So yeah, Sarah and I cheated a little bit. We found a rideshare on Craigslist that was leaving New Orleans and headed toward Atlanta and we decided to share the ride. We're on a bit of a schedule for our trip to Rhode Island, as we're trying to be there to start work the first week of June. Getting a ride to Atlanta also put the pressure on us to ship our bags and get us away from the comfort of home.
In Atlanta we were able to stay the night with one of the girls from the rideshare. It was a great place to stay in a town called Dunwoody just north of Atlanta, and we even had our own room to sleep in. It was like couch surfing only they gave us a comfy bed to sleep in rather than a lumpy couch. The next morning we were up by 9 and hit the road by 10. We ate breakfast on our way out of town and then continued on our way. We eventually got caught up with taking care of a few errands like getting the paperwork turned in for pedicabbing in Newport, but I wasn't worried much. I was more interested in just enjoying the ride.
Later that day we came to Stone Mountain, which is a big rock that looks like a half of giant dinosaur egg sticking out of the ground, or maybe like a bug meteor that had planted itself there. I'd say it is more like a hill than a mountain, but it was still impressive. We took the 5-mile loop around the mountain as a detour and found a shady place to eat our lunch. After our detour we hit the road again. We had barely made it 20 miles, and on our way from stone mountain I was distracted by the little bike shop, Aztec Cycles. I needed a few things for my bike so I stopped and purchased some new brake pads, a chain, a water bottle holder and some new lights. That took another hour of our daylight time and by now it was nearing 6pm.
We would need to find camping soon so we headed further down our route to Savannah. At one point, maybe another 10 miles down the road I got something in my eye. It hurt to close my eye or to move my eye and I kept rubbing it hoping that it would flush itself out. Eventually I couldn't take it any more and Sarah and I stopped at a little Jamaican restaurant/bar just off our route. The waitress was very pushy an preferred to tell us what was on the menu rather than give us a menu to look at. I still had something in my eye and I put my trust in Sarah to order while I went to the bathroom to try to dislodge the foreign debris. When I came out of the bathroom, Sarah had ordered the curried fish and I still had something in my eye so I headed over to the gas station next door to get some eye drops. I returned to the table after failing with the eye drops to a plate full of yummy fish. After a bite of food I had to return to the bathroom to try again to remove whatever foreign matter was causing me so much pain. I seriously couldn't think straight it hurt so bad. I still don't know what came out of my eye. I think it might have been an eyelash that worked its way far up under my upper eyelid, but after stretching the skin to its max and flipping my lid inside out like I'd never done before, the painful object fell from my eye. I knew that it was gone the second that it fell out. I felt so light and free and happy and could now go enjoy the curried fish...which was amazing.
We could see that the sun was getting low through the cloud covered sky, so we checked our map for a place to camp. On our way to Arabia Mountain we stopped or some ice cream, and then followed a bike path into the park. It was a beautiful ride into the park. I love designated bike paths. Sometimes I wish every road was made just for bikes and pedestrians.
We pitched our tent off to the side of a trail that was headed toward Arabia Lake. It was a good spot, but we did find a few ticks on us before turning in for the night. It started to rain almost as soon as we got settled in our tent. It was perfect timing, and the rain would continue on into the night. I was a little restless before falling asleep, but the rain drops on the rainfly soothed me. It feels good to be back on the road.
Miles: 40
RRD: A blue bouncy ball
-D
PS - Also, follow me on the trackmytour map: www.trackmytour.com/0lsB1
PPS - Don't forget to check out Sarah's blog too: www.NomadicCycling.com
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