Straight away upon turning onto the first real road of the route I had to divert and detour. Headed down Wisdom road and found two cops at the elementary school with their lights on and I decided I didn't want to go by that so I went around. When I came back close to the school on Riley I didn't see lights so I guess they moved on. Weird. For this early ride up north to the big city I decided to use Veteran's Parkway AKA the West Fayetteville Bypass. This wasn't too much of a problem although I did get passed by a few cars even at such an early hour. It was nice to see different scenery than 54 and Fayetteville. Crossing Whitewater Creek and climbing the hills afterward in the bright moonlight was surreal. First hiccup was in Riverdale. I passed a big hospital and was gazing at it while riding on a well surfaced 4 lane road. Suddenly I was jarred into paying attention as I ran over a huge pothole. So big it might have been a sewer hole missing the manhole cover. Thankfully I ran over only the edge and had enough air in my tires that they didn't bottom out and everything survived intact. But that could have ended my ride right there whether through a crash or broken rims or blown out tire beads. Soon after on Flat Shoals road I encountered another cop situation. 2 cops with their lights on right beside the road. I had no alternative I so I had to go through so I just rolled through but with no problem. The passed me after not too long and then were parked beside the road yet again with lights blaring. Rolled through again with no problem. I witnessed a drunk/stoned driver on a little used side road approaching a frontage road for the interstate soon after. He was in front of me and going slow and swerving and riding on the wrong side. Eventually after a couple minutes he pulled into a nearby warehouse entrance and stopped which allowed me to continue on. The next couple hours just before and after sunrise were pleasant with mostly deserted roads and streets. At one point riding a street near 285 inside the perimeter, I glanced east towards the rising sun and caught a glimpse of Stone Mountain. At some point as I headed north and as the day gradually warmed up I went down a dead end road that was having lots of sewer line work done around it. So there was a porta potty that belonged to the county(city?)(and thus was up for grabs, not weird like a private house's would be) I took the opportunity to use it and also to take my baselayer off. This requires taking off my jersey and bibs which is not something you want to do in a neighborhood. Planning out these sorts of rides is easy but when the whole thing is effectively in a neighborhood without any privacy to be had in hardly any public places, it can be hard to do simple things like change clothes to suit the warming day. So I manage where I can. Anyway. In my haste to get back going I rode all the way back out of the dead end back to the other road and realized I left my baselayer in the porta potty on the shelf. So back again. Thankfully there wasn't anyone outside to witness me going by 4 times and make me feel weirder than I already did. I had thought that perhaps I would hold out on stopping till around mile 106 But my route passed a Dollar General that was deserted at around mile 85 and I decided it would be good to go ahead and stop. I went ahead and bought lots of stuff and water to hopefully keep on top of my needs. I'm glad I stopped because the next bits were full of intersections and required full attention with little opportunity for pausing to get myself situated. Rode through a bunch of really expensive neighborhoods near Decatur and worked my way north and west. Everything is in full bloom and all the yards were beautiful. Dogwoods, azaleas and redbuds were my favorite blooms on the day. Found myself in the Druid Hills area to do several neighborhoods along and near a main thouroughfare and was perplexed at all the people walking around. There were just tons of people walking even down dead end streets, and cars that looked like they were driving around visiting other people. I had gone by a church or something(I learned later this was a Jewish temple) and I thought perhaps these people were walking there and the cars were searching for parking. It was midday on a Sunday after all. But this seemed a bit abnormal. Kids and adults were dressed up in various costumes and they appeared to be walking to houses that were participating by handing out things in their driveway? Honestly the whole thing seemed eerily similar to Halloween night. I already feel strange riding sometimes down these dead end roads with my social anxiety. And this was making me anxious. There were cars blocking streets, people getting in and out, cars going very slow and looking for parking everywhere, it was weird and I felt super out of place. I mostly did the roads I set out to but I did skip one when I looked down and saw a horde of people walking and I decided not to disturb them. As I worked my way west this thinned out considerably until I was far enough away that things were back to normal. On top of all this the streets were fully of quite steep hills so things were either super slow or really fast, and the fast parts were attenuated by all the activity and stop signs. Very interesting experience. Googling afterward revealed that Sunday was the Jewish holiday of Purim, celebrating Jewish history from like 2500 years ago, pretty interesting. Not too many more miles I stopped again at a CVS and picked up just a couple snacks and a soda to keep things topped off. Did a neat little trail beside south fork Peachtree creek that was a lovely little natural diversion from all the neighborhoods. This allowed me to cross underneath I-85 and was a terrific alternative to crossing on top with the cars. This next section in the hilly neighborhoods of Buckhead were very difficult. I was really not pacing myself correctly and knew that I was letting my heart rate go up out of range for far too much on all the hills and little intersection sprints everywhere. I knew that I would eventually pay for these efforts at some point in the ride and in this section I definitely noticed it. Started to fade. The hills don't ever stop and the way the route is designed requires a extreme patience and stoicism to not go insane everytime I had to screech to a halt from 35mph to a stop sign at the bottom of a hill. After what felt like a whole day of riding I made my way to the shopping area where I had planned my last stop. I basically did a little out and back along what I decided was the safest way in and out. It ended up being probably not optimal as I had to make more left turns that made any real rational sense. But I made it in and out without too much trouble. I bought way more stuff that I figured I needed to hopefully not run out by the end of the ride. The next concern that arose was my need to use the little boys room. I considered going to the Publix next door but since I don't have a bike lock with me I hesitate to leave it unattended in such an unfamiliar area for very long. It's why I like the smaller shops, they're much quicker in and out. CVS is very expensive but i've never spent more than 5 minutes in one getting what I need, which is valuable. And they always have self checkouts. So I rode away with an eye for unattended out of the way porta potties. Saw lots but they were usually next to some ridiculous mansion expansion and very exposed. Eventually I made my way through an industrial area and next to a brewing company I entered the Crestlawn cemetery around a car gate. There was a large patch of woods that had a lot of overgrown graves and behind that was some woods that didn't appear to have any graves. At least if they did they were wooden markers and long since decayed away. I wandered inside and did my thing, checking off the strange box that I have now pooped in the woods in one of America's largest cities, practicing leave no trace principles of course. Kinda strange that 90% of the cemetery is meticulously manicured but they let lots of graves with perfectly official looking markers just fade away into nature? I think it looks pretty cool but the imbalance of care is strange. I made my way back to the road I was on which used to be the old road between Atlanta and Marietta at one point before the Civil War, and at the top of a hill the skyline of Downtown Atlanta was prominent behind the graves. Heading south I made my way over the Norfolk Southern Inman yard with an even better skyline view and almost no traffic at all on Marietta Road Northwest. The scenery alongside this road brings to mind a grittier and more industrial memory of Atlanta's past. Whereas most industry in the area today is decidedly more virtual in nature as the information age has reached the south. As the day wore on and thin clouds began to obscure the sun and the wind stayed gusty from the east northeast, I worked my way down through south Atlanta and East Point. On and on and further west into South Fulton where I attempted a new way home from the big city, this time working my way mostly through subdivisions that dumped me out along almost into the edge of cycling friendly Chattahoochee Hills, Fairburn and Palmetto. This worked great. I rode down the slightly busy part of Jones road but most of it is avoidable with subdivision roads that I will check out in a future ride. This was a way lower traffic alternative to the other options of heading south to home and one I will probably be using more in the future. Part of it may be that it was Sunday evening but still. I was extremely tired by the end partly because I was bad about keeping up on my hydration mainly but I was still pleased that I completed such a difficult ride sucesssfully. With so much climbing and so many intersections a lot of patience is required.