2021 Southern Transcon Day 24: Eufaula AL

Eufaula Lake, AL

What a difference a day makes, no rain in the forecast. At 7:25 the sun was streaming into the room as I did my final check to make sure everything was packed. We threw the bags in the trailer and hit the road at 7:30.

A bit of fog on a perfect morning

We started off at an easy warm-up pace for the first 30 minutes of the ride. Jeff and I both had legs that were not that interested in cooperating, so we extended the warm-up for a full hour! Lots of big rollers at the start of the ride did not help the cause. Tim was back on the bike and itching to go so he headed up the road with another group.

Tranquil cabin on a pond

The route would climb up a ridge and then over a plateau before diving down and repeating. There were great farms and ranches all along the way. The Magoo Ranch had a cabin set on a pond, it was well worth the stop to grab a photo.

First SAG near Bulldozer under tree!

The first SAG came at 28 miles in the town of White Oak. John set up the SAG at rusting bulldozer that has been there for years. A local hound was interested in the goings on and stopped by looking for snacks. There was toilet paper on the dozer. At the time, I just thought it must have been a prank. Later in the day Jeff let me in on the local tradition (read on).

We stopped for this cool display

My steed added to the display

After the SAG we continued on and noted various decorations on the driveway entrances of the farms and ranches. We had to stop at this particularly interesting truck display. Then we saw the bike display and had to add my machine (temporarily) to the action!

Ok time to get back on the road!

Enough screwing around we have nearly 200km to ride today, so we get back on the bikes and press on!

A rare flat stretch

While the GPS recorded 5,800 feet of climbing today, no one climb was longer that 1.5 miles. It was just roller after roller. I think the photo above may have been the only flat section of the day!

Lon and Susan waiting for the pilot car

After the second SAG, we encountered a construction section where traffic was restricted to one lane controlled by a pilot car. When we arrived Lon, Susan, and Doug L. had been waiting for at least 10 minutes. Finally the pilot car came and we followed through after all the waiting cars/trucks had passed. No wonder it took so long, it was a couple of miles before we hit the actual construction, and another mile before we got to the other end of the controlled zone!

Lots of livestock along the road today

Nice roadside wild flowers

Huge Walmart distribution center in Brundidge AL

Great views of wild flowers, farms, and ranches were suddenly interrupted by a HUGE Walmart distribution center. It would have taken the panorama feature to capture the whole building in a single frame! With lunch just up the road we squeezed off a picture on the fly and continued on.

Grilled cheese with bacon and tomato

Oh yes, grilled cheese, tomato, and today's added ingredient: Bacon! Add some potato salad, hummus, and guacamole and you have a true feast. The SAG was set up in an old school yard with plenty of shade trees. We both thought this would be a great way to end the day, but we had 35 miles to go, so we loaded the bikes and rolled on.

More cotton

The topography was still rolling, but the rollers were less steep and further apart and we started to get bigger views. The fields were also larger and we saw many cotton fields.

Big ranch with chicken houses

Also the number of chicken houses seemed to increase. We were rolling along and noticed the signature smell of said operations, but didn't see any. We come around and up a roller and we see this huge ranch with an array of chicken houses that confirmed our suspicion.

There were lots of trucks because of the Walmart center a few miles away, but there were also many chicken haulers (both full and empty) heading to and from processing plants. They too have that distinctive odor!

Choctawhatchee River

We crossed the Choctawhatchee River twice today. We missed it the first time, so we stopped at the second to grab a photo!

Auburn Fan?

The last few miles into town again route through a nice neighborhood as Lon tries to avoid as much city traffic as possible. We stopped at this house because it had the best toilet paper display. Jeff said it is a tradition when Auburn wins a big game, they throw toilet paper. This looked about a week old. It makes sense, they beat Georgia State last Saturday!

A few more twists and turns and we rolled over the Eufaula Lake bridge and into town. Another Mexican dinner and this day is in the books! 110 miles, 5,800 feet of climbing in just over 9 hours.

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