Taos, New Mexico

It's been a while since our last post, we've just been to busy and far from any computer to really keep up.
We'll try to summarize the past couple weeks as best as we can without leaving out too much.



After Mt. Magazine we rode to Fort Smith, on the Arkansas/Oklahoma border, where we stayed with a friend of my mom's, Elizabeth. She took us out to a great mexican restraunt, fed us some stellar strawberry shortcake and we got to catch the Will Ferrel special of Man Vs. Wild which was pretty funny to say the least. Again, it was great to sleep in real beds and be in the company of familiar folk, especially before our long stretch of the Oklahoma plains. The next morning she gave us a ride to the border and we were off.
During our first night in the Sooner State we stayed in a city park in a small town called Stigler off of highway 9 and slept in two of those concrete construction tubes that are normally used for storm drains. They were placed on a sandbox near the lake as some sort sorry attempt of a playground for the local kids I guess. The shelter they provided was actually pretty convenient and cozy though and kept us out of the rain. We lucked out being only a mile or two away from a sonic that night when it happened to be free root beer floats after 8:00 so that was a nice morale boost as well. The next day we rode north towards Oklahoma City, unknowingly passing through Okema, OK, the birthplace of Woody Guthrie, and got to stay with relatives of a neighboor, Dr. Bill and his family. We rode on the old route 66 which was cool and all but the traffic was terrifying with no shoulder at all. They also took us to an awesome mexican restraunt, Pepe's, and followed the meal with a huge helping of frozen yogurt from the Orange Tree. We truly hope one opens in Orlando in the future... a buffet of delicious cold goodness of all flavors.
The next day we left for Lake Canton and stayed the night near the dam. The huge body of water was a nice change from the flat dry land we had previously traveled through. Ft. Supply lake was our next destination and we then rode up into the panhandle, entering No Man's Land.
There was truly nothing on the stretch, for real.


Nothing.



The next few days can only best be described as surreal and unworldly. We felt as if we were on another planet, with it's only inhabitants being cows. The wind seemed to mock us and blew from the west, slowing down our pace tremendously. At the end of one hard day, with nothing in front or behind us for several miles, we found comfort and shelter from the petulant wind beneath a bridge along the highway. Once we went beneath the road the scenery seemed to brighten in the surrounding fields and we were grateful to have one of the best campsites of the trip so far, sleeping on the cement cross beams that ran beneath.


The next few days were uneventful, we traveled through, guymon and boise city where we stayed in an abandoned rv park for free which was kind of cool. We left for black mesa state park and found the first signs of the west in some decent rock formations in the surrounding canyon. Although we had planned to take a few rest days there the facilities were in pretty rough shape, the lake was dry, there was no food and the dinosaur tracks were covered in mud. Our next day proved to be much more adventurous.
Mesas greeted and welcomed us at every corner as we crossed into the land of New Mexico. We were headed for Clayton. As we approached the town, which we could see from miles away upon a hill, volcanic mountains to our west, thick storm clouds grew ahead of us. About five miles out of town the sky opened up above us and dropped it's worst.
"Dude, these are huge raindrops!"
"Caleb, that's not rain, it's hail."
Ping pong ball sized ice struck and pelted us, in a painful shower.
Just as it seemed all hope was lost, a white pickup truck was waiting just over the hill and took us in.
They yelled for us to get in the truck, speaking in very broken english, and we did.
They asked where we were headed and we asked them to take us to the nearest pizza place in Clayton. Once we arrived they asked where we staying in town and offered us a place to stay in their home.

