Alabama!!! Rome, GA to Scottsboro, AL

The ride from Rome to Scottsboro was easily the best day I have had on this trip yet. It included two mountain climbs, which translates to two awesome descents along with awesome pit stops. The day started off with an incredible stretch of road. It was smooth and traffic free. I hung with the faster group in the morning as we coasted around 22 mph for the majority of the ride. It was a lot of fun to get pulled by some of the bigger guys and many times just chill out behind them. We got to the border early that day and took some awesome pictures and continued the fast pace. The unfortunate part of this was once again I went in the wrong direction making the mileage longer than it had to be. This showed when we got to the first mountain climb and I slowly climbed it in my lowest gear as my legs felt like jello. It felt incredible to get to the top thought without stopping and eat lunch up there. Travis parked the van in the perfect spot as we could catch a glimpse of the van and make the final push up the van as people cheered us on.


Katie at the top of the mountain made one of the worst bets ever as she challenged Travis to bike up the mountain in his non-shammy shorts. He not only had fresh legs since he was driving the van, but also he is the best cyclist in our group. He did it in his highest chain ring and won the easiest 30 dollars of his life probably.

So after lunch we glided down a little bit and visited a nearby waterfall. This place was scenic and the water was refreshing. The majority of the group went to the waterfall but only a small number jumped off this crazy high rock. Other notable events include Jessica saving a kids life as the current was sweeping him away.

After the water fall we came to our first legitimate descent as I zoomed down and hit 43 mph. It got a little too fast around some bends so I was on the brakes a little bit. The road was smooth though and the ride was awesome. The second climb came later in the ride as we went up about a good hill and reached a U-turn. In my head I was like awesome the climb is done and we are going to go back down. I was wrong because once I went around that u-turn I saw that we had barley climbed 1/4 of the hill. I stopped around the bend to take a picture of people struggling up the hill and actually took one of the best pictures of the trip so far, with Carroll dominating the hill and Brian and Katie lagging behind.

The second descent came toward the end of the ride. This one was a lot longer but less steep. The unfortunate part was that I got stuck behind a truck pulling a boat. There were some riders ahead that the truck never passed which is good for their safety but unfortunately for me it meant staying on my brakes the whole time. I was about inches from hitting a pot hole which would of really caused some trouble as I was again around 40 mphs on this descent. As we approached the end we opened up to a nice blue body of water and crossed over a cool bridge. Up to the last couple of turns I think this was the best ride yet. We hit an awful road as we approached the final destination but it didn't change my perception at all of how awesome the day was.