Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Wednesday, May 9, 2018.    Jacksonville AL - Rome GA

We ate breakfast in the hotel room. Our usual—oatmeal, nuts, fruit (strawberry) and coffee. Hap got a muffin from the breakfast room. For the ride today we have beautiful weather, 80’s sunny with not much wind. Actually for this trip so far (expect a change soon!) we have had great weather. Mostly sunny, not too hot and not much wind. We are hoping this keeps up, but also expect something different! We got a fairly early start for us, 9:00a. Not too bad for the ol’ folks. Today’s plan is to ride to Rome GA mostly on the Chief LaDiga Trail. This is a trail that is 33 miles long. It connects with the Silver Comet Trail on the Georgia border to make a 90 mile trail that goes all the way to just west of Atlanta. We are riding it from Weaver, AL to Cedartown GA. A total of about 40 miles on trail for the day. Not bad! 

After leaving the hotel we retraced our steps (or pedals)back to the trail. We enjoy exploring bike trails on our travels. It’s interesting to see what states (or countries, we have also found trails in France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand) are doing with trail systems. About ten miles into the ride we rode through the Jacksonville College campus. We came to a section of trail that said “Men Working”. We noticed what looked like a lot of damage to several buildings including roofs off, trees down. I looked online (don’t ya love google?), and saw that there was a tornado through this area in March 2018. Wow, we saw a lot of damage. I can’t imagine how scary something like that would be. What a mess. 

The trail was great. It was nice to ride away from traffic. We saw a lot of people enjoying the trail. We stopped for a cold drink break in Piedmont. It was really nice to sit on a nice bench in the shade! On these trips you learn to love the little things. We stopped again for a bath room break and had one of those weird things happen. As we were leaning the bikes against the wall and going inside, a girl walked around the building and sat by our bikes. She just looked alittle strange/maybe druggee not sure. She just kind of stared at us. I stayed by the bikes while Hap went inside. I looked around the building and noticed a pickup truck with the motor running just behind the building. When I looked back at the bikes the girl was gone. Mmmm..... weird. When Hap came out, I went in and used the bathroom. When we left the girl wasn’t there. Just seemed weird to me. 

When we crossed the Georgia border line the trail changed into the Silver Comet Trail. The trail was a lot wider and nicer. We rode a total of fourth miles on trail today. We got off of the trail in Cedartown GA and headed north towards Rome GA. Before we left town, we stopped for our annual Big Mac (it’s a long story, ask me sometime!). When we left Cedartown we got on low traffic country roads that were awesome. In fact one road, I’ve named my favorite new road. Booger Hollow. It was smooth, curvy, rolly hills (you know the fun kind). I would love to come back a ride either our tandem or my light carbon fiber bike. What fun! 

Just before Rome, we had to get on State Route 27 with a lot of traffic. It was a four lane divided highway. There was a lot of traffic but everyone gave us plenty of room. In Rome, we were on a two lane road when a pick up truck passed us. Just ahead of us he pulled over and got out of his truck. Uh Oh, looks like trouble. Just as we passed he was waving and pointing. I yelled at Hap NOT to stop. But then I looked at the driver, it was a youngish guy, who was smiling and waving. Definitely not threatening so we stopped. He said he was also a cyclist. He just wanted to know the usual stuff. He also asked if we needed anything. He told us where a bike shop was and where a good brewery was. Good info! 

The plan for the next two days is to stay in Rome and play pickleball. I have been in contact with the local pickleball ambassador, Mark. He said they play every am at a local park. We made plans with Mark to meet at the park tomorrow, play pickleball and then go to lunch. We had some trouble finding a place to stay. Of course there are no campgrounds that allow us riff raff people (tents). It took me a lot of time to finally find a hotel that was available for two nights. We decided that there must be a lot happening in Rome GA this week. We rode into Rome, found the hotel (only a couple of “do overs”), took showers and walked next door to Appleby’s for dinner. This has been the best day of our trip so far. I think the combination of good weather, low traffic, my back feeling better and playing pickleball tomorrow has made for an awesome day! We are blessed! 

 
                               Bridge up!

 
                               Not sure we all fit

Power break

Dead end road. That’s why we bring the paper maps 

Chief Ladiga Trail. A 40 mile trail day! 

Working on the trail 

Entering Georgia

Another “ANNUAL” Big Mac

This guy flagged us down. Haps buddy

Snake on the road. Copperhead?