" You stay with us, no woman here, mi familia in Texas."
We decided to pass on pizza hut when there was an offer for homemade fajitas and a place to sleep. The dinner was great and we told them our story as best as we could. We found common ground with music and Roberto, the man who had saved and brought us to his home, invited his uncle over who jammed with us playing some mean flaminco guitar. We retired around 9:00 and woke to an 4:30 sunrise as Roberto had to leave for work early. Our next destination was springer, to the west following the highway. The road was another long stretch of no real towns, the only store being a closed mercantile in Gladstone. A mammoth wind whipped and beat us with 53 mile an hour gusts as we rode and it took twelve hours to cover only sixty miles. As we rode into the setting sun more dark clouds formed ahead of us, violent and full of electricity. We stopped beneath a small bridge and waited for the first string passed over and kept heading west, finally finding shelter beneath a roadside metal pavillion over a picnic table. We set uop hammocks just beneath the roof and were glad to be dry. The lightning came closer and closer until we finally had to resort to huddling beneath the concrete table and insulating the space around us, as we were on the highest point in the area, just east of Abbot, with an elevation of 6,300 ft. Never had we been so close to lightning in such a high place, not to mention the open plains surrounding us.
We finally had the chance to crawl in our hammocks and sleep after the storm had passed, waking the next morning to leave for Cimmaron.
The change from plains to the Rocky mountains was drastic and beautiful. We were glad to see pine, and any vegetation at all, dropping into Cimmaron Canyon, home of the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch and Cimmaron Canyon State Park. We found a camprgound along a mountain creek and set up for the night, sad to have another night with no shower but excited about the rock faces and mountains surrounding us. The campsite was one of our favorites and the temperature drop was nice. We even got to see some local wildlife as a skunk wandered into our campsite, undeterred by our presence. It was a bit worrisome but after exploring the site and finding nothing of any interest he meandered his way back towards the creek.
Next we we traveled up the canyon through eagles nest with an elevation of 8,000 + ft., we continued to climb towards Red River along the enchanted circle over Bobcat Pass, an elevation of 9,833 ft. where we got to see a black bear run across the road. In Red River we found a map of Wheeler peak and decided we would climb to the highest point of New Mexico the following morning. As the sun set behind the rocky mountains we pedaled another 6.5 miles to the dirt road that led to Middle Fork Lake, our planned base camp for the night and the trailhead. The road was rough with gravel and the creek wandered over it several times. walking our bikes with all our gear was rough but we finally reach the trail head parking and found a satisfactory place to hide and lock our bikes to a sturdy tree. It was nighttime as we made our way up the mountain towards the lake for another three miles and we had to cross a decent sized creek in the dark, but the hike was worth it as we reached the top and the saw the most stars we had ever seen since the grand canyon. The sky was so filled there was no need for a flashlight as we set up camp and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning we woke at 5 am packed and hid our tents and left for Wheeler Peak as the sun mad the mountains above us glow a firey orange. The temperature at this altitude was extremely cold but when we looked around the lake in the daylight we were surprised to find snow still lying on the ground.
The trail was in such bad shape and eventually was nowhere to be found so we ended up having to mountaineer our own way with photos of a map we had taken with one of our cameras. We followed the creek and a set of trustworthy looking footprints through scattered snowdrifts to an open alpine basin. We then continued to climb to our right up the side of one of the surrounding mountains. It's hard to describe the beauty comeing to the top of the ridge. We could see for miles on end, the whole enchanted circle surrounding us and the Colorado rockies in the distance. We continued over steep snow plains and ridges towards wheeler peak seeing Mule Deer, Elk and Bighorn sheep in the valleys below us. Marmot ran in and out of the rocks as we lifted above the alpine tree line. Finally around 9:55 am we reached the peak. 13,167 ft. above New Mexico we enjoyed a much needed lunch of peanut butter tortillas and granola bars. There was a book to sign encapsulated in a tough iron capsule drilled into a rock and we rested in the shelter of a small rock pile from the extremely cold and violent wind. Alpine lakes and pine dotted the landscape and rocky cliffs were blanketed with snow. We were reluctant to leave as we headed down the mountain in order to avoid any storms that could hit in the afternoon. We continued to follow the next few ridges planning on making a loop to our base camp in order to avoid backtracking and to see some of the lakes below. We rested next to lakes deep blue from snow melt and continued going off and on from a trail we found as it was covered in snow. Gray clouds came in above us and we began to get anxious, any kind of storm at our altitude would have been miserable. We were also frustrated to find that the trail we had ended up on took us a mile below where we had left our tents earlier that morning. It seemed to take forever to get down and we could see the rain coming towards us over the valley below, getting a little bit of sprinkle everyonce and a while. we had to do the same hike from the previous night and recovered our bikes from their hiding place, riding the 6.5 miles back and getting to town around 8:30.

We were tired.
More tired than any of our riding days from the trip, and boy were we hungry, but it was one of the most beautiful hikes and experiences ever we have both agreed.
We both ate huge dinners of chicken fried steak and headed into Carson National Forest to stay the night. It was rainy and cold but luckily we only had about two miles to ride from town and the rain had stopped by the time we got there and slept next to the Red River.
The next day's ride to Taos was only about 40 miles and dominantly down hill most of the way. We roded through the Carson National Forest for a good portion of the trip and winded through the Rocky mountains and some of the most beautiful landscape of the country.
Riding into Taos, we were filled with excitement to see the first real and somewhat big town in a long time. Not only is Taos a big town, it's an awesome one, with art galleries at every corner and delicious restraunts in between. Adobe houses run all along the hills and neighboorhoods and the feel to the area is one of peace over all. We're staying in an RV park just on the edge of town only three miles from the main plaza. Last night we ate at the Guadalajarra grill, and the best Tacos and Enchiladas we had ever had in our entire life. Soooooo goood!!! We both agreed we had to try dessert if their dinner was this good and we were not let down. The Flan and Bunuelo were rediculous. This restraunt blew our minds and we are definitley going back. It's also conveniently loacated just across the street from where we're staying. This morning for breakfast we ate at Michael's Kitchen, which is notorious for it's good food, and prices, serving breakfast all day. We again had one of the best meals of our life with a huge spanish omelet and breakfast burrito followed by some delicious cream pastries. This town is awesome to say the least and it's definitley our favorite so far. Well, we're tired of sitting in the library typing this and we're going to go enjoy our stay here while we can.

