And now to Georgia

I truly wish that I had some photos tonight but today was not a day for taking pictures. It started raining last night and it just kept coming down. We had a short day from Beaufort to Savannah, only 47 miles, so we slept in and left at 9 AM. The whole group left the hotel together in a kind of respite from the rain we had had through the night - wet streets but more of a mist than real rain. This gave us a chance to ride through the streets of Beaufort without too much trouble and get a chance to see some of harbor as well as the town itself. Almost as soon as we hit the outer limits of the city the skies opened again and we were pelted with rain. We rode through some interesting tidal river areas and into an area of island residential areas including Hilton Head. However, the rain never really let up and the result was that we simply put our heads down and rode without stopping for anything. I have a pretty decent rain jacket but with the kind of rain we had today you are basically soaked from shoes to helmet and you simply ride to get off the roads and into the hot shower at the hotel. The border into Georgia is right at the Savannah River and so we had another long bridge to cross but it had a very wide shoulder and no steel mesh so it was pretty easy to climb and cross. Once over the bridge we were in Savannah and it was just a mile or so to our hotel. The rain did finally let up in late afternoon and a couple of us went out to explore the waterfront and find a place to eat dinner. We did both and although the restaurant was very touristy it turned out to be pretty good. And then the inevitable: we left to walk back to the hotel and it was raining again...our lucky day. So tomorrow is our rest day and with a little luck we will have a day to do a little exploring in this charming old city. So today we did 47 miles and my top speed was 27.5 miles on the flats and our average was 17 mph - both testimony to hard we pushed today. Hopefully our next day on the road will be a dry, sunny one.