‍I left early so I sailed through Palmetto via Minix road long before sunrise. The temperature was very warm but I dressed in knee warmers and arm warmers just the same to be sure. I was a bit on the warm side but fairly comfortable. The first dead ends of the ride were very steep and this would be the theme of the ride. I made really fast progress the first two hours but once the hills began my speed dropped like a stone. I rolled through Villa Rica not long after sunrise and this was fairly straightforward but by the time I was north of town I was really tired from all the steep dead ends. In one of the last Villa Rica subdivisions I was chased by several little dogs that had the yappiest yaps that ever did yap. They stayed with me throughout half of the subdivision and three dead ends. Very annoying. Thankfully there wasn't anyone out and about because I felt weird enough being there as it was. This was a mobile home subdivision that looked as if nobody had done any outside manintenance of anything for years. There were several roads that I had planned to take that ended up being private and so I was really up on my planned mileage for the day. As I rolled north I was on more gravel and it seemed that basically all the gravel on the day was pretty loose so slow going. Not bad but definitely not fast. I burned through a good portion of my water and snacks during the 90 or so miles to the first stop in Draketown. I bought a lot of water and snacks to fill up everything. This was to fulfill my silly intention on minimizing stops so I decided to stop next in around 60 more miles in Carrollton, bypassing stopping near Bremen. The next miles were fun and a bit faster as my route began to swing away from going west and started heading back south. The beginning of the day had southwest wind but as the day went on the wind swung around to west and even northwest at times. It was really strong most of the ride and made the first half pretty difficult. As I was down about 6-7 miles on the total I had planned. I felt really good by the time I got to Bremen so I decided to do some extra there. I did a lot of bonus dead ends and streets and had some good fun here although it was extremely hilly and quite high elevation from what i'm used to, around 1200-1400 feet. The trip down to Carrollton was very deserted(as was most of the ride to be honest). I felt good and the riding and scenery were terrific. I used the restroom at a new trailhead for the greenway once I got into town. I took a new greenway connector that ran parallel to Highway 16. Stopped here for the last time at another Dollar General. The way through Carrollton was pretty easy and I stopped at a tiny little park to sit on a swing and rest my feet. This was in downtown near a bunch of churches. I had it all to myself and I took a brief moment as I never let myself do to just enjoy a moment of perfect timing in a nice place. But I got back going after a few minutes and headed east. I took Horsely Mill road and this was a bit annoying but I was only on it like 2 miles and then back on deserted back roads. I went down Wayside road for the first time in awhile and this was great fun going down the steep hill and back up the other side through the big junkyard with wrecked cars lining the sides of the road. I found a license plate just before the Douglas county line on West Carroll road. I quickly stuffed it in my frame pack and got back rolling and enjoyed the blissfull long descent down to the river. I still felt really good so I decided to stay as planned and take Upper Wooten road and I really enjoyed this part. It was still light out and I had it to myself except for a small group inside the park. The next obstacle was a train heading out of the CSX yard just as I arrived there. I decided to wait because I was pretty tired and didn't want to use highway 29 to go around. In retrospect I wish I had just crossed at Tatum road to start with. Anyway I waited like 15 minutes and finally after it didn't look like it was moving any time soon I decided to see if I could go around to Bohannon. The normal crossing to McLarin road was blocked by a miles long series of double stacked container cars that were just for storage apparently. So I ended up going all the way to Fairburn to get to a crossing just after 74 and then back down to Bohannon. This wasn't too big a deal and the way down Bohannon was really fast and enjoyable. I decided to take Senoia road home from Tyrone since the traffic was very light and I ended up riding pretty hard here for fun and to get me home quicker. I only got passed once the whole trip down. I had planned to cross 74 directly at Lexington and then take the path across but there were so many cars to wait for I ended up just riding the highway down to Kedron like I used to. This was a very good ride on a perfect weather day. A bit windy and hillier than I expected but a good day. 👏 91.54 new miles 🏘 Completed 25% of Bremen -- From Wandrer