Day 12 - Enjoying Southern Accents

Stats: 102 miles, 14.1 average, 64 miles by noon

We benefited from southern hospitality again today. Our cousin/niece/sister-in-law, Bethany Nissley is from Jesup, Georgia. Our route took us right through Jesup today and so we lined up to meet some of her family at a park. They provided us with drinks, veggies, fruit, chips, and homemade ice-cream. Chad and Bethany provided subs from Jersey Mikes. They must have thought there were 40 of us, because there was so much food leftover. 😊 I know Bethany was wishing she could have joined us. We would have loved for her to be here too! 

We started off again this morning at 6:01 from Statesboro, Georgia on 301S. We rode with lights since there was some fog and the sun doesn’t rise until closer to 6:30 down here. Eighteen miles later we stopped in Claxton, Georgia at a Huddle House for breakfast. We enjoyed our waitress who was definitely not on her first day of the job. 

We have been enjoying reactions of folks we meet when they find out what we are doing. Our waitress today did not disappoint, as her jaw dropped to the ground. Then as we were leaving another patron asked about our adventure. He offered us his advice, “Ya’ll need to go to a liquor store and get you a piiint.” We laughed about that for awhile. 😊

Lil called ahead to our campground tonight. The owner answered in her sweet and strong southern accent. And Lil was told to come on in and pick our site. “We ain’t got but twelve sites.” (You have to read this again with that strong southern accent to appreciate why Lil was chuckling as she hung up the phone.) We are at Mutt’s Place RV Park south of Nahunta, Georgia. Needless to say, they never asked about a rabies vaccine for Dixie.  No pool, but other than that this place is great - full hookup, nice bathhouse, free washer, no gnats or sand or dust. 

We dodged most of the rain today until we got showered on for about 15 minutes when we were about 10 miles from our campground. But by the time we pulled in we were pretty much air dried.

Some observations I’ve made on this trip include…

• As we travel further south, the corn is getting taller,  the wheat is getting riper and the gas is getting cheaper.

• We are keeping track of unique road names. There’s some that none of us want to go down, such as Colon Ave, Bear Trap Road, Panther Creek Road, Tic Bite Road, and Dusty Bottom Road. Then there are a few inviting names such as Peach Basket Road, Magnolia Drive, Pleasant Home Road, and the one we all wanted to take was Shortcut Lane.😊

• There are no perfect days - biking or any other time. But we sure have had quite a few “ideal” days - getting 60+ miles in before noon, tailwinds, good food and lots of laughs. 

• We have become church hoppers. We ate lunch at a Baptist church, the next day at a Presbyterian Church, the next day at a Baptist church and we have also stopped at a Methodist Church.😊

By Ladina

Breakfast at Huddle House.

Dixie is getting great at traveling!

Picnic with Bethany’s family 

David sitting down on the job.