We finally got an early start today. We were out before 7 and toward the front of the group. With less hills today we averaged right at 16 mph. Our first stop was at Five Count Stadium, another baseball field. That seems to be one theme for rest stops. No photos from there as it wasn’t as impressive as the day before. Well, one artsy photo by Matt that really had nothing to do with the stadium or rest stop. You can see that at the website later.
Our next stop was in Spring Hope (cover photo for this day). This was a very welcoming town. They had different types of small bicycles hung on street lights throughout our route through the town. They were cooking sweet potatoes for everyone. The sweet potatoes were harvested just two weeks prior. They served sweet potatoes to over 1000 riders from 9 am to 3:30 pm. There were town people all around helping, serving, and welcoming the riders from the time we rode into town to the time we got back on our bikes and left. “Come again!” one lady said standing in the middle of the street as we got on our bikes and road away. It’s a town of 1,300. This was probably the biggest event they’ve seen in a long time, or ever.
We’re starting to get back out into the rural areas after being in and around bigger towns and cities for the past two days. A few days ago we past by some tobacco farms - I expect to see some more tomorrow or Saturday. Today we rode through a number of cotton fields and soy bean fields. This took us to our third rest stop at Faithful Stables Farm, a large picturesque horse farm - riding horses. Among all the horses was a gentle older German Shepard name Ida (I looked at her tag). She was happy to eat the dog biscuits I always take with me on rides in case of being chased by dogs. Good thing there were no dogs after that on the ride.
After 16 more miles we were done for the day finishing early around 2:00. We have plenty of time to rest up and get ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow’s distance is a little longer at 68 miles and pretty flat with only around 800 feet of climbing the whole day. We’ll shoot for an early start due to the temperatures starting to climb. Today reached 80 degrees by 1:00 pm. We’ll see above that the next two days.
