After a needed rest the day before, Madeleine and I headed out from the hotel on our bikes to ride to Roanoke, AL. Marie drove ahead to meet us at the 10 mile mark. We left around 10:25am to miss some of the morning traffic. The temperature was cooler and the wind was low. It was a great riding day and after the first 10 miles, we crossed into ALABAMA! It was a thrill. We took pictures in front of the Welcome to Alabama sign and we were all glad to be back on track. It felt euphoric.
Although we left the traffic behind us, dogs appear even more prevalent in AL. We ran into dogs early in our ride. We have tried several methods to manage them: outriding them; stopping and putting our bikes between us and the dogs; and walking past them. Fortunately, all have worked so far. We went through one small town and it reminded me of the movie 101 Dalmations. We passed the first house with two loose dogs which we outbiked. They then served as the town-crier to alert the rest of the dogs in town. All we could hear was barking as we biked through town. It seemed as though every house had at least two dogs: may loose and some tied up or fenced. Nerve-wracking but we made it through the gauntlet in one piece.
This ride was also filled with rolling hills. I am getting much stronger and more aware of how to ride hills given my strong coaching from Madeleine. I made it up all the hills today and don't have the same fear of hills today as I did at the start of the trip.
After we landed in Roanoke, we drove ahead to Alexander City to find a hotel, and as approaching the city, Marie got hangry. So we immediately looked for an interesting place to eat and found the Sho Nuff BBQ. It was in the back corner of a mostly empty strip mall but had a lot of business. Marie found herself on the northern side of a language barrier when trying to order lunch. We believe the woman waiting on us finally took pity and helped us order. Madeleine's choice of fried okra helped the situation. I think she found us mildly entertaining and by the end of our meal she welcomed us to come back y'all next time in town.
A hotel was hard to find in town as there was a large bass fishing tournament in town (about 200 boats anticipated). We finally found a room at the Day's Inn and there were about 15 competitors with their boats staying there as well. They were all on the lake before the first light.