Day 25, May 15, 2014

Made it to Vidalia a little wet (100 miles).   We woke up to wet roads and overcast skis, but it wasn't raining, as originally forecast.  About 4 miles after our first rest stop (40 miles) we hit the first rain of the trip.  Fortunately, we encountered only rain and no thunderstorms.  As we passed through the town of Eastman, Ga. we encountered downed trees and power lines from the previous night's storms.  The going was a little disconcerting, between the rain and poor visibility, storm damage littering the road and the moderately traveled two lane highway.  Ultimately we rode in rain more than an hour, but less than 2 hours, so 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 hours were rain free; much better than forecasted.  Only two hours of rain in 26 days of spring riding is darn lucky (I'm counting tomorrow's ride as rain free, as the forecast is mid 70s with a nice wind at our back blowing us to the Atlantic).  Although the "late loaders" made it to the hotel, without incident, one of the slower riders was asked by a policeman in a town to get off the road.  The rider admits he was riding in a downpour.  Another slower rider rode through a puddle only to discover the puddle was a pothole, causing him to crash and get skinned up. Ultimately, everybody arrived at the hotel in one piece.  One more 104 mile ride.  The Kiwis are antagonizing Jere into a final sprint to the ocean, no doubt Jere will take the bait.  With the flat terrain, tail wind and the horses smelling the barn, I'm afraid the pace will be faster than I'll want to go, but I'll hang on for as long as I can; there is no need to leave anything in the tank, because I won't have to ride Sat., or anytime soon.
  I won't be writing a blog after Fri's ride, but will write an epilog to the trip sometime next week, stay tuned.
   Thanks for following us on our journey.