April 19, 2021
Day One: Darien, Georgia to Baxley, Georgia
I'd decided I wouldn't start riding until at least 8:30, because I wanted to avoid the busiest commuter traffic on the first eight or nine miles of the route this morning. We were up early anyway, after the second night in a row of fitful sleep. I was in a slightly melancholic mood, triggered by, of all things, a sappy and sentimental song from the 70's by Helen Reddy on the radio on the drive down yesterday. How ridiculous.
After breakfast at the B&B, and conversation with another guest who was interested in bicycle touring, we walked outside so I could pose for the obligatory start-of-tour photo. There was no large body of salty water in the immediate vicinity, so I just stood under a tree draped with Spanish moss instead. We don't have that where I'm from, and it seemed pretty exotic to me.
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I'd been a little concerned about the potentially busy, narrow roads out of Darien, but they weren't terrible. I wouldn't want to ride on them all day, though.
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Soon enough, I turned off the state highway. Green Swamp Road and Old Jesup Road were pleasant and traffic-free.
I encountered an elaborate roadside memorial on a long straight stretch of Old Jesup. It looked relatively new; the scarred, burned tree the driver crashed into had not yet been removed.
This is not the first time I've seen one of these memorials decorated with bottles of alcohol. While of course I don't know if this crash was caused by drunk driving, these displays always seem inappropriate to me.
Not long after that I encountered a closed country store. I'd heard that a lot of these on the backroads in the South had gone out of business in recent years.
I rode on the shoulder of a busy four lane highway for a while. Not terrible, since the shoulder was wide, and protected by a rumble strip. Still, I was happy to get back on some super-empty, paved backroads in less than an hour of the highway riding.
Around this time the wind picked up, and would be in my face most of the rest of the day.
There were a couple of dog incidents, but nothing major. I didn't use my pepper spray; I'm trying to preserve it for Mississippi, where I suspect, based on another tour I did there a few years ago, I will need it.
After 40-something miles, I entered Jesup (population 10,124), where my slightly negative initial impression was strengthened fifteen minutes later when a panhandler annoyed me in the area near the courthouse.
I made my way through Jesup on mostly empty streets until I passed a Dairy Queen, and went inside, the first time, I think, I've been in a DQ since the pandemic began. I wasn't that hungry, but bought french fries and a soda, mostly for the novelty of eating inside.
After that was a surprisingly high traffic section for a mile or so, where I actually rode on the sidewalk. Don't judge me, all of you "bicycles-are-vehicles!" purists!
The rest of the day, all the way to Baxley, would be on quiet roads.
Poor Robin Road was smooth pavement that eventually turned to dirt for several miles.
It started off hard packed, but eventually became soft enough in places that I had to be careful not to fall down.
I was relieved when the pavement resumed. I was getting tired now, and the wind had picked up.
Five miles from my destination of Baxley, I was standing alongside the road looking at the map on my phone when a friendly old man in a pickup truck slowed down and asked me if I needed anything. I was down to one last swallow from my water bottles, but I was close enough to Baxley that I told him I could make it. "Glad that you're here!" he called out as he drove away.
I rode into Baxley, population 4,697, without difficulty and rode straight to the Sleep Inn and obtained a room. Even though I'd done "only" 83 miles (instead of the 100 miles I often ride on the first day of bike tours), I was very tired.
As I checked in, a local man in the lobby asked some of the Usual Questions about what I was doing, then told me that he was "Glad that you're in Baxley!"
I was too tired to investigate the presumably many charms of Baxley, and instead had a pizza from Domino's delivered to my room, and went to bed early.
Today's ride: 83 miles (134 km)
Total: 83 miles (134 km)
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