Please Come to Boston

It was Silk's route.  He rarely leaves his zip code so I figured it would be interesting.  In fact his truck has a layer of mildew on from just sitting for weeks at a time.

We were to start from downtown Boston Ga. at 8:30 am on a muggy Saturday morning.  Lil Ball and I were on time, seems Silk was stuck waiting for the worlds longest train in Thomasville Ga., he rolled in a few minutes late (which isn't that unusual).  He had kept the group small since we had never ridden most of these roads and didn't want to get a bunch of folks lost.

I'll admit to being a little nervous about doing 77+ miles on mostly clay roads.  The longest I had done before this was the 60 mile Dirty Pecan.  I had figured on 200 calories per hour with a resupply at the convenience store in Berlin (pronounced Burrrln by the locals).  One bottle with plain water and the other with mix.  We would rely on churches along the way for water.

So yea, we were going from Boston to Berlin by bike.

And We're Off

Like dogs just being let out of the kennel we all had to stop and mark our territory along the first graded road.  I was thankful the road had dried out since the last rain as it looked like it had been a soupy mess earlier in the week.

The dirt north of Boston goes from clay to sand the further you go, making conditions perfect after a couple of days drying.  Any drier and the sand would have been a lot more work.

We saw very few cars and only a couple of aggressive dogs, unusual for south Ga.  I was glad my compatriots weren't in a big hurry, even so, I kept my big nose out of the wind when possible.

Berlin was about half way and we made the obligatory convenience store stop.  I went for Red Bull and a bag of salty chips, Lil Ball a Mt. Dew and something from his jersey, and Silk, a Cliff bar.  I got a pretty good kick out of the junk food and felt perky as we turned and headed back south.

A Little Bit of Hate

At around 50 miles I began to run low on water, the temperature had climbed into the mid 90's, the yellow flies had started getting faster, and my seat was starting to get sore.  So I did the one thing I hate to do, I whined "Can we back it off a notch?  I'm running zone 4 back here."  As soon as I said it, miracle of all miracles, a little country church pops into view.  The other two acted like they really didn't need to stop but would do so if it kept me from complaining.

My Lord that water felt good.  And taste?  Like a summer wine!  All three of us stuck our head under the faucet and refilled our bottles.  Energized with holy water from the First Holy Neck Antioch Living Church of God in Christ we continued on.

We've Only gone 15 Miles?

I thought the route was 75 miles so at about 65 miles I started smelling the barn and getting antsy to finish.  Even though I had spent almost no time at the front I was tired.  As always, the last 5 miles of a long ride are the hardest.

We finished up with 77.6 miles and no more whining from me.  I was glad to be off the bike.  How people do 160 mile clay days I have no idea.

There is a neat little pizza place in Boston, I think it was called Buzzerlys.  Good food and a surprising beer selection.

So now we have another route to chose from.  It doesn't quite have the shade the red hills roads do but it will be fun for a change of pace.  I meant to post the route from my Garmin but somehow it wouldn't upload.  Sorry about that.

See if this works:      https://ridewithgps.com/routes/13390789

It's not exactly what we road but close.