The forecast a week out for this weekend was all over the place and it changed every day leading up to Thanksgiving. Definitely looked like too much rain for this route at first but thankfully it turned out that we had a one day break between the weather systems so I had one good dry day. Wind was a bit breezy from the east as I pushed on through the early morning on the highway across the Ocmulgee river. I tacked my way across Dodge and Telfair counties and the dirt was really muddy in places from the rain on Friday but I managed to push on, albeit slowly. Only a few miles after I turned off the Eastman highway and off the pavement, I encountered a private road and had to backtrack and go around. I rode through the small town of Chauncey which had a store but it was way too early to stop so I pressed on. Not long after I ran into another closed road and I didn't really have time or the spare energy to explore so I went around again, back to Highway 46. I tried to get back on track again soon after and this was also closed, so I decided to just stay on 46 till the Oconee river. I decided to bypass the little store on this road and hold out till Vidalia. I soon turned onto a dead end road that I thought might have been a boat ramp but it turned out to just dead end at a gate a short distance from the river. I decided to go around and see anyways but it wasn't worth it as you couldn't see the river at all, it was a mostly dry oxbow lake a house and lots of deer stands(all empty thankfully). Next interesting thing was the tiny town of Tarrytown, which had a nice little park and the church had good faucet water. I was very relieved because I was going to probably run out before Vidalia. So I made it a point to try to stay hydrated and eat properly the rest of the way to town. By the time I rolled up the the downtown Vidalia DG I was really craving some salty things and I almost bought too much to cram in my bags but I managed and rolled away without too much delay. I was very glad to head mostly south and have the wind at my side rather than directly in my face. The miles out of town were very fast on smooth pavement, but soon turned to dirt again. I arrived at US Highway 1 for the bridge over the Altamaha river and found it in a state of construction. It was a two lane road in the process of being widened to 4 lane, and the new lane was basically completed but still closed to traffic so I rode this entire new section all alone. The old highway was really narrow with no shoulder and no small amount of traffic so I was thrilled. I turned off the highway to follow a nice road beside the river and stopped at Deen's Landing. To my great surprise it had flush toilets. Great view of the river, and lots of boat trailers parked in the lot. I rolled on through the rest of the little residential community up a really steep hill and entered Bullard Creek WMA. Road turned to chunky gravel and was pretty hilly going. I really enjoyed this part as the scenery was amazing through the forest and several times the road went right by the river. I only passed 5 vehicles the entire way through. I felt really good the rest of the way in to Hazlehurst, and decided I had plenty of food so I just had a quick coke since I had already filled up my bottles at a church, and got going. The sun was going down as I rolled into Flat Tub WMA. Another great experience here on fun hilly and curvy roads through a mature forest. It was properly dark by the time I emerged to the highway and then turned to a road through the Broxton rocks preserve. I couldn't tell if bikes were allowed but I figured since it was dark it didn't really matter. It was gated but obviously people were hiking around it, although probably more hunters than waterfall viewers. I figured that the bridge over the creek would be missing as it wasn't visible from the satellite photo and indeed it wasn't there. I peered over into the span and saw a typical black creek of perhaps 20 feet wide and of indeterminate depth. I really didn't want to have to backtrack so I calmly explored downstream and then upstream and after not too long found a very easy place to cross where two branches joined. Just hopped me and the bike over, feet still dry. I hiked up the opposing bank and rode out. The road had just been scraped and obviously had no use at all as it was soft and pretty slow going till I arrived at the other gate. Then the road improved. I pushed on and stopped at a church at where I crossed 441 and filled up my bottles again. I somehow ate my way through almost all the food I had and I was getting tired in this section through Coffee county. Lots of dirt roads, and the day dried them out enough to make them easily passable. But sometime before Fitzgerald I noticed that the pavement was partially wet indicating some rain earlier, and the muddy parts of the dirt roads became a challenge again in parts. Finally after what felt like an eternity I arrived in Fitzgerald and grabbed some much needed snacks and another coke. I felt a good bit better afterwards and rode off through the rest of the town and into the dark night. It was interesting watching off in the distance the light of Fitzgerald come and go, and I found that I could identify in other larger regional towns nearby, like Douglas and Cordele. Especially noticable on cloudy nights. The weather was pretty much the best I could have hoped for, the temperature was in the sixties the whole ride and partly cloudy, perfect riding weather in my opinion. I still felt ok at the end but definitely tired and ready to be done and go to sleep.