Norcross, GA to Tupelo, MS

Wow, I don't get to update this thing nearly enough. I'm going to do this post backwards. Starting with today since it just happened and I remember it more clearly.

Today, we are in Tupelo, MS. We arrived in yesterday afternoon after a 50 mile HOT and HUMID day coming from Hamilton, AL. I was sweep for the first time yesterday. Sweep is defined as the two riders who stay at the back to 'sweep' up riders throughout the day. Meaning we ride at an easy pace and stop at as many places as we can. Basically, giving everyone time to get moving and then show up if anyone is in trouble. Sweep is always on the bike the longest, and I like to think of sweep as the heroes of the day. We stopped at a gas station after we crossed the state line to take a break and let one of the riders get up a head a little ways. There were a lot of old southern men hanging out in front of the store just talking away. The owner/employee of the store soon came out without us talking to anyone and offered us free Powerade. Everyone had seen the rest of the group ride by and I guess we were the only ones that stopped in. He also came back with glass bottled souvenir Elvis pepsi from 1999. He gave it as a token of visiting MS on our trip. They were a great bunch of guys at the store. The last part of the day was just biking biking biking through the heat.
Today consisted of the other half of our agenda...Building! Today we put down the floor beams and flooring of a house(plus some other minor things before hand). All in all a great day. We made our goal for the day...but oh man, was it hot. I have never sweat so much in my life.

Before that was Decatur to Hamilton, AL. A long day at 80 miles even. My thigh had been acting up for a few days, but it felt pretty good on this day. We were mostly on rolling hills all day long. The end of the trip got hot as usual and my lef started to hurt, but nothing major and we rolled in just in time for showers and an amazing meal.

Scottsboro, AL to Decatur...well, here's the deal. I took a spill for the first time. Katie R, Paul, Zac, Nichole, B$ and myself were all just riding together and chatting when all of a sudden....I fell. I still don't really understand what happened. I think I might have clipped Katie's rear tire, or I just started to swerve and over corrected or something. Either way, I hit the ground at 16mph I think. Nothing but a couple of scrapes and some road rash. I just had to get back up and keep going for another 50 miles. Unfortunately, my leg was in no shape to finish. It had nothing to do with the wreck though. The day before I noticed a tightness that only got worse. This it was a cramp and I could work it out, I had ridden into town almost in agony. Well, on this day it started back up and never ceased. I fought the pain for longer than I should have but managed to limp into the host location in Decatur.
We also had a build day here. We were putting up siding when the clouds opened up and dumped on us for a while. We managed to do a decent amount of work, but I know we could have gotten more done given better circumstances. Oh well...

Rome, GA to Scottsboro, AL. A state line crossing day. I absolutely loved this day of riding. Amazing scenery, some awesome climbs and insane descents. Also, the beginnings of some muscle pain, but oh well. I managed to hit 47mph coming down our last descent of the day. It was awesome! except for the HUGE pothole in the road that I managed to squeeze by. Preston however decided to fly over it. On our way out of town we stopped at the Unclaimed Baggage store. Basically, all unclaimed baggage from airlines gets purchased by this store and they resell it. I bought a 2 dollar camera case that I can strap to my camelbak for easy access. It was such an odd store.

Norcross,GA to Rome, GA. Climbed Lead Mountain on this day...don't worry, its not as exciting as you think. It was an O.K. climb. The best part of the day was arriving at the host to see a masseuse, chiropractor and bike mechanic around.

I need to start figuring this journal thing out more. Pictures are up on Facebook. I'll eventually get them up onto the trips picasa account also. I'm just a little tired of being on a computer right now. I hope you all are enjoying reading about my travels. I feel like it's turning into a daily, 'i did this...then this.' sort of thing which is getting boring. I'll try and spice it up a bit next time.