It was to be a hot day so I left somewhat early to get a head start and to hopefully avoid much traffic on a couple of sections of highway 16 that I planned to ride. The sections through Newnan and on through Sargent and up and across the river to Whitesburg went well and without too much traffic to speak of. For the short section of Highway 16 after Whitesburg that I was on, it wasn't too bad, for some of it I had a passing lane plus a decent shoulder and much of it was pretty deserted. The subdivisions I planned to do in Carrollton weren't crazy steep which was nice as I only had a 44x36 gear on my skinny tired road bike. It was very nice to have the road bike on all the fast sections of main roads because it's so much faster and since there would be a lot of those I decided to stick with the fastest option. It would also minimize my time in the heat. I stopped at a Dollar General in Bowdon and filled everything up even though my plan for the day was short carries between stores to help me along and deal with the heat. The temperature was still under 80 but about to explode to well over 90. But as planned, I was at least mostly done with doing dead end roads so I had a bunch of hills to look forward to coasting down without stops or ends. The route climbed a couple high points and there were several good views of the several short mountains in the foothills just south of the Cheaha mountains. I stopped again in Ranburne and the cashier lady thought I was with another group of cyclists that just rolled through. Apparently there were 20 and they just did a little loop in the parking lot and then continued on. I did one little dead end here in town and then continued on south. I looked at my directions upon leaving town and the next turn was in over 20 miles, something I haven't seen in awhile. But soon I encountered a sign for a closed road 4 miles ahead but I pressed on anyway, ready to dismount and scramble to ford a creek if necessary. But they were just repaving a road and the road and the bridges were all intact and no work was happening on the weekend anyway. So I rolled forward and despite the short carry I began to get hot. I purposely only filled my two bottles because the next store was in 30 miles. But even with a coke to sip on that I brought with me as I rode, I finished both of them in the heat. I stopped again at another little gas station at a rather random intersection kind in the middle of nowhere but I was glad for the cold drinks again. I continued on away from the wind towards Franklin, not that there was much wind to speak of, but it was nice to have a little tailwind. In Rock Mills I rode the main highway across the state line without too much issue and then diverted north on fairly quiet back roads to Franklin. I stopped at the Dollar General there and then took a nature break at the park by the river. The bathroom was unshaded in the middle of a field and was hot as an oven but I was glad it was there. Afterwards I went to sit in the grass underneath a big tree by the river for a few minutes and I hoped this would be my last stop. I felt really good and ready to push on and get back home. But it was very hot and while I did ride strong I used up fluids quickly and by the time I got to Moreland I decided to stop at the gas station there for more fluids. I was using more powerade(and coke) than normal so more of my calories were coming by way of liquid this ride. I think this worked out well and I felt like I was staying on top of my eating better than usual probably because of this. I find it difficult to eat any sort of food when it's hot. The rest of the way in through south Coweta was pretty chill and fairly low traffic actually. 👍 94.34 new miles -- From Wandrer