This is the end of day two of our Epic Road Trip.  Yesterday we battled through the hills all the way to Athens, Tennessee.  A whoppin 28 miles!  We were surprised and a little disappointed to find out that’s all we had done after all the time we spent riding.  Around 1:30 PM we decided to stop at the VFW to fill our water bottles and camelbak.  We sat and chatted with everyone in there for about 20 minutes and hit the road again.  Around 2:30 we knew we couldn’t go any further because of the heat.  There was no campground where we were so we went down a random road and met Bill and Jane.  We started talking to them and before we knew it Jane was giving us sweet tea and fixing us hot dogs with cole slaw and chili.  We camped in their backyard next to their garden where they had flowers called Nicodemus that bloom at nine in the evening, but only bloom once.

On day two we went all the way from Athens, TN to Cleveland, TN in about two and a half hours.  We thought we had it goin on!  Little did we know that the road from Cleveland had hill after hill after hill.  I hate to say it, but we had to walk the bike up a couple of them (but I’m carrying 70 pounds and Caitlin’s carrying 40, so I don’t feel too bad).

We made it to a small town called Old Fort, TN where we thought we’d camp for the night.  Then we went for directions to the campground and discovered it was 20 miles away and we’d have to climb a “big ol’ hill.”  We had climbed enough big ol’ hills for the day so we pressed on on 411.  Surprisingly, we made it into Georgia, stopping in Tennga.

We were dying to make camp after riding 47 miles today.  As we were pedaling down the road we saw Mike in his carport washing his car.  I asked him if we could camp in the backyard and he said we could.  He offered to feed us too, but we had already eaten.  We sat inside and visited for a while with he and his wife Joy, drinking the best sweet tea I’ve ever had and playing with a little dog named Harley and their new dog who I call Bell (even though she doesn’t yet have a name).

So far this trip has proven to me what I already believed: that there are more good people in this world than bad.  Also, if there were more people like the people we’ve met this world would be a much better place.  I’m starting to believe the world truly is full of them.  The key to seeing it is getting to know them.  You can’t go by looks, background, economic status, so on.  You have to hear their experiences and their views of life.  With this knowledge you can see where they’re coming from and, in the end, everyone is pretty much the same.  We all want to be happy and we all want to avoid suffering.

We both want to thank everyone that has helped us so far.  I know that at the end of the trip all the pictures of the Redwoods, Yellowstone Geysers, and Atlantic Ocean views are going to be fun to show off and will help us keep memories of our trip.  But in the end it’s going to be the people we meet that make this the trip of a lifetime.

May the wind be at your back and your tires be trued.  Thank you, everyone!