We're alive, we promise. We haven't posted anything in a while due to a long stretch of laziness and low phone battery but tonight we have no excuse.
we'll try to recount everything that has happened since.
A long string of storms held us up an extra day and night in Crawfordville, GA where we actually experienced a little bit of boredom for the first time since the trips beginning, which was almost kind of nice. Crawfordville was a sad town, abandoned and lacking any kind of industry besides the state park. The mainstrip is set along the highway, decorated with closed storefronts and restraunts that were once lively businesses not so long ago. You can tell the town used to be a waypoint to somewhere along the way, probably carrying through from the civil war when it was a stop for confederate soldiers during the civil war. I guess the economic low really must have hit hard. The town didn't have much but the courthouse and historic park revolving around the old home of the confedrate vice president Alexander Stevens, or 'Little Alec', was beautiful. It was a strange ghost town with no meat, expired peanut butter and a rundown arcade with empty vending machines that was the main source of entertainment after 5:30 pm. The next day when the storm cleared we headed for Athens.
We were picked up by Nate's roommate, Ben, in Athens and stayed the night with his family in Decula where we were well taken care of. The whole family was extremely generous and welcoming despite how horrible we must have smelled and deplorable appearance. We were so grateful for hot showers, a bed and an extremely delicious home cooked meal! Later we went with Ben and his girlfriend and brother's friends to see Angels and Demons which was a pretty rad movie. We were definitley living it up that night.
The next morning we left the comfort of Ben's home as he drove us to the other side of Atlanta and we headed for Sand Rock.
All we can say about the road to Rome Georgia and highway 411 is that we would not reccomend riding your bike on it. The shoulder is all bumpety, the kind to warn you when you're veering off the road, and the people un-friendly. It was a relief when we reached the Alabama border where the highways were clear and the overall atmosphere more homely and inviting.
As we pulled into Leesburg, the town lying at the foot of Sand Rock, we stopped in the dollar general and meat store to pick up some grub and headed up the mountain. The initial climb was what we expected, upwards and not fun. When we got to the actuall road to get to cherokee rock village, or sand rock it the looming gradient seemed impossible. For most of the way up we had to get off and push, and oh did we struggle. The elevation was not the problem but the rate at which it was changing was and we finally made it up the switchbackless mountain by sunset.
The challenge was well worth it though and we spent some of the best few days of the trip and our lives on top of that mountain with the best rock climbing in the southeast, free camping and met some like-minded dudes named Lee, Austen and Chimp, whom we will never forget. We spent one of the days tagging along with them climbing, rappelling and talking of dreams and distant travel. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, aside from the directionless wind and we were fortunate enough to get a ride into town from chimp to pick up more food as a ravenous raccoon had reaked havoc on my frosted flakes and stolen our tortillas. He nearly got away with a loaf of bread too but we chased him down until he cut his losses and bailed. We met a lot of cool people at sand rock and someone even gave us a hand saw to cut a log for firewood along the trip which we were insanely grateful for.
This morning we left and headed west towards mississippi, planning to stop somewhere in Arab, AL where, yes, we finally were defeated into wanting a motel room to take a much needed shower as the rock and dirt took a toll on our hygeine and comfort.
We went through the most scenic stretch of road yet and also the most mountainous. The journey was up and down the whole way, mostly up it seemed. We lost track of how many mountains we huffed and puffed over and thought we were done when we reached lake gunterville. Boy were we wrong. We could barely leave the lake area as there was the most mammoth and unexpected uphill stretch we had seen between us and the town of gunterville.
We know what to expect for out west, but man this was pretty rough.
When we finally got into town we re-fueled with some awesome local pizza and headed over to the guntersville outfitters and bike shop where Nate had his rear brake adjusted and fixed. It had been clamping on the wheel for most of the days leading up to sand rock and on the way there. We also stocked up on tubes and some chain lube. The guys there were truly awesome, giving us advice and kind of pointing us in the right direction through the mechanical world of bicycles which niether of us are truly well experienced in, yet. They gave us water and suggested we find a place in town to stay for the night as the skies were dreary, the streets wet and there was a long set of hills before the next town we were trying to get to, plus, they pointed out, Guntersville is much more interesting than Arab, and they were right. It's a beautiful and quaint little town along an enormous lake that channels towards chatanooga and south to the gulf, all huddled in between the foothills of the surrounding mountains. As we were in the store a customer had sparked a great deal of interest seeing our loaded down bikes and probably our shear dirtiness. All along the way it's been awesome seeing people get excited about the whole idea of the trip and all, but he seemed really stoked about it, patting our backs and wishing us good luck and safety. After he had left we stayed in the store a while while the guys helped us out and we were waiting out the rain when suddenly one of them answered the phone and told us that the man we spoke to earlier had called the mayor and asked if we could stay at the fire station. This news brought us immense joy and we happily rode through the drizzling rain to the station where we were warmly welcomed by the coolest fire dept. in the south. Man do they have it made! The view is awesome, the lake and mountains in the background and their living quarters are not bad at all. We're just grateful to have a place to stay and we couldn't be in better company. They drove us to Zaxbys were we picked up some good grub and rode in a hardcore truck that got about 9mpg, it was awesome.
I can't describe how awesome it is to get to crash at a fire station for the night.
Hot shower, good food, and a roof above our heads, now we're taking advantage of sleeping in real beds.