Georgia on Our Mind

We discovered that Denmark South Carolina is a very cosmopolitan place, with the hotel owners being Indian and the owners of the one and only non-fast-food restaurant in town being Chinese. So it was hot and sour soup and Kung Po Chicken for us. Fortunately the portions were huge and we left more than full.

We had breakfast in our room and rolled out just after 7. The ride was long and hot, and got progressively hillier. We also had to do a bit of improv on our route since RideWithGPS will happily route you onto dirt roads. Overall the parcours was quite agreeable: good roads, quite scenic, and quieter than yesterday.

In Augusta we crossed the Savannah River and with it our first state line, from South Carolina into Georgia. Yay!

We had planned to stop in Augusta for lunch but there seemed to be no suitiable options on our route. Finally as things were getting more sparse we saw a gentleman getting his mail. I stopped and asked where we might be able to get a sandwich. He smiled and said "Calvins!" and pointed literally right next door. It turns out Calvins is this cute little cafe that serves comfort food. Calvin himself came by and made sure everything was agreeable, which it certainly was. He and the waitstaff were very interested in our adventure and insisted on posing for pictures with us. I think he is interested in marketing to the cross-country cycling crowd. I think that might be a flawed strategy.

Calvin and two happy customers

Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters Tournament, lies right along the route out of Augusta. We thought it would be good to get some pictures. But all we could see were big green gates with what appeared to be money trees beyond.

We finally rolled in Lincolnton about 4 PM after 99 miles and about 4700 feet of climbing. Tonight's hotel is a step up from the one in Denmark, but still no shampoo. So we are 0/2 in that category.

All in all it was a good day, but needless to say we are pretty beat. The hills and the heat were taking a toll on me by the end.

This was in direct sun... but so were we much of the time