Peace!

The past couple states.

After a long 86 mile day we found ourselves 4 miles from the summit of Mt. Magazine. We had left Lake Sylvia, just west of Little Rock, earlier that morning and cycled out of the Ouchita Mountains through the Arkansas River Valley. The sun was just setting as we finally reached the top where the man at the visitor center gave us a strange look as we told him we had come up through the south entrance of Havana via bicycle. Today we met a few other cyclists who had done the same though so it didn't seem all that crazy, although they weren't carrying as much gear as us.


The state park is beautiful, laying claim to the highest point in Arkansas, boasting thirteen full-service cabins, and a brand new lodge overlooking the end of the Ouchita range and the Blue Mountain Lake. Every room in the park has a mountain view and faces the valley which is pretty cool.
Of course we can't afford that so we're camping in the picnic area but it's basically a five star hotel to us. We only have to go about a 1/4 mile for a hot shower. If we go about the same distance up the other way on the road we can eat at the lodge where we definitely stood out last night walking in the restaurant still donning our cycling attire and the smelling like we just rode our bikes up a mountain, seriously, everyone thought we were crazy. We were excited to find extremely delicious food for a decent price though, even by our standards.


Little Rock and the western Arkansas mountains was where we really began to enjoy the scenery as opposed to the monotony of farmland in the last state and a half.


We'll begin with Mississippi where everything seemed to go wrong. The road ate our tires and rattled our frames. Whoever designed the road must have only been able to think in fifteen ft. increments, as every few seconds we'd hit a crack, following a familiar pattern through the whole state. Our first stop was Tombigbee State Park, about a few hip sways south of Tupelo, Elvis Presley's birthplace. Minus the Frisbee golf course there's not a whole lot to say except the park is surrounded by a lake and doesn't allow swimming. We were stuck there for two nights thinking it was going to rain in the afternoon but the weather turned out to be quite nice and we left the next morning where we decided to wake up early and set up a good pace. After about an hour of solid riding we stopped for a water break in Nettleton and to check our bearings.





This was the start of our horrible relationship with the state of Mississippi.





According to our map the town of Nettleton did not seem to exist. To say the least we were befuddled. The road signs for our junction didn't make sense and we couldn't find our western route until... with much despair we saw behind us a road sign stating ' Highway 6, West'.
Fifteen miles, one way, wasted which of course is thirty miles total, half a normal days ride. We still needed to cover the same targeted displacement in order to get to Lake Sardis State Park, our next place to crash for the night, making the days grand total to one hundred and ten miles.
Neither of us can truly put into words our frustration at that moment of painful discovery. Along with the distance, the already dull scenery seemed to loop like a broken record, with oddly familiar long and drawn out hills. Either we were insane our the road took us through each city several times, for example one of the next way points, Pontotoc became mobile because as we cycled towards it the mileage on the road signs grew and just as we thought we had passed it another sign would appear, 'Pontotoc, next exit'.


Oxford was nice though and we re-fueled with our ceremonial hard day's pizza.
The day ended with a magnificent view from the dam of lake Sardis and the surrounding thunderclouds showering the horizon, we were fortunate to have an island of sunshine. The facilities were mediocre at best, but we discovered a free camping area provided by the Army Corps of Engineers, which is always awesome.
Since we were surrounded by storms, the most practical way of keeping all of our stuff dry was sleeping next to the "less-than modern" restroom facility as best described by a friendly park ranger.


The next day we continued on highway 315 which was supposedly a scenic byway, but the only thing that really stood out was the run down skating rink with a sign outside reading SKATEASIA! in oriental font. We came up to a confused looking cow in the middle of the road, a little worried how it would react if we tried to go around it. Much to our surprise it ran right back into its pen as Nate rode up on his bike, basically making him a cowboy on an aluminum horse.


