes over a steel plank to cross a river.  We never would have been able to pass that way had we been driving a car.

The setting sun casts shadows on this field, about ten miles outside of Greenville

Shortly after we started, I got a text message from Brian, who we stayed with in Raleigh, saying that he was driving to Greenville and could meet up with us to carry our panniers if we wanted some relief from the weight we were carrying.  We gladly accepted, and Brian eventually found us about halfway through the journey, a few miles after an ice-cream stop we made at a strawberry farm/peach orchard.  The going was a little easier without our bags, and we made it to our host Bryon’s house in Greenville just before it got too dark.

Bryon brought us to a restaurant called The Velo Fellow for dinner in downtown Greenville, and then he showed us a suspension bridge nearby that was only supported by suspension cables on one side.  Unfortunately, it was too dark to take photos, but the view of the small, rocky river below was gorgeous.  Bryon and Brian (his roommate) were having a gathering around a fire in their backyard that evening, and other couchsurfers were invited.  We spent the rest of the evening standing around the fire, meeting new people and making s’mores with homemade marshmallows and graham crackers that another guest had made.

It was expected to rain all day on Thursday, and Phil and I had biked for five days straight, so we were due for a rest anyway. Boiling Springs was a great place to recuperate.

Phil woke up early and went to class with Danielle, while I slept in until he returned. After eating a bowl of cereal, I planned out a 5.5 mile run around Boiling Springs. I’m getting a little slow from not running regularly, and my legs were still tired from bicycling, but the run felt good and the weather had turned quite lovely for outdoor exercise.

After showering, Phil and I walked to cafeteria to meet Danielle for lunch. A university cafeteria is quite luxurious when you’ve been on the road for a while. When I worked at Brown, I was always opposed to the system of paying a fixed fee for as much food as you could eat, since I think it promotes overeating and wasting of food. People’s eyes tend to be bigger than their stomachs, and if they’re not paying any extra for more food, they will pile on as much as their plates will hold. Inevitably, people will eat more than they should and food will go to waste. However, I could really appreciate this cafeteria now. Danielle used her “points” to grant us access to the cafeteria, and we were released into a room full of any food you could imagine. I particularly enjoyed the limitless supply of ice-cream, both hard and soft-serve, and took advantage of this at breakfast the next day as well.

Danielle had to drive to Raleigh to pick up her sister, Gabrielle, who was visiting for the weekend, so she took off around 5pm. Taylor brought us to the on-campus Chick-fil-A for dinner, but afterwards, Phil and I walked around the town looking for more. We ended up buying ingredients at the supermarket to make pie and cookies. By the time Danielle arrived with her sister, we had made a pumpkin pie, blueberry pie, chocolate chip cookies, and a pumpkin-blueberry custard cake with the leftover ingredients.

Me, Phil, Mike and Christine before leaving Charlotte

This morning Phil and I walked down the street and around the corner for breakfast at a trendy place called Zada Janes.  I had an omelet with spinach, goat cheese, caramelized onions, tomatoes, basil, roasted garlic and mushrooms, and Phil had amaretto French toast.  On the way back, we stopped at a bakery to buy a spinach scone and chocolate chip muffin for the road.  After packing up, we said good-bye to Mike and Christine and got a bit of a late start to Boiling Springs.

Going through downtown Charlotte was rather slow with traffic, but once we got out of the city we made fairly good time.  We stopped a few times, but for no longer than 10 minutes until our last stop, where we indulged in Reese’s peanut butter cups and dark chocolate dipped in peanut butter.  One memorable moment was when we rode by the airport just outside of Charlotte.  Mike told us we would be able to see the planes fly very close to us if we were to go down a certain road, and we did indeed find ourselves on that road.  Another nice place our route brought us through was Belmont, a small town that tempted me with bakeries, dessert bars and cupcakes, but I managed to get away with only a stop in the Belmont bike shop to buy some spare tubes.

When we finally reached Boiling Springs, it was almost dark.  Our hostess, Danielle, lives on campus with three roommates, Taylor, Caroline and Anna, at Gardner Webb University.  Nobody was home when we arrived, but they left us a guest key so we could move in and shower.  When Danielle returned from church, she and Taylor walked with us to the Chik-Fil-A on campus, and they used points on their student ID cards to get us food.

We plan to stay in Boiling Springs on Thursday as well, since we both could use a rest day and it’s supposed to rain.

Even though we got to sleep early, I didn’t sleep very well, and my legs were feeling sub-par all day.  Not being able to move around or stretch my legs out in my cocoon-like sleeping bag is something to which I have yet to adjust.  We packed up our camp and had hit the road by 9:15, and it was another beautiful, warm, sunny day.  While not very steep, North Carolina has some long and persisting hills, and I felt sluggish for the better part of the day.

After 15 miles, we came to a breakfast place called The Breakfast Nook, where I sampled fine Southern diner food: biscuits and gravy.  It was interesting, but probably not something I would order again.  The pecan waffle was very good, but I really miss real maple syrup.  French toast, pancakes and waffles are just not the same without it.

We stopped again to celebrate riding 1000 miles (a few miles too soon) at a restaurant called Louie’s Grille.  We had misremembered how many miles we had left that day by 10, so we really celebrated at mile 990.  When he heard what we were doing, the restaurant owner came over and sat with us to chat.  He showed us photos of Greece and told us how beautiful it is.  He also had plenty of questions for us, including how we were planning to get into Charlotte.  He adamantly argued that we should stay on route 49 the whole way instead of following the back roads that Garmin wanted us to take.  Once escaping the restaurant, we did follow his advice and stay on route 49, saving us perhaps a mile or two and probably a good twenty minutes.

Karen, me, Phil, Mike and Christine at Akahana

Mike was home to let us in when we arrived, and we went upstairs to shower.  His girlfriend, Christine, was at work until 6:30, at an art gallery a few minutes away, so we drove over there before it closed to take a look at some of her artwork.  From the gallery, we walked to a bike shop next door to look around before going to a pub called Growlers where we waited for Christine to get out of work.  There, we celebrated our 1000 mile mark again with good beer.

We were all getting hungry, so we decided on a sushi restaurant called Akahana that has buy-one-get-one-free rolls.  Karen, another couchsurfer who was staying with Mike and Christine, met up with us towards the end of our meal.  She drove up two days ago from Florida for a glass fusing class, and was staying in Charlotte one more night before driving home.  We all went back to Mike and Christine’s house, talked some more there, and then said good-night.