Well, the weather gods giveth and the weather gods taketh away...today was a taketh day again.  Yesterday we started in the dry and the rain caught up with us by afternoon.  Today, we started in the rain and it sort of cleared out by late afternoon.  I was in the van in the morning taking photos...you’ll see by the ones to the right that we were getting soaked in the beginning.  I rode in after lunch...hey, it was clear.  But it was hit and miss showers and I got caught in a pretty good rain shower myself...I guess I can check off “riding in the rain” on my dance card now.  The riders knew if I was riding in the afternoon, they would have a better chance of staying dry...I guess it worked.

We had an early breakfast this morning to give us time for the challenging terrain and the excitement of entering our 8th state...Alabama.  If you think it's flat in the south, just ask anyone on this ride for their opinion.  I think you'll get a resounding, "I didn't know it was this hilly in Alabama” answer to that inquiry.  Today and tomorrow are pretty good climbing days with well over 5000 feet today and 6000+ tomorrow.  After all the flat terrain we've had around the Mississippi River, the next couple days will definitely use different muscles.  There's nothing big, but there are a couple that are steep and they just keep coming at you...70 feet at a time.  A rider's GPS logged a couple 13% knee busters just before entering Alabama...I guess if it's worth getting here, it's worth working for.  Most of the riders are getting a bit tired due to the long mileage days they had last week, but now the hills are slowing them down a bit too.  Everyone seems to be pacing themselves well though...they'll need to because it's still a couple of days before the terrain will tame down.  

After everyone made up their mind to get rolling in spite of the downpour, the first turn out of the motel is left...well, guess what...everyone took off right so the first thing on my agenda was to track everyone down and get them turned around.  I guess they didn’t have that bright shining sun to give them a clue where east was.  It didn’t take long before everyone got headed in the right direction...it was wet that way too.

Our route today was almost all out in the deep back roads of Mississippi and Alabama...we had 41 turns in our 109 mile route.  Even with the navigation challenges, most everyone seemed to do much better than rides in the past where it seemed we were looking for riders all the time (except for the first turn out of the motel).  I think it was the fear of getting so lost no one would ever find them and that's not too hard to do in Alabama...so today they paid attention.  We had about 4 miles on open highway right out of the motel, but when we turned toward the east, it was difficult to even find a convenient store anywhere.  We were on roads that only have pavement because logging trucks need a hard surface to haul the lumber to the paper mills.  We saw a couple log trucks, but most of the day was pretty quiet on the road...except for all the country yard dogs we had to deal with.  Some houses had some pretty big packs to test our skill in riding around moving and attacking obstacles.  We are so deep in the back country, I imagine a lot of these dogs have never seen a bicyclist before...they probably think it's really neat to chase us.  They've got to get their exercise somewhere.  All kidding aside, I’m always concerned when dogs dart out at our riders.  I chased a dozen back into yards while in the van this morning.

Alabama greeted us with smooth roads...a welcome fact since the last two days have been pretty bumpy in spots.  I was surprised to see so many new road surfaces this morning...but we're not complaining...we’ll get some bumps before we get out of Alabama for sure.

As we neared Tuscaloosa, our route took us through Northport, a bedroom community of Tuscaloosa across the river.  North Port's an artsy town with lots of great eating establishments...during weekdays.  They were closed up tight on Sunday so no luck today.  After Northport, we rode right through the University of Alabama's campus and through a quiet residential area to the motel.  It was an eye opener to ride through the path of the April ’11 tornado that destroyed lots of Tuscaloosa.  You can still tell where the storm went through.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the quiet back roads we were on even with all the climbing.  Much of this landscape was pine forest that is used primarily by the paper mills.  We passed several areas that had been clear cut in the last year or so.  Clear cut leaves the terrain looking like a war zone, but most of the time we were riding on tree lined roads where you could only see for several hundred yards in any direction.  It's hard to imagine only 2 weeks ago we were in New Mexico where you could see for miles in ALL directions!  Was that on this ride?

Most everyone got in by 4:00 so they should have plenty of time to rest for tomorrow...they'll need it.  We had lots of climbing today, but we have even more tomorrow.  Another day of up and down all the way...we have some tired puppies in our group, but I'm sure we'll do fine.  We'll be riding into my home town...Prattville.  I sure hope the town is ready for them...tune in and see for yourself.