Traveling onward towards the border the last few hills of our least favorite state thus far, opened to a new flat horizon as we dropped in to the Mississippi delta. There was no question where we were when we arrived, it went straight from hills to floodplain, and we could sense the river's presence in everything we saw. You could smell and feel the cool breeze flowing from the country's main artery.


We continued another several miles, about half a day to the river bridge, our gateway into Arkansas. Passing the casino to our right we crossed over the mighty Mississippi, with brown water churning and flowing south, river barges and tugboats fighting the current, a scene truly worthy of a song written by CCR or passage by Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn had nothin' on us.

Helena- W. Helena was rough, abandoned brick buildings that held history but nothing else, and odd looks from the locals, but I guess we really need to get over that with the way we look on the road anyway. We didn't expect the initial few hills in the town, as small as they were, just across the river and still technically in the delta. Looking at the terrain view on google maps shows Helena as a spontaneous mound along the Mississippi, maybe from river silt built up over time? We stopped again for pizza and left with full stomachs towards Marvel, Ar to stay with my (Caleb) Uncle Bobby who scouts cotton in the area and stays in nearby farmer's house for the summer to be closer to work. This stretch of Arkansas was lined with farmland as far as the eye could see and the house lay in a decent sized cornfield surrounded by tall green stalks and next to a cotton gin. We were stoked to have a bed and showers and got even more excited when Bobby brought us some killer barbecue from Jonesboro and a few much needed bicycle tubes. Our eyes closed and we fell asleep with ease, exhausted from the past few days ride.
In the morning we headed north for highway 70 to get to Lonoke in a thick cloud of mosquitoes and gnats. There had been about 20 in. of rain in the the previous month and the air was filled with quite a buzz. When we hit more of an open road a head-wind picked up and took care of the bugs but it slowed us down quite a bit and we took turns drafting behind each other just to keep an average pace. The morning ride to Clarendon was all wheat fields and grass. We stopped at a little cafe/diner there to have lunch. This was a big catfish town, as are most of that part of Arkansas seemed to be. We ordered burgers just to be safe but they were pretty impressive. Photos of some of the biggest catfish we had ever seen in our lives were tacked onto the walls, wide-smiled fisherman with record setting catches in the back of old rusty pick up trucks and front driveways. These fish were monstrous. A man sitting in the booth behind us struck up a conversation seeing the SPOT gps Nate had on his bike and we talked about cycling and travel as he told us of different places around the country where old railroads were being turned into bike paths. He was extremely nice and warned us about the road ahead out of the town and through the wildlife refuge over the White River and even offered to get a police escort or have someone drive us to the other side but we didn't want to make a hassle for anybody and attract any more attention then we already probably had in such a small town. After lunch we went on through the White River National Wildlife Refuge, home of the last supposed sightings of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Although we kept our eyes open, there was no sign of the elusive folk tale. The scenery was cool though with six miles of an ancient raised highway over the wetlands and we saw a few deer. Cypress trees rose from the swamp and created a beautiful shaded canopy with open water below, it looked like a neat place to canoe or kayak if you had a lot of bug spray. The road was definitely in bad shape and had very little shoulder but we were fortunate to have little traffic. When we got to 70 we headed west again and arrived in Lonoke around 7:30 or so where we met up with Brian, one of my dad's old college friends. As we turned down his road he met us halfway on his bike and lead us to his place where he definitely took care of us with some reeeal good lasagna and apple pie. We took some much needed showers and fell asleep pretty soon after dinner waking up in the morning to head towards little rock. Brian drove up and met us at the riverside with his bike and gave us a tour of the city, first crossing the pedestrian bridge over to the river market where we rode over and checked out the presidential library. We were to hungry to take too much time there and go inside and headed back the other way to an awesome all-you-can-eat pizza joint. We really have not gotten tired of this Italian miracle meal. Afterwards we crossed the river again and took the Little Rock River trail, a bike path that took us through the old quarry and all the way to the Big Dam Bridge where we stopped for a while, looked at the swollen Arkansas River and said goodbye as Brian had to head back. He was a great guy and we all had a good time, we had never really gotten to see Little Rock before. Afterwards we finished crossing the bridge and ventured further west towards the Ouchita Mountains. The rolling hills were nice and we both agreed that any kind of hill is better than flat ground, which sounds strange, but the elevation change just makes the ride more interesting. We passed Lake Maumelle, the main reservoir for Little Rock and stopped at the only convenience store/gas station for miles before heading into the Lake Slyvia campground in the Ouchita National forest. The campsite was our favorite so far as it sat on the edge of a babbling creek and the air was nice and cool. The shower was hot, I mean really hot to where in kind of hurt and there wasn't a knob or anything that you could adjust it with so you had to kind of dance in and out real fast, not that you had to worry about it burning you for too long though, it would only stay on for about ten seconds before it shut off and you had to push the button again like those water conserving sinks and restraunts, it was nice to be clean though. The whole area reminded us a little bit of the Lower Appalachians in Georgia and North Carolina. There was a swimming area just before the campground on the small lake that you could see through the woods from where we were set up where my dad later told me on the phone he had gone to as a kid and gotten in a good deal of trouble when he pushed his mom off the floating dock. We almost wanted to stay another day it was so nice but knew that Mt. Magazine would be awesome too, and we'd stay there for a few days and rest. The next day's ride went down through the Arkansas Valley between the Ozark and Ouchita mountain ranges along the train tracks on highway 10, when we reached Havana, the south entrance to the mountain we took a break and stocked up on food before the long climb up. It was long and slow in low gear but it felt good to reach the top of the highest mountain in Arkansas.
We've enjoyed the past few days here and have felt very welcome. The second day we were here the district superintindent, Jon Brown, came out and visited us with his son Joe,who was about our age, bought us lunch at the lodge and gave us Arkansas State Park Staff hats, which we're not going to lie, we felt pretty cool wearing around the park. He was a friend of my dad's through the park service and a really great guy. We had only met him that day and already felt like old friends. We talked about the trip, school and some of the state parks in the area and he showed us around the lodge. He even hooked us up with a key card to get into the computer room and pool, which has an indoor view overlooking the valley and a hottub. He definitley set us up and it was great meeting another one of my dad's friends, Mt. magazine has definitley been a highlight of this trip so far. There was a motorcycle convention going on at the lodge that day to so it was kind of cool checking that out. Later we said goodbye as he dropped us off back off at camp and head back to Russelville.
We've enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay an extra night and leave tomorrow. There's some awesome rock faces to scramble around,on and off some of the trails and even a few caves we found you could squeeze pretty deep into and come out on the other side of the cliff, dropping into patches of fern with huge rock ceilings and Nate even found a cool spot with some fossils. The sheer beauty of this mountain is indescribable and there are so many parts that are probably still untouched off the beaten path and worthy of exploring but we don't have enough time to see it all even with our extended stay.

