April 13, 2015
Folkston to Blackshear
Some days are just utilitarian, meant to get you from point A to point B. In some respects, that was today. With limited hotel and camping options in this part of Georgia, we had to parse out our days and swing a little west to make it to Savannah. And it means some short and some long days intermingled to cope with available accommodations, lodging, and food.
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So from Folkston, we headed a bit west and north for Blackshear. This also worked out well from a weather perspective, as heavy thunderstorms were predicted all week for most of the afternoons. As happened yesterday, the deluge came after we checked in, so there was no need today to ride in the rain or seek shelter mid-day. Although we prepared for the worst.
Breakfast is served bright and early at the Brickhouse Restaurant, which is literally in a brick house. We had hoped to catch dinner there yesterday, but they close at 3:00 on Sundays. Turns out they actually stay open late on Sundays, as their normal hours are 6:30 to 2:00 daily. We got there about 8:00, and I joked with Happy that the daily specials would be sold out. We had a hearty and cheap breakfast nonetheless.
The only real quiet road today was the one out of town. It runs parallel to US-1 and the railroad tracks for about 10 miles before merging with US-1 in Mattox, GA.
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I think all of two cars passed us on this road. Nice and quiet. But our next road was US-1 itself. About four miles of divided highway. I wagered there was a 50-50 chance we would have rumble strips, and I wasn't disappointed by the GDOT. But unlike south of Folkston, where they occupied the entire width of the shoulder, this section had them located over half of the shoulder width and just a bit left of center. If you rode carefully, you could maintain a line of travel to the right of the rumble strip, and that's what we did. Cars and trucks still gave us a wide berth, and almost all of them changed lanes while doing so.
I was hoping to have better shoulders on GA-15, but rumble strips seem to be the practice here in Georgia. Fortunately, on GA-15 they also had gaps horizontally in groups, allowing you to weave off the road and back on if you desired.
Why would I do that? Because we mostly rode this stretch in the open lane and would allow traffic to change lanes to pass us — and they always gave us a wide berth. But if I saw a car coming the opposite way at the same time, I would duck to the right of the rumble strip to give the drivers more lane width. Happy and I agreed we didn't need to be squeezed off the road by converging cars/trucks!
Outside of that, GA-15 presented a new topography for our eyes. The area is swampy in parts and heavily forested in parts and harvested in parts (by the likes of Georgia Pacific, no doubt).
We finally made it to Hoboken, GA (who knew?) and made a short Gatorade stop before crossing US-82 and continuing on to Blackshear. I was hoping things would improve, but traffic was actually a bit heavier, and the shoulder was nonexistent north of Big Branch. And the rumble strip was now built into the white line! Infuriating but passable!
We were in Blackshear by 1:00 PM or so, got ourselves some fried chicken at Carter's Fried Chicken, and checked into a Bates 3 quality motel across the street.
Today's ride: 39 miles (63 km)
Total: 865 miles (1,392 km)
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