US-41 today was just great. There were no shoulders, but there
was very little traffic and the drivers were very courteous. I need a list
of superlatives to describe the spirit in which people all over North America
have responded to my journey.Friday, October 25, 1996
Time out: 10:23 AM.
I had trouble with the website upload last night (as far as I could tell, the problem was due to excess traffic at Voyager, hence real slow FTP transfer; as low as 16 bytes per second), so I stayed up too late for an early start. Then this morning I had to go back on line to complete what I hadn't finished last night, so I ended up getting out late. Because I was rushing to a lunch meeting in Tifton, I ate breakfast at McDonalds.
US-41 today was just great. There were no shoulders, but there
was very little traffic and the drivers were very courteous. I need a list
of superlatives to describe the spirit in which people all over North America
have responded to my journey.
I did experience 3 unfriendly encounters today: including two cars of rednecks who honked and yelled incomprehensively and a carload of black teenagers who yelled for me to "get off the road." I was told that a bicyclist camper in Cordele, Georgia was beaten up with baseball bats by some redneck teenagers last year. I guess such things can happen anywhere. I'm not being hassled any more in Georgia than I have been at home in Michigan.
I tried photographing cotton again and as you can see, I failed.
The Casio doesn't do well with this sort of detail.
I saw a dead fox in the road. Foxes don't fare real well on the highways. In fact, I think I've seen fox roadkill in every state or province I've traveled through.
I got real scared when I saw a black Labrador run across a yard at me, stop at a chain-link fence gate, then shinny under the gate and run out into the road after me. Luckily a car came along and I was able to power away as fast as I could while the dog waited for the car to pass. I did reach over and grab one of the dog jerky treats I bought, but I didn't have the opportunity to throw it this time.
I saw peanuts being hauled in for processing at the Chula Peanut and Grain Company in Chula, Georgia.
Then I saw BIG dog (I don't know what kind it was) running at me. This one looked real determined and I was readying for a serious attack when a human intervened and whistled for the dog to stop, which it did, instantly. Whew!
I received e-mail yesterday from Shearer and Bonita of Cordele,
inviting me to have lunch on them at one of their Denny's restaurants in
Cordele or Tifton. I'd already passed Cordele, so I opted for Tifton. I
called them in the morning and received directions to the restaurant--about
27 miles from Ashburn. When I got to Tifton and went to use the directions,
I discovered that I'd lost them, but as I was riding into Tifton wondering
where to go, Shearer and Bonita pulled up alongside me in their pickup truck
and told me where to go again. I had a nice club sandwich and a pitcher
of coke for lunch. Shearer is a decathalon cyclist. We had a pleasant discussion.
At Denny's, rather than worry about bicycle security, I wheeled the bike right inside. It was great to have understanding hosts. Tifton seemed like a nice community.
South of Tifton, I passed two men constructing something made of 50 gallon drums that I couldn't identify.
When they waved, I decided to stop and ask them what it was. They said it was an elevated hunting blind (the hunters sit in a crows-nest-like perch at the top of a cylinder of steel drums). One of the men said he is a bicyclist: 2 mountain bikes and a road bike; but he has trouble coming up with time to ride.
In Sparks, Georgia, I saw a sign identifying a storefront as a Pecan dealer - Lovett's Pecans (Hwy 41 North, Sparks GA 31647; 912-549-8238). I decided to find out what it would cost to send some pecans home. I am a pecan fanatic.
I met Claude and Evelyn Childers. Evelyn told me she had been in the business of buying pecans for 54 years and is called "the nut lady". She explained that there are about 800 varieties of natural pecans, known as "seedlins" and about 340 varieties of the grafted pecans that people eat.
Claude said that he worked for the Ford Motor Company in Caseville, Michigan for 35 years (starting after World War II), met Evelyn, married her and moved to Sparks where she lived.
We agreed that I would order 20 lbs of pecans when I got home, send her a check and she'd mail them to me.
 Claude |
 Georgia pecans |
 Evelyn (The Nut Lady) |
From Sparks, I rode to Hahira (hay-hi-ruh), and out to I-75 looking for a motel with laundry facilities. There was only one motel, no food source and no apparent laudry facility, at this exit, so I decided to go on to the next. Since I can't travel on the Interstate, I followed Union Road along the east side of I-75 for about 5 miles then down Old 41 about 4 miles to Valdosta Highway (a 4 lane), where I rode about 2 miles to a Day's Inn.
Dining choices at the Days Inn consisted only of Burger King and Dairy Queen (have you ever wondered why these chains use such royal names?). Oh well. I ate at both. Then I went to an RV park behind the motel to use their laundromat ("gross" is the only word to describe how grubby this laundromat was).
The motel wasn't much better; it was not one of my favorites.
Total mileage today: 69.
 Georgia |
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© Ed Noonan 1996, 1997