Update #31 - Oct 04th, 2001
Kingsland, GA - 8154 miles

The ride from N. Wilkesboro, N.C. to Kingsland, GA. went okay. The heat wasn't really bad this section but I did have several days of really cool weather. Today, the temperature got up into the high seventies.

For lodging, I stayed at several churches, in a couple of donated motel rooms, and mostly in my new tent. I've haven't had any more problems with my tent except for the fact that I'm not the judge of flat land especially after dark. I've set my tent up on slopes and have slipped off my sleeping pad several times. My sleeping pad is a new feature on the bike since I found a foam pad along side the road in North Carolina that almost fit my sleeping bag's length. It weighs less than a pound and it is a real help .

There was pretty neat scenery to see while riding through N. Georgia, NW South Carolina, and along the coast of Georgia.

Traffic especially trucks had been a big problem in this section. Some of the drivers have been really rude especially by either trying to run me off the highway or coming up from behind me with their horns blaring. The worst stretch of truck traffic was U.S. 17 for seven miles in Beaufort County, South Carolina. The highway was just two-laned with no shoulder and major truck traffic between the Charleston shipyards and I-95. I must have been forced off the road a dozen times. Today (Oct. 04th), I had problems with a short-haul truck driver who was driving a dump truck in the Brunswich, Georgia area. He passed me three times with his horn blaring.

On Friday, September 28th, I had my first real crash for the year. I was having a good ride between East Asheboro and Rockingham, North Carolina. For most of the way, I was cruising at a pretty good speed since I had a tailwind and some great downhill coasts. About five miles out of Rockingham, I came across some road construction where they were repaving the highway. I was trying to decelerate from 25 mph going down a hill to a safe speed through the construction area where the shoulder was newly repaved and rough. I almost got slowed down enough when a truck went by me really close since the inner of the two-lanes was closed and I got caught in the slipstream of the trailer. My bike flipped over and I landed on my right side on the shoulder. Luckily, my bike and I stayed on the shoulder. My right knee and elbow got scraped up some but I wasn't bleeding badly. Praise ADONAI that I didn't have any broken bones. My bike came through it okay except a rear spoke broke (the first one for the year). I had to ride with it broken until Charleston, South Carolina. A Good Samaritan stopped and took me into Rockingham.

One of the neatest things happened a couple days ago when a parishioner at the First Baptist Church in Darian, Georgia slipped me an envelope after the Wednesday night prayer service. He told me that he wanted to help me out with my ministry. When I looked in the envelope after I left the church, I was really surprised when I found a $50 bill. Praise ADONAI!!!. This is one of the biggest individual donations for the year.

Currently, I've got less than four miles to the ride to the Florida State Line. I'll be riding around Jacksonville and possibly down the Florida Coast along FL A1A for a little while. After that, I'm open to what my Leader in Heaven directs me to go. Florida would be my 24th state visited this year.