‍Didn't get a great night's sleep and left later than I had hoped. I had initially just decided to scrap the idea of a long ride but once I woke up at my latest feasible wake time, I decided I felt okay and went ahead and moved forward. This was a very humid day in the low nineties so it felt very oppressive. Although I must say it didn't feel really bad until I crossed over in to Atlanta. I planned lots of dead ends in Carroll and Paulding counties which were as usual full of lots of challenging(but sometimes fun) hills. These were mostly in older neighborhoods. I lost count of the number of people cutting grass with a cigarette in their mouth. Also a few smoking walkers as well. Only saw one confederate flag that also featured a hilariously misspelled fence sign. 'Bewear of Dog's'. Thankfully the dogs were actually inside the fence and thus couldn't chase me so that was nice for once. Out in the extreme northwest part of Douglas county(Highpoint road) across from a church I spotted a nice leather glasses case in the road. It was a Rayban Meta case, and I went back and forth along the road to see if perhaps I could find the glasses too but I never spotted them. I took the case home because upon picking it up it became my trash. Not a lot of gravel on the route as Paulding like a lot of counties tries to pave everything. In some cases they don't bother to upgrade the roadbed so it's just a narrow curvy affair, which is nice. There was indeed a good amount of shade on this ride, and the clockwise direction in a big loop out northwest of here works well for maximizing shade. There was a light west northwest wind but it never factored much as it was mostly blocked by hills, trees or buildings. I opted for only 2 store stops, both Dollar Generals. Pretty long final gap to the end of the ride of nearly 100 miles but I had the Silver Comet with a ton of fountains to keep me topped up. Although the trip home from the perimeter to Tyrone I was definitely wishing I had gotten more at the last fountain. Initially upon planning this ride the forecast for rain was hovering around 50% so I prepared by putting on a small rear fender. I figured the sky would be mostly covered with thunderstorms upon mid afternoon as had been typical the past week. However it took till very late in the afternoon for this to happen. I was very glad of this because I was suffering pretty badly in Atlanta. It just felt very hot. In the beginning of the Beltline connector and even on a lot of the beltline there isn't much shade. I was getting hot enough to lose my desire to eat and drink which is never good. I did stop a bit before I got off the beltline to actually sit down and take my shoes off. My big toes were especially sore this ride, first big ride with a new pair of shoes. I sat for about 10 minutes and then headed off south while thunderstorms very slowly gathered north of me. By the time I had gotten to Buffington it was apparent the storm north of me was gaining and had blocked the sun, along with providing me with a north tailwind. I considered stopping at the Racetrac on Jonesboro road for a coke and to let the storm pass over but I decided I had a good while left before that happened and I pushed on. As it happened the storm didn't start dumping on me till just before Tyrone near Swanson road. I took a minute to put sensitive stuff in bags which was a great idea because the next 40 minutes were on flooded roads with buckets of rain pouring down. Completely bone dry about a mile north of home though, because my little area here has got the worst luck this past month. Less than a quarter of an inch the past three weeks meanwhile everywhere around us gets more than enough rain. Very frustrating. Anyway I was glad to make it before dark. Not a bad ride, the heat was a little much but I did really like the route and the idea of coming home via the Silver Comet and then Atlanta straight away when it's hot. The trail was noticeably cooler than everywhere else. And it was as deserted as i've seen on a Saturday due to the heat. 👍 75.99 new miles 🏘 Completed 75% of Oakland City 🗺 Completed 75% of All of ITP 9 -- From Wandrer