Day 34 - Madison to Milledgeville, Almost, and an early end to the ride

I will start by backing up to last night when Martha's son, Dan, and wife, D'Arcy, drove down from outside Athens, GA to have dinner with us. It was great fun for all with lots of good conversation and good food. Kit and Bill had heard so much about them that it was a great pleasure to finally meet them.

The morning proved to be just as the weather report had predicted. Lovely, balmy, windless, in other words, perfect. We rode along at a nice pace enjoying the pleasant countryside and good roads. we stopped 18 miles down the road for a little rest in Shady Dale, nothing more than a crossroads where the bank and City Hall were in the same building!




We were concerned about getting to Phill and Diane's house too early in the day. They are a couple that we contacted through a web site called Warm Showers and they had offered to put us up for the night plus dinner at their restaurant in Milledgeville. We were looking forward to meeting them but didn't want to descend upon them too early in the day and we only had about 30 more miles to go.

Well about 9 more miles down the road it happened. We had just turned onto another country road when about 5 or 6 dogs came running out at us. Kit was in front and the fastest of the group headed for her bike. However, instead of just coming along side, it ran right in front and down she went. There were several minutes there when nether Martha or Kit were sure if she would be able to get up off the asphalt, but eventually she did. It was quickly evident that she was not getting back on a bicycle, however. Martha called Bill who had passed them sometime earlier. By the time Bill arrived Kit was ready for drugs, strong pain relieving drugs! So, it was off the the emergency room where xrays showed a broken rib. What really hurt however was the pelvic area and between the two, putting on pants and pullover shirt wasn't going to happen. Martha went off to Walmart while Kit was having xrays and returned with some darling frocks that buttoned up the front and guaranteed she would fit right in with the rural Georgia crowd.

Once we left the hospital we had a bite to eat and went onto Phill and Diane's who took exceptional care of us. They have a lovely home 10 miles NW of Milledgeville on a peaceful lake. It was a nice place to decompress after the events of the day. Unfortunately with all the excitement, we all forgot to get a photo of them, but we thank them from the bottom of our hearts non the less.

The next morning we decide to made lemonade from lemons and head to the Georgia Coastal Islands for a couple of days before going onto Savannah were we already had reservations. If Kit can negotiate the sand, we still plan to dip our wheels into the Atlantic Ocean. We feel like we deserve it!

So although we are not quite finished traveling, we are done with the blog. Kit and Bill will take a couple of weeks to head home and Martha is flying out of Atlanta early next week.

Goodbye!