‍I didn't bother leaving super early since I was headed south on quiet roads anyway and the chance of rain was high at night and the morning. I woke to rain outside but it was pretty light rain. I took my commuter bike that I fitted with clip on fenders in anticipation for possibly wet roads most of the day. I also took the precaution of putting my garmin inside a sandwich bag to seal it off from the elements entirely. Also brought my 530 plus backup gps which I also put in a bag. This worked out great and in addition to keeping them dry and working properly, the bag made the touch screen more functional in the rain as it was kind of like a little bubble protecting it from drops. It was about 65 degrees at the start and fairly low winds with light rain. This continued for a couple of hours and while it did drizzle a bit off and on mostly it was dry in the middle of the ride. After sunrise the wind really picked up from the ENE and so i had a decent tailwind a lot of the time heading south and southwest. The roads I picked were totally deserted and I really enjoyed it. Pobiddy road went by really fast and Poplar Trace road in Talbot county was similar. But once I turned on the Fall Line Freeway(GA 540, GA 96) I was met with a really strong direct headwind and very open riding. At the beginning I was on the top of a big sandhill at Junction City and it was brutal. The highway had a 8 foot shoulder with rumble strips next to the lane stripe, and was actually signed a bike lane. For a while at least. I decided upon the first store opportunity in Butler to bypass it and continue on. I was really not needing much water as the temperature was so low(sixties) and I had plenty of food. I also bypassed Reynolds at around mile 98 or so and decided I could make it to Roberta. The wind was really grating on me but I plugged away at it. The traffic on the highway was very low at first till I got past Butler and then Reynolds it was a little busier. Perhaps because it was later in the morning more than anything. In any case my gloriously wide shoulder shrunk to half which I had forgotten about. I had ridden across the Flint River on this higway once before going the opposite way. In addition they were cutting the grass beside the shoulder and so the edge of the shoulder I was riding was strewn with mangled tire carcass pieces and huge clumps of grass everywhere. Not ideal but at long length I crossed the river and took the next left to head back north. The wind still made it pretty rough going heading north as well and so progress was slow. But as I got further into the trees and hills and stopped going slightly east, it was a bit easier. I was thrilled to see Roberta as I had nearly run out of water and food. I filled my bottles at the park and grabbed enough in the Dollar General for the rest of the ride if I so chose. I knew it was a bit of a long shot but I get more and more unwilling to stop the later in the ride I get. In Roberta it was still dry but with a fairly thick cloud cover. Musella was really busy with folks visiting Dickey farms at the beginning of peach season. Culloden was deserted and I decided to do an unplanned dead end road. Highway 74 was also totally deserted and I only saw one car in the other direction for the couple miles to Oxford road. This was a lovely narrow curvy paved road that eventually led me into hills and woods that meant I was back in the piedmont again. Barnesville came and went and I still was good without a stop. By now the temperature had dropped dramatically to the fifties. I was fine with the temperature as long as the rain held off. But by the time I got to Milner it started to very lightly rain. I skipped the store here as well, and noted that the two restaurants in town were busy, one had a line out the building of at least 50 people. Crazy as it was like 4:30 or something. I wasn't on 4 lane US41 for long before the rain came and I reluctantly put on my rain jacket. I was too warm with this setup at first even with the rain but that jacket has lost most of its rain repelling abilities and so I quickly cooled off as I got soaked. It was clear the rain was here to stay and I pressed on. Griffin wasn't too bad to ride through in the rain. Carver road was a little busy but people were very patient. Pine Hill road was pretty deserted actually and Ellis road was fine. I was glad to be heading west because the wind was still howling from the ENE so I made fast time down from Pine Hill. The rest of the ride home was in the pouring rain and thankfully I had plenty of water and food which meant I didn't have to stop anywhere. This ride was really fast regarding stopped time as well, I only had 40 minutes of stopped time the whole ride. And I don't think i've ever done this distance with only one stop. NOTE: temperature data for this ride is a bit warm probably because of the ziploc bag that my garmin was in. The older 530 that I also recorded with just in case was actually correct and much cooler throughout. I think the elevation is pretty spot on as it was close between the two. 👍 61.52 new miles 🏘 Completed 50% of Griffin -- From Wandrer