more along the way
Current mood: content
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8:14 am - onions, bikers and strippers...this is Georgia
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Dropped off the hikers a few days back. We ran into a thru-hiker at the Nantahala who was so insanely happy and excited that it made me long to hike the trail myself again. The was a major calamity when the park ranger at Amicicola Springs gave me some bad directions and we had to travel up a horrific service road to the top of Springer Mountain, one that was too narrow to actually turn the car around and caused me to hug one side of the gravel, potted road while willing myself not to look out the left window at the sheer drop-off. It took me about 3 days to unclench my hands from the steering wheel.

Made it to Florida after the ten hour haul of doom down through the state of Georgia, where people oscillated between going 85 mph to rubbernecking at the site of the bus-over-overpass area. South of Atlanta, the 123 miles to Valdosta stretched interminably dotted with signs for "We Bare ALL!!" to discount Disney tickets, a false sense of hope that Orlando was somehow near (filthy lies, since it was, in fact, at least 200 miles away).

Unfortunately there is this horrible thing they like to call "Bike Week" down here this time of year, one of those events that you forget about until it actually descends upon you in a haze of ear-shattering rumbles and flashes of large men lounging on even larger hogs, swerving in and out of traffic and NOT WEARING HELMETS...The Florida Turnpike (cutting across the state, over to Orlando) was where a)it started to pour that torrential rain that Florida has, when the heavens open up and dump down seemingly directly over just your car, when you can see clear sky directly in front of you and directly behind you and b) I found my first Dunkin Donuts since the Maryland area.

Finally pulled into Cocoa Beach at about 10:30 at night after being in the car since 9 that morning. My friends welcomed me with a well-deserved beer and some amazing weather...