And not too long after 8, I was back to the road again. The wind was calm, the sky cloudy, not too hot or humid, and I was feeling good and making good time along Alt 17. ...I was making such good time I forgot to note where I needed to turn to stay on 17, and found myself biking 63. I went over a bridge over the interstate before I realized my mistake. I added a few miles to the day with that blunder. But it turned out alright. I got on some almost entirely untrafficked side roads through countryside and meandered my way back all too soon to Alt 17, with its greater traffic, higher speed, and no shoulder.
The roads today were rough, from the side roads to the highway. It's honestly most of what I remember about the ride, how often I was getting pounded by the pavement. My hands seem to be doing better with the saddle adjustments, but on those roads they ended up sore. My guess is that with the interstate there, as I was on roads paralleling it all day (for some ways, directly adjacent to it, riding on one side of it, then over a bridge to ride on the other) all the money goes into keeping it up, and the other roads are left to fall into disrepair.
In the early afternoon the clouds brought rain, completely unpredicted by my weather app. It poured. I didn't mind, as it was a relief from the heat. That is, until I realized it was affecting visibility and the roads started to flood. I ended up taking shelter under a covered roof and hanging out for a while until the rain abated and the water on the road went down. Storms come and go like the temper tantrums of a toddler down here.
17 turned terrifying, so much traffic, 60mph, no shoulder, one semi or ridiculously oversized truck after another, and the road still a bit rough at that. Adrenaline had me racing at upwards of 20mph at times, frantic to make it take as long as possible for them to come up on me, and to get off as fast as I could. I hated it, so much. I eventually turned off onto 170, Alligator Alley, through a wildlife preserve. But even then, there was still no shoulder to speak of, the speed limit was 55, and there were a surprising number of semis and other big vehicles. There was all this beautiful scenery and no chance to really appreciate it. I stopped at the edge of the wildlife drive to take a look, and to rest from the traffic, but was not about to commit to the loop, especially seeing the muddy mess it was.
I crossed one river into Georgia, then another, and one more, again with no chance to admire the view. For the last there was at least a boating ramp area where I was able to stop and take a look. I came out of the port-a-potty to find a man, some park official, waiting in his truck for me. I wondered why the heck I would be in trouble. But instead he said he'd seen some guy on an e-bike zipping along and asked if it had been me. I said no, the only motor for this bike is my legs. He told me he just thought he'd ask because he wanted an e-bike himself, and he would have to do some research. Ah, the unexpected little interactions while touring.
I was in city after that, Port Wentworth, then Garden City, on my way into Savannah, and things got much easier. ...Though not on my nose. There is some plant, which literally looms in sight of the wildlife refuge, I think a paper mill, and the smell on the way into Savannah was absolutely nauseating. The whole way into the city it was all this gross industrialized business and fairly run down areas, that did not make a good impression. But once in Savannah? Oh, that is another matter.
I arrived at my host's place, an apartment she shares with a roommate, and made our introductions. She's an incredible person, a true adventurous spirit. About the time I started this tour, she finished hers, biking somewhat of a Southern tier route, but mostly just connect various cities and towns she wanted to see, starting in Athens, GA, over to LA, with lots of meandering, various rides and trains, and adventure of all sorts. She's living in Savannah just for the Summer, spending time with her boyfriend here and enjoying the city, before heading off to a job trimming weed in Colorado, to save up money for a European tour, possibly getting a job in Berlin at a bike tourist oriented hostel (thanks to some folks she met on tour who are starting one), with the intent maybe to live in Germany permanently. Yeah. She's got exactly the right idea in life as far as I'm concerned.
After shower, laundry, food, the usual, we went for a walk and she showed me downtown Savannah. And it is spectacular. There is a huge, beautiful park called Forsyth very close to where she lives, a walk way down the center with a canopy of trees over head, dripping that silky Spanish Moss. The whole city is on a near perfect grid, and there are endless more green squares checkered throughout it, with the initial intention that they be spaces for military encampments if necessary, but now turned into peaceful green spaces, with lovely plants, fountains...and of course statues commemorating Confederate heroes. Horse drawn carriages took people around the squares on a guided tour of what history the town had to offer (giving way on the way back in the dark to hearses taking folks on over-the-top ghost tours) One after another enormous gated mansion, each with its own character, or church, marble with Grecian columns, or with a clocktower rising to the heavens, or perhaps more subtle in its grandeur, would be waiting along each block, rising over the green squares. Past the gold domed city hall, narrow metal bridges span over old cobblestone road, down which lies the riverfront, lined with endless shops and tourist attractions. But it has a different and unique feel from the beach boardwalks of which I've seen far too many, a character that belongs to Savannah alone. We saw the sun setting over the river, past the suspension bridge by which most come into the city, casting a brilliant red and purple across the cloudy sky. A group of people shuffled off and on the ferry to the island hotel in the middle of the river. A man on his trumpet drew in a crowd, children gathered right around him, taking part in the performance, as he played bits and pieces of classic songs, inviting folks to clap along and get taken in by the music and the memories it invoked. Under that fiery red sky, the city was vibrant and alive and utterly captivating.
Savannah. I came here in my youth. Yet somehow, I remember none of what the spectacular city has to offer. I find it interesting to note that it is often the smaller towns that I have adored in other parts of the country, but in the South it has been the cities (and honestly, almost exclusively the cities), that have drawn me in. Savannah and Charleston have made up for everything in-between.
Today, my rest day, I took time to relax in the morning. Then I went for a walk, seeing some of the places I had seen before but in the daylight, as well as some new areas, a few of the green squares I hadn't seen before. I bought some clip on sunglasses at CVS (after a long debate between those and some giant slip over ones, which I kind of still regret not getting). I got some insanely sweet candy at one of the many candy stores. I people watched. I went to the grocery store and restocked on supplies. Then I came back and visited with my host some more. I learned that the coffee shop she was planning on going to she just learned is run by a cult, the Twelve Tribes, and we spent some amusing and interesting time researching them together. I made plans for the upcoming days, as there are no hosts to be found. Then I wandered around Midtown and some of the more residential, and also not quite as nice, parts of Savannah, while my host went out with a friend. Afterwards we got together and went to the Sentient Bean, a cool coffee shop that serves exclusively vegetarian and vegan food, and she unexpectedly treated me to my BBQ tofu wrap. They had a movie going behind a curtain in part of the cafe, and the night was nice, so we decided to sit outside. While we ate, a woman with a dog and a parrot came along. She perched the parrot right on one of the chairs, from which he asked "Want some" at us and our food. As a tour bus came around, a discussion of the local tours came up, and she put in a plug for a couple of the ghost tours and how she had had "really real" experiences on them. Both my host and I found it amusing. We came back and finished the last of the ciders in the refrigerator while chatting some more. And now it is time all too soon for bed, my time here in Savannah at an end.
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