Sep 05 Day 16 - The Old Spanish Trail - Trenton, GA

Today and tomorrow I expected to take things really easy, just tool around wherever the Bonnie takes me, both days low mileage rides without an agenda.

For openers this morning I did the Quality Inn breakfast thing - mystery eggs, likewise sausages, OJ, milk, and yogurt. I had enough and to be fair it wasn't bad at all, kind of on a par with McDonald's fare.

My general direction of travel would be North and after looking the maps over I decided that highway 431 would be fun.

It's scenic, runs through some of Alabama's nicest country, past beautiful farms & cattle ranches, even an occasional cotton patch. For the most part the road surfaces are smooth and in good shape making travel on a bike particularly pleasant.

The weather today started out slightly cooler than it's been recently so I wore my leather jacket for the first time in several days. The sky was slightly overcast giving it that "I'm gonna dump rain on you" look but with a mild cooling breeze things looked good.

I rode slow, around 55 mph mostly and eventually arrived in the town of Lafayette, AL. Many southern towns of any size seem to sport courthouses and Lafayette has a huge one. I stopped for the requisite photo shoot of it and the commemorative plaque out front.

I really appreciate plaques as they provide exactly the right amount of information I'm looking for and no waiting.

Then much to my surprise I discovered a larger than life-size bronze statue of Joe Louis, the world champion heavy weight boxer they called "The Brown Bomber". He reigned as world champion for twelve years and I can remember listening to his fights on the radio when I was a kid. Coming across this tribute to him in front of the courthouse in Chambers County, AL was a total surprise for me, I had no idea where his roots were.

Lafayette also sports a huge water tower with their name displayed, typical of many towns across the nation.  What? You  can't make out the name? Try squinting. Real hard.

Once I cleared Lafayette I continued north on to Anniston where I stopped for lunch, then just past Gadsden I picked up Interstate 59 and headed northeast. Fort Payne caught my attention so I bailed off the freeway and rode through the town. It seemed to be one long main street lined with small businesses on both sides, not many of which looked like major concerns. My GPS was going bonkers the whole time but finally figured out a way for us to return to the freeway and that settled things down.

By then it was mid-afternoon, my butt was beginning to complain and since I had no time schedule I looked for a motel. I'd crossed over into the very tip-top of western Georgia and the next time zone and the small community of Trenton loomed ahead. 

With Day's Inn as the one motel my choices were limited so I checked in. The greedy buggers tacked on higher rates "Because eet eez a holeeday weekend you understond". "Nope", sez I, "I don't understand, you guys are just plain greedy, that's all." But when your game is the only one in town I guess the rules of hospitality go out the window.

We Be Greedy Buggers

So here I am and I can imagine I'll encounter more of the same tomorrow night as well. It seems that's part of the deal when you're traveling around.

Happy Saturday, we should all go out and celebrate.

LL