DAY TWO
Next morning I got coffee from the stand and sat in the car listening to NPR while charging my phone. The other rogues set off at the crack of dawn on their 101 miles and could be seen crossing the big river bridge.
Eventually Susan appeared but no Mikey. Mikey had gone back to town and celebrated a bit too hard and so was not moving too fast that day. We set off over the Dillingham Bridge and entered Alabama. We were soon at the first rest stop and breakfast of PB&J and a banana.
The USA road signs for hazards are yellow diamonds and for some reason they often say “CHURCH”. Very kind of the Alabamians to warn you of such danger.
The next stop was after a hot ride through Seale, a tiny place a bit sad and crumbling. One road through Seale is called Poorhouse Road and at the end there is an abandoned purple shop for rent.
It also boasts Butch and Frank’s Museum of Wonder which we didn’t go in. We then ventured onto the Shake-and-Bake which is the BRAG name for a roughly surfaced road. I didn’t really notice anything on my low pressure wide tyres but the real road bikes picked up plenty of vibration. Further on we saw a grizzly scene. A lynched dummy was slowly spinning on a rope. A pumpkin on a nearby table indicated that this was supposed to be a halloween display. Standards of good taste seem to be a bit different in Alabama.
At the end of this was the rest stop at the FWV (Foreign War Veterans).
It was getting very hot by now so I grabbed some SPF50 at this rest stop. The next part started going down and picking up lots of speed down Nuckolls road heading towards the inevitable bridge across a creek. But what you didn’t see was the one and a half inch step where the road joined the bridge. It was then that I was grateful for my cheap Walmart bike with 32mm tyres and my 70psi that Ride-On-Bikes had put into them as I could hop onto this step. Most people stopped after this to check that their wheels were still circular. Unlucky ones had a puncture or worse, a bent rim. The countryside went rolling up and down in the heat.
A water hydrant was broken and a torrent poured out of it. We cranked slowly along Downing Drive, which felt like it should be called Upping Drive. A group of horse riders moved out of our way as we reached the industrial area. A big road could be heard with heavy traffic and and we emerged at Ray’s nursery and another stop.
It looked like there was a long hill going up in terraces ahead of us but we turned right and through a few suburban roads. There we met a sharp hill of only 100 yards but many people walked. Road bike gearing doesn’t work on hills but anyone who can get around Stroud would have had no problem. This lead us along Brickyard Road which was long, hot and very quiet. Then the road started to fall and we freewheeled on the smooth road for ages and thoroughly enjoyed the breeze and a rest. At the bottom we felt refreshed again and found the brickyard. In fact the brickyard was split over several sites and stretched over several miles with many dangerous railroad tracks to cross. The urban part Phenix City began to crowd around us and we popped back over the bridge back to Georgia and the camp.
After a shower and a listening to Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion while charging my phone in the car it was off to the Hardee’s camp Terra Nova and a couple of beers. The chips and snacks were good and given blood pressure concerns, it was great that much of this was with no added salt.
That night the girls went foraging for food and the men stayed at camp listening to the live sport on a little radio. I think a ball might have been involved but I can't be sure. The girls arrived with a stack of giant pizzas which we munched as the sun went down. Then there were Smores. What is Smores? Apparently it is a camp fireside tradition.
First impale a couple of marshmallows on a wire and dip this into the flames until the marshmallows start to get a blackened crust. If it catches fire as it most probably will, do not wave it about. This would cause it to fly off and be eaten by a very grateful dog like mine was. Just blow on it to extinguish it. When it is hot and about to melt assemble it as follows. Take a Graham Cracker, which is like a thin, square, less crumbly digestive biscuit. Place some Hershey’s chocolate on it and smear the remains of the marshmallow on top. Quickly sandwich the whole mess with another Graham Cracker and eat!
Before bedtime I went took a detour to my bench where I could pick up a WiFi signal called LinkSys. I downloaded two episodes of the Archers plus Ambridge Extra. I found that using my blanket and towel over my mattress this would take the edge off the hardness enough to make it comfortable. I listened to my podcasts and tried to go to sleep. The snoring wasn’t too bad. Nor the air conditioning which sounded like a light engineering plant starting up. It was the wretched helicopter doing night rides. It would fly low and with tight turns, presumably to scare the joy riders on board. But not only this, it would advertise using a loud hailer making it even more of a nuisance. And because the rides were short it would do this every 15 to 20 minutes.
