Day 5: Turkey vultures! And, half a highway all our own

The weather cooperated with us and we had another lovely morning on which to ride; we took a short jaunt down the Louisville Bypass to 17, and turned left towards the airport. It was not too warm and we had a steady pace set so we could make it to Millen, 35 miles away, for lunch. Our day's destination, Sylvania, lay 55 miles away (I hoped). It was nice for yesterday's journey end up being almost exactly 55 miles, as I had expected; it restored my confidence in my map-reading skills.

The road was nice and quiet, for the most part; the trucks that came by almost always went to the far lane to pass, giving us plenty of room. That made the sudden blast of air less buffeting and more refreshing, as well.

New feature: Things seen by the side of the road
I will refrain from listing the myriad roadkill that clearly exists on every road. Instead, I will make note of the more INTERESTING things we have seen.
1. Five brassieres (including a light blue frilly number . . . Hm.)
2. Over the course of an entire day (yesterday), $0.68. I did not pick any of it up.
3. A Barbie doll. Also left on the side of the road.
More later.

The southern Georgia heat was not at it's worst, and most of the ride today was very nice. We are beginning to experience, shall we say, SYMPTOMS, that require the liberal application of Boudreaux's (those in the know understand; if you don't, look it up). Spend 6 hours on a bicycle seat, that's what you ought to expect.

We came upon a flock of about 30 turkey vultures as they enjoyed a stinky mid-day repast, thankfully in a ditch and obstructed from view. Turkey vultures are flying behemoths that have big beaks that tear; they were scared of us, though. We decided to take a short break after that in Midville, halfway between Louisville and Millen. We found a shady spot and enjoyed a Clif bar. Yum. Peanut Butter Crunch.

In Millen, we at first considered stopping at a Subway, but I really wanted to find a "local" place, even if it was just like the mexican place we stopped at yesterday. We found the Post Office, thinking it was the library, and got the scoop on where to eat -- Cindy's Cafe, right around the corner. They had a buffet with all kinds of vegetables and chicken-fried stuff (including a chicken-fried pork chop, which I mistook for an extraordinarily large chicken breast). Nancy had a salad with bleu cheese dressing, some peaches, some beets, some potato salad, and a roll; I had green beans, lima beans, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, that chicken-fried pork chop, some interesting potato thing in white gravy, a couple of thin potato cakes, and a roll. AND, we both had dessert. We spent a little time writing in our respective journals on the LifeDrive (see www.palm.com), and then left Millen around 1:30.

Oh, the road to Sylanvia. Outside of Millen, you have to turn right to get on to SR 21, a quiet divided four-lane highway, which leads right to Sylvania. It has rumbles on the shoulder, BUT unlike earlier incarnations, there was ample room on the farmland side of the rumbles for us to ride. That was fine; for a while it seemed like Sylvania must be on the top of a large hill, because it felt like we were climbing most of the time. The long, happy downhills, though, kept a fresh breeze in our faces and gave us a little time to relax.

About 6 miles out of Millen, we saw that SR 21 was under construction ahead. Our side was closed, and eastbound traffic was diverted onto a single lane on the westbound side. There was little shoulder to speak of. The closed side, however, was beautifully paved as far as we could see. So we took it, figuring we could cross back over to the traffic side if we had to. We then rode for nearly 8 miles on a nicely paved, closed road. We had two lanes of smooth blacktop all to ourselves. Heavenly.

Of course, that came to an end near Sylvania, and we had a few close situations because much of the traffic down heah in these parts is big ol' TRUCKS, ya know. MANLY trucks with big LOGS and stuff. We are accustomed to riding in traffic and this was not outside our comfort level, but it was still stressful. As we neared the town itself, we passed by the Screven County-Sylvania Recreation Complex, and we decided to stop and ask the nice men with weed-whackers where we could camp near town. Nice guys in attractive orange jumpsuits, which I realized as we were taking our leave said "State Prisoners" on the back. Nancy didn't realize it until just now. They gave us pretty good directions, but it was way far out of our way and down 301, which is a not-so-quiet four-lane divided highway. We ended up going for the known quantity, a Days Inn right in the heart of Sylvania, near the public library and plenty of food options.

The weather seems to be threatening tonight, and it may rain overnight. That will make for a cool ride tomorrow, as we leave my makeshift Georgia route and join the Atlantic Coast Route, already in progress. Nancy has uploaded a bunch of pictures for your enjoyment. Keep the comments coming -- we love to hear from you! If you'd like to send us an e-mail, send it to nancy.matthew@gmail.com.