April 14, 2015
Blackshear to Glennville: Hold the Onions!
We discovered this morning over breakfast at McDonald's that the local franchise does not adhere to corporate's food specifications. Rather than asking to hold the onions, you need to ask for the onions to be added. This apparently outraged some poor soul on Google who had to drive 22 miles out of his way to get his order made correctly. He gave the Blackshear McDonald's a lonely, single star. Apparently people in Blackshear don't like onions.
Whereas, in Glennville, the end of today's ride, they celebrate onions. But unfortunately, we will miss the Glennville Sweet Onion Festival, which will be held May 9, 2015. It is Glennville’s biggest annual event and is now in its 39th year. So if you are in the environs, drop by and celebrate the harvesting of the famous Vidalia sweet onion crop in Glennville, GA!
Our day started off early, but during the night a heavy mist, not quite a fog, had settled in, and the ride to McDonald's was filled with thoughts of the rain to come. This was our fourth day of threatening weather, and we had avoided rain for three days now. Could we be so lucky? It did not seem so.
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After breakfast we had seven miles on a busy highway to get to Patterson, where our route took us to quieter roads. Of course, we had to deal with the dreaded rumble strips, but once we arrived in Patterson and made our turn, the roads fell super quiet, and we pretty much rode where we wanted to. We knew it would be fairly remote for many miles, so we stopped to stock up on Gatorade at the local convenience store, where we happened to meet a sales rep who inquired about our journey (we raise a lot of interest in these parts). It turned out he grew up in Halifax, NS, and we had a nice chat about our plans and the weather in June (which should be fine).
Continuing on our way, the weather and the scenery only improved.
And in spite of the humidity, spring was springing!
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We even crossed a few swamps along the way.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the final 15 miles or so into Glennville were on a somewhat busy road with more rumble strips. There are only a few crossings of the mighty Altamaha River, swollen by three days of rainfall, but this very long bridge had plenty of shoulder width to accommodate us. On the far side we ran into two fellow touring cyclists headed for Daytona Beach, both on recumbents!
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We stopped and chatted a bit across the vast (two lanes) of pavement as cars politely took turns single filing past in both directions. Quite a sight, no doubt! You can follow their story here.
Shortly thereafter we arrived in Glennville, happy to know we would have onions again!
Today's ride: 63 miles (101 km)
Total: 928 miles (1,493 km)
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