4/22/23 – Brunswick to Richmond Hill, GA

Miles: 74.31 Today / 786.81 Total
Elevation Gain: 479 ft. Today / 6169 ft. Total

Could I just take a day off of the blog? Truly, not much happened today. I rode by a gas station, and regular gas was $3.29 per gallon. Can you believe it? That is how good these guys have it out her in Georgia and Florida.

And here’s something else amazing: I rode over 74 miles, today, and just taking it in sections made it doable, even without cell phone service, music, podcasts, etc.—the things that normally entertain me, when I’m riding my bike.

The route took me through small towns, all with populations of less than 10,000 people: Darien, Meridian, Crescent, Townsend, Riceboro and Midway. I rode on a lot of roads that were undergoing construction and on one very long section with horrible pavement, aggravated by an old chip seal surface. There was one McDonalds at the freeway exit of I-95, but other than that, most of the towns didn’t have a restaurant or store or any kind.

Just before Darien, I pulled into the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation State Historic Site to take a photo of the home there, but they were going to charge me $8 to get close enough to just snap a photo, so I took a picture of a picture. I know. It’s lame, but I have to be practical about these things. At the height of the plantation era, 357 slaves from Sierra Leone worked on this plantation. They brought with them, from their home country, knowledge on how to grow rice, so this plantation was very successful, until the slaves were emancipated. Other factors, like hurricanes and competition from rice producers in other states also contributed to them going out of the rice business.

In Darien, where we had our first rest stop of the day, there was some kind of festival going on. I love festivals, but no one I asked knew anything more about the festival than that you had to pay $5.00 to get in. What’s that about? I peddled on.

Just after Darien, I stumbled onto this 75 foot chimney near the road, and plantation house further back on the property. The historic marker in my photo indicated that it belonged to a man whose daughter and grandson were authors. In researching the chimney online, I found the wording of a historic marker that was not posted where I could see it. According to that marker, back in 1850, the chimney was part of a steam powered rice mill and the house was built in 1927—AFTER the plantation era—and belonged to a man who was half owner of the New York Yankees. I like the second story better, don’t you?

As I peddled on, I passed a couple of other things of interest—and I’m stretching to say they were interesting. There was the McIntosh County Volunteer Fire Department in Meridian, with this Army fire truck. I hope they have some real fire trucks behind those garage doors, but what if they don’t?

In Townsend, was the Smallest Church in America. I fact checked it, and it really is.

So for lack of other interesting things to write about, I thought I’d educate you on the rest stops our crew sets up for us. The Route Leader in charge of the rest stops for the day, of which there are usually 3, finds a shady spot, the appropriate distance from the last stop, that is on the route. He or she sets up chairs and a table with a cooler of cold water, hand sanitizer, sunscreen and snacks.

He or she also sets out our day cubbies. See mine? It’s the lower right cubby in the left bin, and it is typically stocked with a banana, M&Ms, chocolate chip cookies, sandwich rounds, veggie cream cheese or hummus spread, and a couple of extra water bottles. I try to sit down at each rest area for a few minutes, just to be social.

We stayed at the Daniel Baptist Church this evening. Each of us had our own private little classroom to sleep in. One of the ladies who goes to this church prepared a huge lasagna dinner with salad, garlic bread, home baked cookies, and cold beverages. She wad so generous and kind to us.

Tomorrow, we have our longest day yet—84 miles.