Lots of Riding

Day 3

Miles today: 382 Total miles: 772

Editor's note: Looks like this is going to be an NBC sports blog entry
- coming to you live via tape delay! I'm at a campsite in southern
Alabama which is really nice and scenic. Unfortunately, it's so scenic
that I don't have cell phone service. So I'm writing this thusday
night, posting Friday morning. We now go live to Bob Costas!

Really great day today with a lot of riding as you can tell from the
mileage. It was a little cold this morning - low 40's when I got out
of the tent around 8 - but it warmed up quickly once I got going on
packing up. I mentioned last time that it was raining last night, so I
had a wet tent to deal with in the morning. I got everything packed up
and wiped the tent down with a backpacker's towel that Sandy gave me
(dries out really quickly) and packed the tent up too.

I rode about 25 miles to the next town and got a coffee at McDonald's
to plan the route for today. I was just outside of Greensboro this
morning and decided to take ga-44 south to Eatonton the take ga-16
west across the state. That was nice until I decided I wanted to be
warmer, so I decided to head south on US- 27alt/41 south from where 16
hits I-85 to Columbus, GA. I crosses over into Alabama there.
Apparently a "Welcome to Alabama" sign wasn't in the budget, so I took
a picture of the "Welcome to Phenix (sic) City" sign instead. I took
US-80 west for 20 miles or so and the AL-51 south. Alabama's state
highway signs kind of squish the shape of the state of Alabama down so
that it's square instead of tall so they can fit the road numbers
inside - it makes the state look like Massachussets, only reversed.
Mass backwards, if you will. (It's the little things that keep me
laughing on this trip.) So I took 51 to Union Springs and then US-29
south to Andalusia. The one in Alabama, not Spain. I know, I get those
mixed up too. Tonight I'm in Conecuh national forest at a campsite
next to a lake. Which is awesome.

A couple of things that ran through my mind today:

Saw a logging operation in GA this morning that made me think ofthe
deforestation I saw in Haiti. I really hope reforestation is part of
the long term recovery plan for that country, because they can rebuild
Port-au-Prince all they want, but once they do, I'm not sure what
industry they'll have to sustain it once it's back.

I rode for a while today with a Harley guy and it got me thinking
about a few things on motorcycle riding that I've learned over the
past year or so and thought I would share. When 2 riders get near
each other on a road, they like to join up and ride together - partly
because it's safer (easier to see two bikes than one) and mostly
because it's more fun. Riders will also wave at each other, just like
boaters. Very important to do this with your left hand so you don't
let go of the throttle/brake and wreck your bike. Harley riders can be
uppity about this and only wave to other Harley riders, which I've
seen firsthand and don't really understand. What's wrong with waving
to someone on the road? Shoot, I waved at a guy on a lawnmower today.

To the team at MEY: I've been doing some scouting in the southeastern
states and have a report. I haven't seen any planting in the states
I've ridden through. Most of the weeds I saw lookd like they hadn't
been sprayed yet. There are lots of weeds that need killing, but no
spraying yet that I've seen. I did overhear some talk of getting
sprayers fixed, so hopefully that means that a few have started. I'll
have another report when I get to Texas.

A guy pulled out in front of me today and cut me off, (not close
enough to hit me, but close enough to get me pretty mad) and then I
noticed his bumper sticker that said "my bad" and I just laughed and
waved at him.

Editor's note 2: It looks like my earlier posts have been a little
garbled and have been cut off at certain points. Because i dont have a
computer with me, I'm writing these posts on my phone and then
emailing them to the blog, so I guess something's getting lost in that
process. I'm hoping to get to a computer tonight so I can fix that.