Day 8: Gordonia Altamaha State Park, GA

A bit of a crazy day.  Once we were up and moving we had visitors.  Harold came by to wish us well and we had a classic car buff that came by and showed us pictures of his restored 1940s teardrop (complete with sexy mannequin).  And we had been invited over to take a look at an interesting home-built tiny trailer directly across from us.

The trailer was built by a very pleasant young man named Shawn, and this was it's maiden voyage.  Not wanting to spring a leak on their first night out, they placed a shade structure over it to make certain everything stayed dry.  Of all the home-builts that I've seen, I like this one the best.  It is a simple, functional design, quite unlike any other that I've ever seen.  The main influence for the design was to make maximum use of an existing 4' x 8' flatbed utility trailer.

So the main compartment was a bit less than 4' x 8', large enough for a full size mattress, with room left over for adding some bins for storing duffle bags, etc.  They added a small A/C unit to keep it cool, and lighting and a couple of small windows and vents for natural light and air.  On each side of the main cabin were one foot tall cabinets that ran the length of the cabin for storing camping gear, with the top of each being a convenient height for use as counter space.  Above them were nice LED downlights (so that the counters could be used at night without casting any glare on their neighbors).  It easy to imagine how he would be able to easily further modify the trailer to increase it's functionality.  With four kids, it provides some privacy and comfort for him and his wife, and the kids sleep behind them in a tent.

We had picked a campsite for tonight that was about 65 miles north from where we left off on Friday.   It required us to go about 15 miles off route to reach it.  But when we double checked the map, we found a state park about the same additional distance north and directly on our route.  So we opted to head there instead.

We covered 84 miles today, in four segments: Alea rode 22 miles, I rode 22 miles, Alea rode 18 miles, and I rode the final 22 miles.  If we had done the riding in just two segments our average speed would have dropped, due to increased fatigue toward the end of the longer segments.  Splitting things up enabled us to have a late start and make good time, allowing us to reach the campground by 4:30.  We bucked a pretty good headwind nearly the whole way, which probably dropped our average speed by at 2 or 3 miles per hour.

Alea coasts into our leap-frogging stop in Patterson, GA.

We had a pleasant ride heading north from Nahunta, with low traffic and decent shoulders most of the way.  We also had a few pleasant conversations with curious neighbors near some of our leap-frogging stops.  We were happy to see some long gradual inclines and descents as we traveled the northern one third of today's route; a nice change from the flat roads that we've had thus far.

Steve coasts into the leap-frogging stop at Odum, GA.

We camped overlooking a small lake at Gordonia Altamaha State Park in Reidsville, GA ($28, power, water and showers, plus an additional $5 parking fee).  In contrast to last night, where the campground was full, less than 20% of the sites are occupied here.

I should add a bit more about Harold Palmquist, whom we had met over our weekend at Laura S. Walker State Park.  He lost his landscaping business in The Great Bushwhack and ended up homeless.  He wound up in a homeless shelter, which gave him a place to stay, but they wouldn't take in his dog, Daisy.  Veterans and their Pets stepped in and fostered Daisy while he was there, providing food, board and basic medical care for her.  To repay them for allowing him a means of keeping Daisy, he took off on his cross country journey to raise awareness for their cause.  Like most non-profits, they struggle to maintain adequate funding.