I left reasonably early so I could make it across I-75 on a relatively big road before it got too busy. There weren't many cars when I arrived at the overpass, only a couple that turned off the interstate behind me and passed me in the lane next to me as I crossed. They gave me plenty of space as they rode by somewhat slowly. The first vehicle was a Jeep SUV and the passenger yelled out of its open window "get off the road" which is not something i've heard yelled at me in awhile. Otherwise Mount Zion Boulevard was pretty quiet. Soon though I turned off the bad roads and did lots of dead end roads in subdivisions. I was comfortable with the low to mid forties, not hot and not cold. I opted for shoe covers to make sure my toes would stay warm for the 4-5 hours of riding below 50. My toes were warm the whole morning. I kept on all my clothes for all the hilly subdivision riding and by the time I was beside the South river I was getting hot but I waited till my scheduled stop at the end of an old road by the river across from a Jehovah's Witness church(that was up and well out of view). The strategy I employed on this ride was to be as self sufficient as possible and try to minimize store stops. So I packed my bike as full as possible with water and food to an absurd degree even for me which is saying a lot. I took 3 28oz bottles, two one liter platypus bottles in the frame bag and untold snickers bars and various other snacks such as a whole large bag of Bugles(crumbled up of course), a whole Gardettos bag, lots of gummies and peanuts. In my feed bags I also brought two 20oz Dr Peppers since the thing I crave the most on these rides is a soda. Since the temperature was not forecast to be very hot I felt justified in bringing soda and chocolate along and I think it worked out well. After my first little break by the river I left and did lots more subdivisions that were slow but I had prepared myself for this route to be very very tedious and slow. Intersections and hills that end at a cul de sac or a stop sign. I did eventually work my way through a good deal of my water and both of my sodas so I planned to stop at the store in the middle of the ride at mile 117, a pretty new 76 gas station. The store had a see through window that let me be in view of my bike while I was in there and in any case I was only inside for like 2 minutes to purchase two more sodas and a candy bar for insurance. Next turn into the neighborhood across the street there was a pretty nice litte park that had a working water fountain. I filled all my bottles here even though I would pass another park in about 20 more miles. You just never know when stuff is going to be locked or turned off. The bathroom at the first park was locked. Off I meandered after this back into the hills of Dekalb county. I was never on any bad roads and was only on very quiet neighborhood streets here in this section. They were uneven and full of speedbumps and stop signs but it was very nice riding and I could relax. As I went further north and west nearer to Atlanta the wealth of the area increased and I stopped at another little park with a ballfield and some playground where I stopped for a little break plus a bathroom stop. This was a great park to stop in as it was tucked away and had a nice little covered picnic table area. There were lots of people at the park doing various activities but I was all alone at the covered area next to the restrooms. I topped off my water and decided to make this my last stop of the day. Atlanta proper was good riding and felt very safe from cars almost everywhere I went. Until it wasn't when I arrived at the point where I was going to get on the Beltline but was met with a fence blocking the way. I studied their little map on the fence and tried to plot out a quick detour on the fly and didn't quite have a real concrete plan but I at least rode off in the right direction. Almost as soon as I got rolling I had to wait about 10 minutes on a long train to go by. This was a bad road to be on so I pulled off to wait for cars to clear out and then followed University Avenue for a little bit until I was back to a place where I could peel off onto a parallel street. The last bit after a busy intersection I just rode on the sidewalk as there wasn't anyone on it and the road had no shoulder. But soon I was back on the Beltline again. Not for long as I turned off again for the grid of the city and wound my way through southwest Atlanta and through East Point and College Park. This was very quiet riding as the sun dipped very low in the sky and the air cooled off a bit. Very few cars and I felt very safe on the super quiet streets. The bits near the airport were pretty quiet and even highway 29 wasn't too busy. There was a bit more traffic that I was hoping for on Buffington road but I zig zagged a bit through subdivisions and avoided most of it. From the looks of things Buffington is about to be widened to 4 lanes or so which will make riding it much better. After the subdivision there was a very short section and then I turned off right to Royal South Parkway that paralelled I-85 and was an almost deserted 4 lane road with a turn lane in the middle. After this I had to cross the interstate on Flat Shoals and this was pretty painless and didn't have many cars around. After crossing there was a long turn lane to the extension of Oakley Industrial which was very deserted until I got to highway 138 where I just rode the sidewalk to get off the road that didn't have a shoulder. Then I rode on through another shortcut subdivision and soon was in Fife and back into Fayette county again. I needed a bit more to bump up my total mileage to 206 so I meandered a bit through Tyrone and PTC. Very good ride and I was very happy with the new way home from the city.