Coast to Coast 2022 Adventure Day 33: Priceville, AL to Piedmont, AL
This post is part of a series detailing my 2022 coast to coast cycling adventure.
Today we braved unfriendly roads in Alabama to get to our final rest day in Centre on Weiss Lake.
Day 33 Highlights:
Song of the day: So Far Away by Carole King
Start: Priceville, AL
End: Piedmont, AL
Distance: 94.6 miles
Total Ascent: 3,835 ft.
Breakfast: Comfort Inn breakfast (they were serving at 4:15 AM!)
Lunch: Lunch a la Sue at Hastings Park in Gadasen, AL
Dinner: Pasta much at our BNB
Progress so far: 2,852.2 miles, 94,130 ft. climbed.
Here are all of the details on today’s ride:
When I was in eighth grade, I had a crush on a girl named Lori. I wanted to go see her one afternoon but my mom was not able to drive me. Lori lived in Shaker Heights, which seemed very far away at the time — it was probably five miles. I thought, “I wonder if I can ride my bike there?” I also figured that she would be very impressed by the feat. I can’t recall if she was, but probably not since she dumped me at a Chicago concert a couple of weeks later. But I thought it was pretty cool. When I was a little older, I wondered if I could ride my bike to my dad’s store in Chagrin Falls, and back, a 26-mile round trip. That became a regular weekly ride for me. When I was 17, my buddy Ted and I rode from Cleveland to Oxford (Miami University) and back — a 500+ mile round trip. And so it has gone with several week-long cycling trips with my brother David, and my son, Ben over the past few years. And that led to the thought this year of “I wonder if I could ride my bike all the way across America?” So… here we are, four days from accomplishing just that. Today I thought of my first “epic” ride to Shaker Heights and how it turned out to be the first humble step of many.
In a way, today’s ride actually started right before bed last night as I unfortunately discovered a flat front tire with a wire sticking out of it. Once again, the tubeless setup paid dividends as a quick sealant refresh fixed it right up.
Today we completed a 95-mile ride from Priceville to Piedmont, Alabama. It was not a great ride because the roads, and the drivers here, are not all that bike friendly. The shoulders are very narrow, and what is there, is completely filled with rumble strips.
We encountered a number of rude car and truck drivers who either leaned on their horns, yelled, or generally gave us very little space. It’s hard to say if it is the drivers here or the fact that we were forced to ride in the main part of the road, which was not really the case anywhere else. We were genuinely scared.
Fortunately, the rest of our ride in Alabama is on the Chief Ladiga Trail, which connects to the Silver Comet Trail in Georgia, taking us almost all the way to Atlanta.
Not too many photos today as we were focused on not getting run off the road but I did get one gem.
Now we are going to get some serious R&R before we make the final 370-mile push for the Atlantic Ocean.
