The terrain still rolled today and everyone is about ready to see the flat approach to the sea tomorrow.  The lumber industry is big in this area as it has been ever since we left Arkansas.  We've passed several paper mills along the way and we see logging trucks even when we are out in the country.  We are still seeing a lot of cotton fields albeit hard to recognize this time of year, and we are seeing more pecan orchards, peanut farms, and small towns as we get closer to Savannah.  Many of these areas were large plantations in the late 1800s, but now many of them have been parceled out to smaller farm lots and some are used as pasture for horses and cattle.  

We had our second SAG stop (lunch) at a farm house about 2 miles out of Glenwood GA.  The farm is owned by Dick and Susan Sohn who were kind enough to allow us to set up right in the middle of their property and by their house.  Last year, Susan (left) gave Barbara an overview of the history of their homestead.  She explained her farm used to be an old cotton plantation and the house was the master's home.  On the plantation, they had 38 "Little Houses" that housed the tenant farmers.  To each "Little House" had a team of mules and a wagon to farm the plantation.  When the cotton season was in full swing, all the 38 wagons would be in a line to the gin.  The master paid all the tenants in "chits" to use in the plantation commissary.  The tenants bought all they needed, or at least all they could get, from the commissary which was the building we used for our lunch.  Sounds like a tough life to me. 

Tomorrow we do our final ride to the sea...we need to stay focused one more day.  We're tired, we're ready to finish...I hope Savannah is ready for us...see you tomorrow.

News from Bob:

It is hard to believe that we started this odyssey 26 days ago and we have one ride left.  I think just about everyone is ready to finish and see their families and friends, and most of all get some rest. 

I asked Jeff what he was going to do next after completing a ride across the country and he said “I’m going to Disney World” and he really is.  On Sunday he will be heading to Orlando with his wife Julie and their two children to see the big black mouse.  It may not be a Super Bowl victory but he has earned some family fun time after this adventure.

Today was a fairly non-descript day.  The wind was once again kind to us and picked up pretty good in the afternoon.  The morning was filled with quiet country roads that were smooth and not crowded.  I came across some cows, which unto itself is not uncommon over the last month.  But, these cows seemed to know something that none of the other cows so far have known, and that is the hay is substantially better on the top of the pile.   

We passed through about ten small towns today.  Each tends to break the day up and gives you something new to see.  It never fails, someone is going to ask where we are riding to and where we started.  Once they have that digested they ask the really tough question…WHY?  We have had a lot of time to think of the answer to that question and I am sure that everyone’s answer would be a little different.  For me it is the kids and the Wiregrass Children’s Home.  Several others are also riding to help a charity, Parkinson’s Research, Breast Cancer Awareness or a Home in Kenya that helps children with AIDS.  But the one thing that we all have in common would be the bragging rights that we have achieved that will be shared with our friends in our local bike clubs. 

Until you attempt something like this it is hard to share the difficulty that such a task presents.  It is as mentally demanding as it is physically demanding.  Our families have had to deal with our long hours of training to prepare for this task and then the long month that we are gone from our family responsibilities.  We have been blessed with tailwinds since Ft. Smith, but as we tried to tell Mike when he said anyone can do it with tailwinds, we paid for these tailwinds in the first four or five states with all the headwinds and lousy weather.  No matter how you slice it there will be good days and bad days.  If you perceiver you can defeat this task and add a check mark to that fabled task list that we all seem to have that we want to accomplish in life.  This is going to be one big check mark!   Bob