May 21: Madison to Winterville, Georgia
I only rode 40 miles today. It was to Winterville, a small town about five miles northeast of Athens, Georgia. I kind of felt like the previous three rides — all 80+ miles — left me a bit tired. One rest day didn’t seem enough, but I’m also feeling some pressure to keep making progress towards our next intermediate stop of Washington D.C. on June 9. So, we decided to get an early start and move on, but something much less than 80 miles.
While I was riding north today, I met about 50 cyclists on the Action Cycling 200 event coming south. I stopped at one of their rest stops and chatted with the rest area people for a while (all the cyclists had passed there already) and told them all about The Dream Tour.
I’ve mentioned in a previous entry something about the number of seemingly abandoned houses that I’ve seen in the south. Here’s one extreme example. This looks like it was someone’s mansion at one time. Now, it’s just sitting along side the road waiting for someone like me to come by and take a picture, I guess. The other photo below is another old building just across the street from the first building.
Even though I rode to Winterville, there were no places to stay, so we’re staying in Athens tonight. We’re staying at the Bulldog Inn. Bulldogs are everywhere! Athens is the home of the University of Georgia — the Georgia Bulldogs. The University of Georgia is not far from where we are staying, so we went into town for dinner and to take a look around at the oldest state-supported university in the United States. Here’s some photos of my favorite bulldogs hanging around downtown Athens:
There was also a double-barrelled cannon on display at the Athens City Hall. According to the sign behind the cannon, it was built near Athens during the Civil War and the idea was to have a cannon ball in each barrel with a chain attached to each. The gun would be fired and the chain would then “mow down the enemy much as a scythe cuts wheat”. Not a pleasant weapon, to say the least, if it had been successful. This one on display is the only one of its kind ever built because it failed miserably due to the lack of a mechanism for firing both barrels at precisely the same time.
As we walked through campus after dinner, we spotted this statue. It’s a statue outside the Moore College which is the University of Georgia Honors Program. We don’t think it’s Mr. Moore, but we can’t remember who it is either. In any case, it was a great chance for a photo. The chair and statue showed signs of wear, so I’m sure Pat wasn’t the first to have sat there for a photo.