We're not looking forward to Oklahoma and Northern Texas, but we have to go through them to get to the prized west, where deep canyons are calling our name.

Tomorrow we head due west as the sun sets, and taking a left at the rocky mountains.

We crossed the mississippi river today into the delta sun of arkansas , too tired to write more right now but we have a lot to say!

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.

When we finally reached alexander stephens memorial state park we had gone over the 80 mile mark and it felt good. Our hammocks are set up underneath a pavillion next to the campsite with all of our bikes and gear. We woke up this morning to rain so it worked out not pitching a tent. took advantage of the hot showers and coin laundery only 100 ft from our site and both agreed that this was the equivalent of a five star hotel. The park is gorgeous and the camp ground hosts were a nice welcoming couple. They even invited me in their rv while i paid for the site and talked about the trip and where they were from. We might check it out a little more before we leave. Todays an easy day, only 20 miles until oconee natl forest and we're staying there for the night.

Last night we were to tired to do much of anything after cooking and eating tacos. It was our most productive and enjoyable day that we have had so far. We pedaled over the last few hills before the georgia line and into augusta where nate had his bike trailer fixed for free at andy jordans and we split a pizza at mellow mushroom which happened to be very very delicious. After lunch we took a look at the map and saw a state park on the way to atlanta before the national forest, made a few phone calls and had a place to stay 44 some odd miles up the road. The pizza must have given us some kind of magical energy because we pressed on through some major topography, the entire way was up and down through the foothills of the appalachians. We went through train and lumber country where small towns nestled in the hills revolved around the industry. If there was a map of nowhere we would be on it dead center. The people seemed remote and foreign, the countryside beautiful and fresh.

Were camping off the highway in the woods 13 miles from augusta. Could have made it tonight but we didnt want to risk sleeping in the city. We are smelly, sore and tired but overall satisfied with our progress. We went through a gorgeos section of hilly pine covered land owned by the department of energy. The terrain wore us out and we finally got to a gas station on the other side and gorged on nutty bars and cinnamon toast crunch cereal bars, washing it down with the 4th gatorade of the day.It was a nice stretch of untouched forest, but it was long and tiring. The beauty could only be seen from the road unfortunatly as the us government had made it clear they did not want anyone to step foot on their land. What lay beyond we did not know and pedaled onward. Dinner was 68 cent cans of condensed vegatable soup with beef stock. We were very dissapointed to find no beef at all in the cans and just beef broth with alphabet noodles and vegatables. Tomorrow we plan on eating some real meat