Tuesday 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 by, 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 27,000 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.

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 of 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.

As I said, 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 lost focus and several riders ended up on alternate routes trying to find their way out of town.  Luckily, we bounced back and forth across highway 11 so they were all able to get back on track without too much trouble.  At one point, 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.  Rachel pointed out they were "out in the hedges" obviously a British term describing off route.  After we got out into the country, I tried to mark most of the difficult turns to prevent anyone from getting any more bonus miles...something we didn't need on a day as tough as this one.

At one point today, I was hoping the lead group of 8 riders would make a few wrong turns so the rest of the riders could catch up.  The leaders were flying...I finally caught up to them in the van after the first SAG and followed them for a bit.  They were cranking over 24 most of the time and putting a large gap on the rest of the group.  I corralled them at one turn and made them stop for a photo and a recharge of water bottles...also tried to engage in some small talk, but they were back on the road in no time and cranking it up again.  But while I was taking their photo, Johannes was talking on the phone to someone in Norway.  When he hung up he said, "This is amazing, I'm out in the middle of nowhere and talking to someone at home...Wow!"  I'd say Wow too as I couldn't raise Barbara who was only about 10 miles from me out in the country.  Finally, as they departed, it was killing me not to be playing with them, but someone has to work today. 

As the day wore on, legs became more weary but the winds helped us all day.  After everyone got in, the local paper came out to interview everyone...biggest thing that's happened in these parts since the gin factory burnt down.  After the interviews, several of the local bike club came out and shuttled many of the riders around town to eat, do laundry, or just go to Wal Mart.  Thanks loads to everyone who took time to welcome our riders...they really appreciated the attention and I really was happy they now had clean clothes...the trailer will smell much better now.

The hardest part of today for me was knowing I have to leave here tomorrow.  I'm home...I'd just as soon stay!  Barb and I went to the house to 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 and we'll be riding by the Emerald Mountain School on our way out.  I think the kids are excited to see us...I know we are looking forward to seeing them.  See you then.