‍I knew immediately upon beginning the ride in oppressive humid 75 degree air before 5am that this was going to be a long day. It's been fairly cool in the mornings the past few weeks but this was sticky and hot already. There was a light west wind blowing. I discovered in Grantville that my cable for my rear cantilever brake was just barely scrubbing the top of my tire. I tried to adjust it but really didn't improve the situation because I didn't have a wrench. It mostly was fine but definitely got more annoying as the day went on. I also decided to just ride with fenders and on the commuter bike because of the high chance of rain. It was 20-30% all day and then 60% after 4, which would probably be heavy. As it was almost the entire day was hot and sunny with a few broken clouds occasionally blocking some of the sun. The ride to LaGrange was very quiet and the sun was already hitting me by the time I got to town. I had stopped a bit after Hogansville to put on sunscreen. I did a few subdivisions without issue and then some industrial areas before heading over to West Point. I stopped at a Dollar General in Long Cane and then rode around the Long Cane access area park on West Point lake. This was a nice little park that was mostly open with only two closed off abandoned dead ends that I rode anyway. There also is an official hiking trail that has signs and also I noticed a beaten down trail running through the abandoned dead ends too. Another day of exploring perhaps. I discovered the remains of someone's "camp" near the lake at the end of one of the dead ends. A bare mattress and lots of various trash and junk. On to highway 29 and the north side of West Point. 29 wasn't bad at all and the little dead ends along here were pretty simple and problem free. I had a train blocking the road heading in to town but by the time I did two dead ends nearby it had cleared. I rode through town and the day was really hot by this point around noon. I rolled by the stores and did the grid of the west side of town and only a little bit of Lanett on the other side of the river. I explored more than intended and enjoyed the little neighborhood at the edge of Georgia on the wrong side of the river. Also explored a Civil War battlefield park since it was deserted due to the heat. I stopped for the second time at the Dollar General in West Point next to the river. I had hastily changed my route right before leaving to avoid Pine Mountain and somehow forgot that if it were hot I would have lots of trouble with a big gap between stores in the middle of the ride and in the hottest part of the day. So I tried to prepare as best I could with the limited carrying capacity on my commuter bike. I rolled out and the first few miles out of town were hot but I was in fairly good spirits. The wind was at my back mostly but this only served to make it hotter. I must admit I was feeling a bit demoralized with a long carry(65 miles till I would go by a store in Gay) and it being so hot and so wildly different than what I expected the day would bring. I had figured that with the rain chances so high that there would be clouds? That proved wrong. Also being on the commuter bike which doesn't have proper gearing for steep hills(lowest is 44x32) it made hills a bit more taxing than on the gravel bike. The last subdivision I did had very steep hills that took a bit out of me and when I got to Stovall road I decided to divert through to Greenville and stop at the store there and head home a different way than planned through Senoia. I was really hot and finally stopped to sit in a creek along here(Flat Shoal creek) which was full of sediment and I spent just as much time getting sand out of my shoes as enjoying the cool water. In Greenville I bought way too much stuff at the store but I was shopping hungry and thirsty. The checkout was as always absolutely agonizing and long and slow. Shopping takes like 1-2 minutes and standing in line takes 5-10. Every single time it seems. I really do miss when they actually had the self checkouts open. At least this store actually had the dill pickle peanuts in stock(they are almost never there out for sale). Along Rocky Mount road there were wispy clouds partially blocking the sun so it cooled off a lot. I ended up diverting over to Haralson to try to skirt the storm a bit as the wind really kicked up by the time I got to Al Roberts road. I looked at the radar and a strong line of storms was coming so I went ahead and covered my electronics and pushed on. I was prepared to shelter somewhere if it got bad but it wasn't much more than a few really strong 40-50mph gusts, most of which I didn't feel because I was protected amongst a thick forest of trees. The rain came down in full while I was on Todd road to Dolly Nixon and it only lasted for 5 minutes before becoming light rain and then stopping quickly. The roads were really deserted by this point which was nice. Since I had massively shortcut the route I needed to add at least 10 extra miles. So I did the east side path in Senoia to avoid town, and then cut over to Nelms road via Redwine and this gave me the extra mileage. I was way more tired than the difficulty of the ride would indicate, I guess i'm just not used to the heat yet because it really wasn't that bad of a day. 45.67 new miles 🏘 Completed Senoia -- From Wandrer