Before heading out I talked with the Harley couple. They gave me some breakfast bars for the road and told me they were doing the same trek but at 300 miles a day and full circle. I told them a couple spots that were nice in Georgia to go to then went off to brush my teeth and shave.
Waving goodbye to them I set off toward Columbia on 99. The whole way the shoulder on the road was about an extra lane wide which was very nice, but there was absolutely no shade what so ever. For the beginning of the day I stuck to my four mile breaks stopping in at a gas station for lunch and a shady tree a little ways down. At one point I got to talking with a road worker and he let me drink some ice cold water from their pitcher which picked me right up for a bit. After eight miles, though, the heat was really coming down and I started stopping every two, drinking and refilling much more water than usual, and finally was relieved by a Waffle House by I-65. In there I chatted a bit with the waitresses and ate a hearty dinner with some coffee in air conditioning for about an hour.
It was about 5pm when I got back on the road refreshed and decided I’d go three more miles and call it quits having done 15 for the day. In my last mile a guy, Pat, offered me a ride into town which I turned down. Ten minutes later he came back with some vitamin water for me and offered again and that he had a place to stay with a meal at home. It was tempting but I really wanted to stop taking rides in places and getting rides back to where I left off. He gave me his number and told me to call it if I changed my mind.
Of course not more than five minutes after he’d driven off I decided I could do the last 7 miles into town that day and take him up on his dinner and bed offer as a reward for myself. I got within three miles of town when I gave him a call saying I’d changed my mind and see if the offer was still good. It was, but when I told him where I was he persisted on picking me up saying he was across town and that was another 6 miles to his house from where I was. The sun was low and another six miles would have been two and a half more hours, and I’d already consented to staying at his place so I gave in and accepted the ride since he offered to drop me off a the same spot the next morning.
Ten minutes later he picked me up and within an hour I was freshly fed, showered, and laundry was in the wash. We hung for a little while that night and chatted a bit then I conked out on his couch while Oscar, the dog, made sure the house was secure for the night.