Update #36 - Saturday, December 29, 2007
DALEVILLE, AL
12,490.53 miles (19,984.85 kms) since Jan 01st
2,547.03 miles (4,075.25 kms) since October 27th

This is the last update for the year. I was thinking (and hoping) that I will be back in Americus, Georgia sometime late Monday (December 31st) but I think that it will not happen. I'm around 130 miles (200 kms) away from Americus. There will be some extensive rain showers tomorrow that might have imbedded thunderstorms.

The past eight days have been cold and wet. Even though there has been rain, I've been able to put in some long days from dawn to dusk. Occasionally, I had to get my helmet light out for a brief amount of night riding. Instead of taking a different route to Americus, I thought that it would be better to backtrack a little bit between Waveland, MS and Grand Bay, AL. There were not that many safe routes north of the Mississippi Gulf area.

I spent five nights in my tent in this section. It was a lot easier for me to find a place to stealth camp out in the woods some place instead of trying to connect with a minister in the towns that I've gone through. I spent one night at the First Baptist Church in Grand Bay, AL and I had two donated motel rooms (one in Andalusia, AL and tonight in Daleville).

Tonight's motel stay has an interesting story. Last night, I camped out in the woods near Level Plains. This morning, I got on the road around 9 a.m. after I waited for the rain to lesson up. I got maybe three miles down the road when this guy stopped in a pick-up truck and offered to give me a ride. He was just going to the next town of Daleville. Instead of dropping me off at a gas station, I was surprised when he pulled into the local motel. He told me that today was going to be an all day rain and he wanted to make sure that I had a place to dry out. Before leaving, the guy surprised me by giving me a $50 bill.

During the past week, I've had quite a few people slip me money in green handshakes. This could have been because of the Holiday season. It has helped me a lot.

Because of more rain showers coming from the Gulf of Mexico, I'll probably just make it to Dothan, AL tomorrow. This will put me back into Georgia Monday. I now hope to be back in Americus Tuesday, Jan 01.

I'm planning to take January and most of February off the road. Next year's main mission trip will take me to Oregon and Washington state and back.



I'll try and post and update as often as I can if my plans change. The next update should be posted between January 04th and January 11th.