Day02 Tour-Spring11

I'm in Elberton, Georgia tonight, about 50 miles, by the direct route, from where I started this morning. Today I mostly, di take the direct route, so I reached elberton about 2:30 this afternoon. I was tired when I got here and, after lunch with two cups - radical for me! - I was still tired, so I decided to stop early today. The fact that I have no particular destination and am no hurry was a factor, as was the fact that it is 30+ miles more to the nearest places with restaurants and motels was another factor. I just didn't feel like pushing on that far! Plus, Elberton has some good value motels. I'm at the Daynite Inn in a romm more tha twice as large, and much nice than, the room I had last night in Greenwood. It cost, with taxes, $44. I've paid $100 for similar rooms.

When I checked in, teh clerk asked me if I was staying one nght or two. I said one night unless teh wetaher was bad tomorrow and she said the forecast was for rain to start around midnight with up to 2" of rain tomorrow and the possibility of very strong storms in the afternoon. I told her I'd probably be extending my stay tomorrow morning...

This morning, as I was leaving my, Indian run, motel, I had a new experience. As I walked towards the office, just two doors away form my room, the owner came out with a smile on his face. I wasn't directed at me, but at six, saffron robed, men getting out a van parked in front of the motel office. I assume they were Buddist monks since those are the folks that traditionaly wear saffron robes. It reminded me of the many images of monks I've seen in web pages about touring in south east asia.

I had breakfast, and internet access at Mcds, then I headed west out of Greenwood on SC 72. Again, I was impressed by teh politeness of SC drivers on the intown 72 bypass which had no shoulders. Once I left Greenwood, there were shoulders, but they were too narrow, outside the rumble strip which was centered on the white line - yeah for SC! - to ride on at speed when going down hill. During most of the 20 miles between Greenwood and Abbeville, I was either going 20 - 30 mph downhill or 5 - 6 mph uphill ;-]. Flatland indeed!

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Early on I saw Old Abbeville Highway heading off from SC 72 and, about half way between the towns, it rejoined and then left SC72 again. that time I took the old road. Riding SC 72 wasn't bad, but, like US 25 it separated me from SC too much. As soon as I left it, I stopped to take a picture of a traditional church and graveyard. Later I took pictures of the old road with cattle in a field and a farm across the road and some fancy horses with steeplechase practice equipment setup in a field next to the road.

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I got back on SC792 just before Abbeville. There hills were getting steeper and longer. Long enough that I was getting hot climbing them and steep enough I was down in my next to lowest granny gear. On the first Abbeville hill I passed a restaurant and a nice looking motel. On the second Abbeville hill - equally long and steep - I saw signs for stuff in old Abbeville. Near the bottom of the far side of that hill, I turned right and climbed - in my lowest granny gear - into the old town. It was well worth the climb!

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At the top of the hill was a beautiful town square. I rode around one side of it - it has brick pavement - and down a side street off the other side of the square, I saw a stunning church. There are lots of churches in these parts, but not like this one! Its steeple towers over the town and its front stained glass windows suggest gothic arches. Nice.

I rode back down the other side of the square to get back to the south side where the sunlight was coming from, and photographed the stores on one side and the Opera house and city hall on the other side. Also very neat. There were a number of interesting restaurants and coffee shops in town, but it was 11 AM so I decided to ride on the the next town, Calhoun Falls, near the Georgia border, and have lunch there. Coming into Calhoun Falls, thd land was so flat that train tracks appeared beside the road and I was passed by a frieght train! I used the burst mode on my new camera, a Lumix G1, to record half a dozen images, in about two seconds, as the train approached me and picked the best one for this report. I also that burst mode later to take shots to make a panorama of the Savanah river. I'll try to put them together tommorrow and include the panorama in this report. It is big river!

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Lunch turned out not to possible in Calhoun Falls. Unlike Abbeville and Greenwood, Calhoun Falls is another dying town with few services. However the road from Abbeville to Calhoun Falls is less hilly than the road from Greenwood to Abbeville and has great shoulders. I wish North Carolina had roads this nice! 

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I rode on and found a license check traffic stop not far west of Calhoun Falls. They didn't want to check my license ;-}. The Savanah river is the border between Georgia and South Carolina and there are many dams along this part of it creating long lakes that are hard to cross. US 72 is on three crossing points in about 50 miles of border. That makes it hard to avoid checkpoints.

After the ceckpoint, I was looking for nice place to stop and snack. I found one right after the great SC 72 went bad ;-}. The stop itself was quite wonderful with lovely views of the the lakes formed by a dam 10 miles farther down river. I took some images, then I sat down, looking away from the road, to rest and snack. A car heading east pulled over near my bicycle and rolled down it drivers window. A nice dressed older man and woman were in it. He asked me if I'd come from SC and I said I had. Then he asked me is there was a drivers license check ahead. I said ther was. He said "Oh my gosh!, thanked me and headed back to Georgia ;-}. After my snack, I packed up and rode on, with an unrideable shoulder and a nasty rumble strip on the narrow road. Fortunately it only lasted till the big bridge over the Savanah River. In Georgia, the narrow road widened and had a decent shoulder all teh way to Elberton.
  
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Riding was good, if a bit long - the next services were in Elberton - and mostly peaceful, in Georgia. Shortly after I crossed the river, I noticed that my chain was noisy, so I stopped to lube it with Extreme lube. My chain was quiet again in less than ten minutes, using two kleenexes and less than 1/2 Oz of Extreme Lube. Lubing was made much easier by the fact that I'm now carrying a light weight - eight ounch - monopod which I also use as a bike support, a dog stick, and a pole for my tent. It doesn't look like I'll be camping on this trip, and I haven't had any trouble with dogs, but I've been using the monopod every day, and night, as a bike stand. I wish I had thought of that applicate for a monpod years ago!

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