Day 8 - Montgomery, Alabama - sightseeing day

After yet another night of Ben S and Dave sharing the same sleeping quarters we chowed down a decent breakfast and went for a walk in search of the local sights. After a visit to the visitor info centre we boarded the local trolley bus and had a narrated tour of the city. Montgomery is a town full of history. Many events happened within the town as it used to be a primary hub for the cotton trade and during the civil war as well as more recent civil rights actions like the famous bus boycott by Rosa Parks and where Martin Luthur King began to preach to his followers.

During a walk around of the impressive State Capitol Building the three of us had a chat to the Governor of Alabama who was popping out for lunch. We then visited the First Whitehouse of the Confederacy which which housed Jefferson Davis for a few years while he was president of the Confederacy. He later became one of the ideas behind the Smithsonian Institute and the building of the Panama Canal!

- The State Capitol Building -



Plan tonight is to take it easy and head out across the backblocks of Alabama for the next few days then into Mississippi.

Day 7 - Columbus, Georgia - Montgomery, Alabama (142km)

The day started off with a much anticipated buffet breakfast at the 'Sleep Inn'. To give you an idea of what the three of us would eat for breakfast before embarking on a leisurely 140km bike ride with 10-15kgs of additional gear each I will try to summarise as briefly as I can....
1. 6 bowls of cereal
2. 10 pieces of toast
3. 2 pancakes
4. 2 English muffins
5. 6 servings of scrambled eggs
6. 2 bagels (for the first hour snack)
7. 3 Oranges
8. 5 Bananas

Once we had satisfied our ever increasing hunger we rolled out to the threat of rain which wasn't good considering we had just heard reports of tornados and high winds killing 26 just a couple of states above!

After a suprisingly smooth ride through Columbus we crossed the Chattahoochee river and into Pheonix City, our third state and also first change in time zone.



Riding through Alabama for the first time was like stepping back a few years which was somewhat different to may aspects that we encountered in Georgia. As soon as we crossed the Chattahoochee river the verge became non-existent. The first 50km was like being on a small rural NZ road except for the fact that this was the main thoroughfare for traffic between Colmbus/Pheonix City and Montgomery. After a few too many encounters with with trucks and their deafening horns we took a detour on a much quiter road which proved to be the winner. Over 25km we were chased by more dogs than actual cars passing us (you decide which is worse!). Had a lunchstop in Tuskagee and as we were feeling good decided to push onto Montgomery where we could rest and take in the sights. Rest of the day was very hot and into a headwind which proved to be pretty taxing. Dave got through the last 40km on 1.5 litres of coke and Ben B suffered some decent sunburn (even after 3 applications of suncream!).