Day 34 - Meridian, MS to Linden, AL

Day 33 was 62 miles long. It started out rather coolish at about 54 degrees but with sunshine and a wonderful north westerly wind. Prevailing west winds have been hard to come by on this trip and we made the most of it by making short work of today's mileage. We enjoyed more country-like riding although we have had to contend with more logging trucks today than the entire ride combined so far. We had a brand new stretch of highway to ride on that was still closed to the public. Perfect pavement and no traffic but, being the legalist that I am, I did not take it. We said goodbye to MS and its poor roads about 20 miles into today's ride and welcomed Alabama. It did not take us long to realize that Alabama roads appear to be the best toads we have ridden on the ride so far. So, I send a shout out to my brother-in-law and his wife, Jeff and Bridgette who live in Cullman, for their helping to make Alabama roads the best so far.

I need to make a correction from yesterday's post for getting names and spelling incorrect. My apologies to the people of Fowler, MI and especially the mayor and his wife (as I found out later) Vern and Bonnie Thelen. So I have corrected it and hope you are willing to forgive my faux pas.

For the people of Circleville, OH, I have to tell you about Myron's (aka Speedy) day. Myron is a good, strong rider but usually is a perennial tail-ender on many days. However, today was different. I am usually a top five first arriver to each day's destination. However, on this day, as I rode to the church at the end of the ride there was Speedy! His smile and sense of achievement covered his entire face. I think finishing this well was part of his bucket list for the trip. To punctuate the experience, Speedy asked coach if he would "yell" at him for getting in too early. Coach gladly accommodated and Speedy's day was complete! I reminded him that we start all over again tomorrow. I don't believe it even phased Speedy. Nothing will diminish his accomplishment of today!

Devotional Thought:
This has been a very difficult and tragic week for many in the South with the severe storms and tornadoes that have struck recently. Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, AL are the latest towns to be devastated by tornadoes. Tuscaloosa is about 50 miles north of us right now. We have seen God's good grace and mercy in protecting us from wildfires in the west and now from the severe weather that was probably closer to us than we realized. We had three nights in the last week where we had damaging winds and heavy thunderstorms while we safely rested in the protection of a building overnight. Imagine if we had been on the road trying to deal with this weather? This is not coincidence!! It is just another example of a loving God putting a "hedge" around us in the midst of the storm!

Glad to see Alabama

This General Store in Jefferson was the only place to eat between Meridian and Linden