Welcome to Alabama...what a tough day.  Today weary legs set out to tackle some pretty tough terrain and even though most everyone thought it was a tougher than average day, the riders did an excellent job...something 3 weeks ago would have been much tougher.  Now they are road hardened, strong, and motivated.

Monday morning in Tuscaloosa was beginning to get busy at 7:00 when we packed up to leave...seems like Tuscaloosa is the busiest town in the country during rush hours, especially on highway 82 in front of our motel.  Life was good in Tuscaloosa, but we had another day of pedaling toward Savannah to accomplish.  I always like the early morning departures with the sun shining through the trees and glistening off the early morning dew that covers the hillsides.  It's always so fresh in the mornings...our legs sometimes aren't as fresh as we'd like them to be, but you have to enjoy the scenery as the sun rises before us in the east.

Today we rode to Barbara's and my hometown...Prattville, a small bedroom community of Montgomery, Alabama that is growing by leaps and bounds.  The population, the last time I checked, was approximately 40,000 and is home to one of the largest active Cotton Gin factories in the south...and we even have a WAL Mart and 3 Robert Trent Jones golf courses that I'll be spending time on when I get home next week.

As I said before, there were some weary legs departing town this morning after all the climbing we did yesterday and our route today did not give them any respite from the hills...actually, today was the third biggest climb day of the trip with over 6000 feet.  Even right out out the motel, we got into some pretty good pitches as we departed through a couple of housing areas in the outskirts of Tuscaloosa.  It was interesting to see the differences in the houses as we left.  One street would have $500,000 homes while just around the corner there would be mobile homes with 5 rusty cars cluttering up the yard...all part of the culture of Alabama.

We departed town through several residential areas to avoid the narrow highways that feed the sprawl.  The navigation was very precise and clear, but a bit complicated if you lose focus.  Last year Karen and Barb were parked along highway 11 and saw riders coming at them from all directions.  Barb was wondering how they could be so confused after only 5 miles and how could they be coming from so many different places?  Sort of a keystone cops routine...cheap entertainment for the van folks to say the least.  This year’s group did much better...I didn't hear of anyone getting lost getting out of town or at least no one admitted getting lost.

After 13 miles of urban and residential riding, we turned out into the Alabama back country and we had already climbed over 1200 feet.  The road surfaces were mostly good...some were excellent and we had a time or two where it was a little rough.  Some of the roads out here are only hard top because they haul lumber out of the forest areas and they don't have to be silky smooth for logging trucks. 

Another challenge was the fact there is nothing out there...only a store or two along the way to supplement our vans.  We were pretty stretched with the terrain and the distance between the front and the back today.  After today's ride, we'll probably modify next years SAG spacing for support. 

The hardest part of today for me was knowing we have to leave here tomorrow.  I'm home...I'd just as soon stay!  Barb and I went to the house to do laundry and drop off some clothes since we will be back in less than 5 days.  As we were leaving, we both had to make each other keep walking to the truck to go to the motel.  Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to bring the ride through here after all.  I heard someone say he fully expected to get 4 days of route rap and not see us again and some of the other riders were also taking bets as to whether we would come back or not.  I'll take that bet, but I won't tell you which side I'm on yet. 

Tomorrow, we depart for new adventures and a new state...Georgia, our last before getting to Savannah.  It should be a good ride if I can get them all out of bed in time to leave.  Actually, we are going to sleep in and not depart until 8:00 to allow traffic to thin out on our departure route.

PS:  Thanks to members of the Montgomery Bicycle Club (Robert and Bonnie) for taking the time to stop by and say hi to the riders and offer to shuttle to eateries.  It was much appreciated and it was nice to chat for a bit...you guys are great!