‍‍I left at the lazy time of 9am and by this time the temperature was already in the mid thirties, ten degrees above the low for this morning so I got by with lighter gloves which was nice. Straight away on leaving town I was on a narrow secluded gravel road and was instantly in heaven. Fast rolling and a good surface. Next was a long stretch on brand new deserted pavement next to i-20 and then more gravel. The route worked out good and there were no hiccups until I worked my way to the northern most part of the route. I was to do a little figure 8 or sorts and right away the road was obviously private. So I did a quick look at my options and did an alternate loop nearby which took me across 2 substantial creek fords. I got my left foot wet the first crossing but it wasn't much of an issue since the temperature by that time was in the mid fifties. Most of the roads were in great shape and really fast. But a couple were lacking in maintenance and gravel and pretty slow. One big mud hole in particular I had to divert way around in the nearby woods. The route did have me taking a couple of private shortcuts which I had to go around and one I decided to try to take a parallel alternate. This ended up being private so since I was already there I did a nearby dead end to a cemetery where I took a nature break. All this adds time and distance so my arrival time kept on pushing further out. I decided to skip the one store on the route near the end to hopefully get back to the car before dark. After a long series of amazingly good gravel paralleling the interstate I came to highway 278 and since the traffic was non-existent I just decided to ride it the rest of the way in to town and only got passed 5-6 times in 14 miles. Got back to town at dusk. 🎷🐛 125.03 new miles -- From Wandrer