August 3 & 4.
In Claxton, GA we got one of the best welcomes ever! The people from the Eastside Baptist Church were on site when we arrived. They had prepared goody bags for everyone, which had in them honey sticks and sunflower seeds and granola bars, plus info on 3feetplease.com It’s the law in 26 states to give cyclists three feet of room while passing, but most people, even in those states where it is law, are not aware. Not even all police officers are aware of the laws governing bicycle travel. One of the church members had done a presentation on bicycle safety which he had set up there at the church.
I had the bag of info in my suitcase, but one of my honey sticks had broken open inside the bag and gotten the window sticker and bumper sticker all gooey. I had a feeling I should have either eaten or gotten rid of those!
Around five or so, even more church members came bearing food for our dinner. I don’t remember what they prepared, but I know it was tasty! One family even stayed overnight with us. Some of our more energetic riders raced the little boy around the rows of chairs. Henry gave a presentation and asked a couple of riders to speak, also. And then Wes regaled us with some songs, accompanying himself on the banjo. I only knew one or two.
We have a lot of meadows and open fields, cotton fields and peanut farms and apparently I am getting more interested in getting to the destination than in taking photos. I didn’t take any photos on the way to Claxton.
In the morning, the church members got up early and brought in several breakfast casseroles. Breakfast casserole is a great way to start the day! At least, I like it better than cereal and bagels every morning, and a hard-boiled egg.
For snacks that day we had some of the famous Claxton fruitcakes. I gave it a try and it wasn’t too bad, even though I am not a big fruitcake fan.
One bad thing happened on the way to Savannah. As I was pulling out of one of our rest stops, I saw something in the road ahead which I couldn’t quite make out. Then, I saw a person stand up. As I approached I saw that there was a dead dog in the road, and one of our cyclists, Mike, pulled off ahead of that. The dog had run out of its yard to chase him, just at the same time that a car was passing. He knew ahead of time what was going to happen, but there was nothing he could do. I stopped and stayed with him until he was ready to move on. That was a sad occurrence.
In the evening we made it to Savannah where we stayed at the First Presbyterian Church. We had a bit of free time in the evening to go down to the river front. Even though our ride was advertised as going from San Francisco to Savannah, Savannah doesn’t quite bring us to the coast. The Atlantic Ocean was still 20 miles away, at Tybee Island. That we did the next day, on Saturday.