I set up and showered in record time and with buffalo fresh in my mind I headed to Buffalo's Tavern to watch the game. It was a lifeless match with neither team showing any interest. After the game I took the bus into downtown and tooled around there for a couple hours with a fellow rider I met on the bus. Macon didn't seem to care BRAG was in town so after hitting a local bar I headed back to First Presbyterian Day School and spent the evening in the air conditioned gym reading my book. Should have done the hammerhead.

Macon is the third largest city in Georgia so getting through traffic, even at 6:30 in the morning, is a bit challenging. Once we exited the Macon downtown area the ride passed through a nice state park and then reverted to our normal back roads. The weather again was 95+ and since I opted for the Hammerhead I was on the road long enough to start hallucinating that I was Lawrence of Arabia. The quaintly named "Macon Bacon Hammerhead" was a 30 mile out and back with the furthest point being the metropolitan city of Irwington where BRAG VIP Kinney Bacon hails from. This day I happened to be riding with Kinney but he stopped "downtown" to have lunch with his kin while I pushed on. Pulled into Dublin High around 2.

Dublin is a forgotten city on I16. I figured that since the next day was the century ride I had better splurge on the food. Took the bus out to the interstate and chowed down at Longhorns. Blackened T-Bone and baked potato, yummy! Downtown Dublin was dead so I went back to the high school and there happened to be a band playing. I sat around a while and listened to some southern rock. That night it rained and cooled off a bit.

The traditional Wednesday Century ride turned out to be a bit cooler than the previous days. Since I didn't have to pack my stuff I was on the road by 6:15 and because of the rain the night before the temperature only rose to a chilly 91. The terrain was the same rolling hills I had ridden all week but there was a slight wind this day that always seemed to be blowing against me. With only two miles to go I was exhausted and barely going 10 mph when it started to drizzle. I left my tent open so tired or not I figured I'd better get cracking or I'd be sleeping in a bog. Made it back in time to prevent any damage. Ate at a Mexican place that night and then did laundry.

This was the part of Georgia where the nice rolling hills stop and you have only flat plains ahead. I was in bad shape from the day before and I should have skipped the hammerhead but the weather was cooperative (dipping for the first time into the 80s and topping out at 86) so I couldn't resist the extra 13 miles. Figured there probably wasn't much to do in Hazlehurst anyway. I pulled into Jeff Davis High School around 1.

Now I knew that Hazlehurst was a small place but just how small was a bit of a shock. There was nowhere to get a beer and it wasn't even a dry county. The school did have a shuttle to some country club 10 miles away that served booze but that seemed more trouble that it was worth so I stayed in town and ate at some southern style restaurant where I had the all you could eat buffet. Afterwards I went to the "town square" to listen to a band play oldies. I got a good vibe from the people in Hazlehurst. By the way, this is the first place I found a restaurant that serves "Southern Food". Okra, fried chicken, calf liver, corn bread, cobbler. They had it all and I loaded up.

It was time for another Euro Championship game starring my favorite team so I blew out of Hazlehurst in record time and attacked the course from start to finish. I was feeling good again, the route was all flat, there was very little wind and temperature topped out in the mid 80s. I had little trouble finishing before noon. In fact I kind of overdid it because I beat the equipment truck in and had to sit around for half an hour twiddling my thumbs.

I have to say that Jesup and Wayne County High School went above the call of duty. I explained to one of the greeters that I had to get to an eating establishment where I can watch the game and she flagged down a shuttle bus and had them drive me to a seafood restaurant - bar. No one else was transported and the shuttles were not scheduled to run for another half hour. Had the Romanian national team showed as much effort, they'd still be playing. The place I ended up was called the Oyster Shack. The food was great, the beer was cheep and it really was a shack. Had a great time. I spent the rest of the night reading and chillaxing.

Like last year, I had to wait on Lauren to arrive so I tooled around as much a humanly possible. The rest stops were all out of Poweraide and the water had the dreaded sulfur taste so I went the entire way living on oranges alone. It was a smooth ride into St Simons as we road into a slight head wind. The causeway from Brunswick to St Simons had a bike lane on it so the busy traffic of the area didn't effect us. I pulled in around 1 and had some good BBQ waiting on me a the finish.

Lauren and I spent the next two nights on the island and it wasn't what I expected. I was thinking it would be beach cottages stacked side by side with a t-shirt shop on every corner. It turned out to be old tree lined roads and southern charm. We even ventured to Jekyll Island and explored it for a day. Very relaxing place.