Yesterday afternoon Beth came home from work early, which allowed us to get on the road an hour earlier than anticipated.  The ride to Perry was easy, but hot and sweaty.

We woke up early this morning, so early the hotel breakfast wasn’t open. We were hoping to get an early start to minimize the time in the heat, so we packed the bikes before breakfast. The hotel has a carb-only breakfast so we drank their coffee and prepared turkey bacon and hard boiled eggs we brought from home.

We experienced three delays, which slowed us down, but didn’t stop us. First I got mildly sick just a few miles down the road. Fortunately quick as a wink I was in the pink.

Next, Beth discovered her gas cap was missing. She had a minor gas spill the night before when she was filling up. In her haste to mop up the spill, she forgot to put the gas cap back on. We were just 30 miles from Harley of Dothan, so we stopped there for a new cap.

On the way up US-231 we passed the rest area with the helicopter,  so I stopped once again to take a picture of it.

A tendon in my right elbow is giving me trouble, so our third unplanned stop was at a Walmart where I got a wrist brace to help take the pressure off the tendon.

Last year Beth got a roll-around cooler, which she carries on her back seat. This allows us to pack picnic lunches. We looked for a park to go to for lunch and found this one in Red Level, AL.

It is a beautiful setting with picnic tables and a small play area.

We had our lunch and enjoyed the shade of the pavilion.

Following lunch, the GPS led us back to US-84 on a single-lane, red-dirt-and-gravel road. It went up and down and this way and that. It even had a switchback. The scariest part, however, was the section where the crown of the road resembled a roof peak. (Sorry, no pictures – there was no stopping once we committed to taking the road.) Ironically, “Ventura Highway” was playing on Sirius Satellite radio as we crawled along this byway.

The nice thing about back roads is that they have less traffic. The down side is they are slower than interstates. The temperature was between 89 and 93 all afternoon, so we spent a lot of time in the sun. We carry Camelback hydration packs and we used them all day. Still, we didn’t drink as much water as we needed to.

For dinner we walked a half-mile to a local restaurant. They had excellent catfish and pan trout.

Today’s 500 miles is the longest we’ve planned. Tomorrow we have a super slab path to friends in Texas.