samgamgee

Ride day 8 - Tuscaloosa, AL to Birmingham, AL

ride day 9 - birmingham to heflin

we left out of tuscaloosa early monday morning and made the ride into birmingham…about 85 miles.  once there we had the opportunity to run back into the city and visit the 16th st baptist church which was where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as a pastor.  its an impressive building near the city’s downtown.  we also visited a impressive local coffee bar called the urban standard.

on tuesday we set out on what would be another century ride, our 4th of this trip.  it was a little crazy going on the front end, traffic wise.  the last 40 miles was on The Chief Ladiga Trail.  It is a 33 mile rail trail from Pedimont, Alabama to the Alabama-Georgia state. The trail is paved for 21 miles with the remaining 12 miles through Talladega National Forest

The trail environment is diverse with farmland, forest, streams and wetlands.connect with the Silver Comet Trail in Georgia creating a non-stop route of almost 100 miles.  we’ll continue on this trail for part of today as we head into the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, GA on Atlanta’s north side.  it will be about 85 miles.

one great memory from this trip was a random stop three of us made as we entered int talladega county, al.  we passed over an amazing old truss bridge near a lake.  it was so inviting we pulled over and asked a gentlemen if we could take a quick dip.  so along with my sojourners, Josh Iniguez  and Brad Godwin we took advantage for a cool dip.  it was one of this spur of the moment things that just had to be done.  Josh is with our organizers, venture expeditions and explained that early on in venture’s beginning years they would never quite know where they were staying each nite on their bike travels.  So anytime the came close to a body of water they would jump in just to get refreshed and “clean”.