Yawn...hard to roll out this morning...it’s always that way when we get to the  Eastern Time Zone.  But we can see the light at the end of the tunnel...or more appropriately...we can smell the surf of the Atlantic.  We only have 3 more days counting today...we’re closing in on our destination. 

Our route departed out of the motel straight to the city’s River Walk Bike Path for a leisurely 11 mile ride to Fort Benning.  It was a beautiful departure along the Chattahoochee River in perfect conditions at departure and our forecast was good for the day again...highs in the low 80s and partly cloudy.  I wasn’t too concerned about their progress since all of them were together and they were on a bike path... WHO COULD GET LOST ON A BIKE PATH???  HOW CAN YOU GET LOST ON THE BIKE PATH?  There's a major highway on the left and the river on the right...the only thing that runs between them was the bike path!  Maybe I should have been more concerned since in the past, we’ve had several riders show up AWOL before they got to Benning, but this bunch rode with aplomb.

The bike path led us right into the middle of the base which is home of the Army Ranger School, Sniper School, and Infantry Training Center.  The path cut off about 15 miles of busy urban traffic on our way out of town and allowed us to pass the Infantry Museum and several impressive monuments honoring fallen heroes.  We tell the group to exercise caution if they approached any troop movements or mechanized infantry maneuvers while riding on base.  An M1A1 Abrams tank operator might just like to try to see how flat he could squash a titanium bike if he got a chance.  I also told them that the new tanks could travel about 45 MPH and shoot a gnat off the butt of a cow at 3000 yards while bouncing on rough terrain.  With them wearing bright colored clothing, they'd be easy to sight in.  Scott volunteered...or rather he volunteered Steve to ride out front to draw fire so the rest of them could sneak through unscathed.  After hearing that, everyone was really looking forward to riding on the base...especially Steve.

It’s always a little nerve wracking getting on the base since it’s out of our normal routine to have to coordinate with authorities to ride on a roadway, but we had to alert the base on what we were doing.  As it turned out, getting on the base was a piece of cake and the construction they were doing last time we were here was completed so we had clean sailing all the way through.  Our only non standard maneuver we did today was getting off the base.  Instead of riding out the new gate and adding a mile or two of highway 27, we follow the road to the sniper school and just go through a barrier as the road gets close to the highway.  Beats me how they secure the base with the river on one side, an open bike path onto the base at another and lots of unsecure sections all along the highway with the only thing keeping folks off the base is a barrier for cars.  You can walk right on to the base at hundreds of locations.  I guess with all the armor, army rangers, and snipers in the area, they figure someone would be pretty foolish to try to access the base without authorization.  I’m sure the ranger snipers would have had a field day...FRESH TARGETS!!!

The terrain after the base was anything but flat.  It had large rollers that a rider referred to as large "stoppers" since they seemed to really slow him down...but the ride down the other side was great.  There were no really big climbs, but we kept having those 150 foot rollers one after the other and after the last couple days in Alabama (you remember, the flat state) we had some pretty tired legs.  After the first SAG at 40 miles, the terrain was pretty tame and with the lack of headwinds, everyone was moving pretty well.  The day surprisingly turned out to another perfect day to ride a bike...perfect temperatures and no worse than light winds to contend with.  Plus, we didn't have a bridge out all day, no lightning, no tornadoes, no rain, and no headwinds...now I ask, what fun was that? 

The scenery is starting to change a little, but we are still seeing lots of cotton and more dairy farms than Alabama and Mississippi.  We also started to see lots of pecan orchards and lots of peanut farms along the way.  We are in the land of boiled peanuts...which I'm not fond of, but many of our riders in the past have tried them for the first time and seem to like them OK.

Everyone got in by 3:30 so it was a relatively easy day...we needed it after the climbing into Tuscaloosa and Prattville. Tonight we had rap to discuss the final two days and logistics and we held our famous ABB T-shirt swap.  I told the riders this may be the highlight of the ride...or not.

Time's running down, we only have 2 more days left on our long journey.  We are about ready for this to be over, but we hate to see it end.  We will miss everyone when we wake up on Saturday morning and head for home...but until then, we need to focus for 2 more days on getting to Savannah safely.  Thanks for following...see you tomorrow.