Saturday First of all, sleeping was a challenge last night. It was quite hot and humid but with mosquitoes all around I was forced to get in the tent early. But I was tired and fell asleep quickly. Mountain ants were crawling all over everything and some kept on getting in the tent and the feeling of one crawling over me startled me awake each time. In addition I discovered that both of my pillows wouldn't hold air. I tried to patch with tube patches and cement but it wouldn't hold. I gave up and fashioned a pillow out of all my food stuffed inside a dry bag. It kinda worked. It began to rain soon after so I had to put up the rain cover. Only it was so hot if was only just bearable to exist inside the tent. Anyway eventually I slept off and on and the rain continued and went on most of the night. Just before sunrise I woke to the sound of more whippoorwills(one sang all night), got up and relieved myself and went back to try to sleep. Glad I did because it poured the next hour or so while I got a bit more sleep. So I didn't get up as early as I would have liked. But it was all clear when I left. The miles went pretty easy to the first stop at a gas station at i-65. Except for one missing bridge that has been turned into a Ford by the locals. I took off my shoes and socks and forded barefoot to keep everything dry. At the gas station I used a faucet on the side of the building to fill everything to the brim. Grabbed more snacks to prepare for another 40 or so miles till the next store. Easy. Except soon after i made a turn and encountered a dead end sign. Now in Alabama there are not usually signs warning of things like that so it did not portend well. I decided to go down it anyway and find out. Hoped it was a closed bridge. But no it was just gated and private. After I had gone down a steep gravel road. Oh well. This caused me to have to do a pretty major ride around. I too k a lot of time weighing my options. In the end I decided to take small roads down and back up to get back to the route as soon as I could. This was only foiled one time by an inconsiquential private road. I got back on track soon enough after a lot of loose gravel. Strangely I had failed to note the presence of a Dollar general in the little crossroads of Randolph. So I stopped here for a cold soda even though I didn't need it. At some point I stopped at an abandoned church and dried out my tent. Ate a bag of chips while waiting. Finally after an eternity I arrived to cross the Cahaba river in Centreville. I felt good so I checked out the riverbank using their short river path system. Skipped a store since I would go by another in 5 miles and I wanted to maximize its usefulness because I wouldn't have another for 60 miles with a camp in the middle. I did end up getting the smallest pillow they had, which was a kitchen seat cushion. I managed to get it inside the dry bag beside my sleeping pad. The last miles seemed to take forever. Not that I didn't feel good. The terrain was hilly and all gravel. Loose sometimes. All forest and almost entirely national forest. I passed so many great dispersed camping spots. I was hoping to push as much as possible and that worked out to a random cemetery probably. Ultimately I decided to stop at the last possible chunk of national forest land. Very near the boundary. It's probably not more than 10 miles less than my goal but I got a really great spot that's super shaded and secluded, and flat. And on public land on a Saturday night(can't use churches on this night). Even a tiny creek nearby that i filtered a bit of water from.