One State Down: Hartwell / Athens, GA

So the ride to Hartwell marks the first state line that we will cross as we enter Georgia. It also marks the beginning of me getting sick. It began the morning with a sore throat and some congestion. I rode the 58 miles feeling fine for most of it as we went by by a nice dam and also saw Sebastian and Kern swim to a distant island. Carrol was smart to turn around 1/4 of the way there, while Kern and Sebass swam zig zag lines to the island as the current pushed them in random directions. They rested for a little bit and swam back safely only running into each other once, which was hilarious as we could see it happening like a minute before it did. The dam was near the border, so we took some large group shots at both locations.




So after all this was done I immediately took a shower and just passed out. Woke up for dinner and the presentation that our chore group has to do each time after dinner. The rest of the night was a blur with me waking up randomly and falling back asleep.

The ride to Athens was 47 mile ride along some hilly roads. I contemplating riding the van due to sickness and weakness but felt like it was too early to give up on one of my goals to ride the every mile of the trip. With a build day after this ride I was hoping I would have enough time to rest before our next ride to Norcross. I rode the whole time with Sara and Angela as we took it easy. Lunch was not filling at all as we had barley any supplies but we got through the ride as we took multiple stops at CVS to get some vitamins and McDonald's to get some ice cream to cool off. As we approached our final destinations we became increasingly excited as we were rolling all downhill until the last half mile where we had to climb this treacherous hill. we all eventually got through it and once again I passed out for the whole night only waking up to eat and do presentations.

Waking up for the build day today in Athens was nice. I felt a lot better started taking vitamins. Still had a sore throat but nothing to bad. The build day was a demolition day where we basically tore up the dry wall and ceiling and carried all this stuff from different apartment buildings into a big dumpster. Craig and I cleaned out the gutters which was fun as we got to people watch.

Overall these last days have been hard physically I am glad that I will be basically at 100 percent for tomorrows ride, but still a little bummed out that I did not get to see Athens as this was one of the nicer and larger cities that we will be staying in for a while I believe. The sickness delayed these last couple posts but hopefully that won't happen again.

wish me luck and I will write soon.