On a ride like this, the weakest link - by far - is your anus. God bless the little bugger. It really deserves better. Your anus doesn’t ask for much. All it really wants, in exchange for the wonderful service it provides, is a nice wide spot to sit down. Or no spot at all. Your anus is perfectly content if you stand. But to spend two months straddling a rock the size of a coconut, carrying a 150-pound load, for seven hours a day? That is not what your anus was designed to do. Unless you happen to be Jennifer Lopez.

It’s been about two weeks since we left home, and we’re definitely a bit saddle sore. What’s surprising is that we’re not more sore in other ways. We did another 82 miles today, up to Meridian, and it went by in a flash. We had heard that US 17 would be a tough segment, with lots of traffic and no room to ride, but it turned out to be wonderful. Very green, very spacious, a nice shoulder most of the way, and light traffic. The guy from the Greenway alliance said that this might be the worst road on our trip. I can only hope he’s right.

We’re perched for the night at an inn right next to a salt-water marsh. Unless you’ve spent some

time near a salt-water marsh, it’s hard to appreciate just how crazy weird and cool they are. When we arrived at the inn this afternoon, the view out the back window was a giant meadow. At least a couple dozen acres. The ground was dry and there were tall grasses all over. Now the tide is coming in, and suddenly there are interlocking canals everywhere. It looks like a great place to kayak. I asked the owner how much further the tide will rise, and he said it’s hard to say, but two days ago it got so high that you couldn’t see any grass, and the field became a lake. He said there was even an alligator out there, tromping around. I can just picture it, waddling along the edge of the marsh. It probably walked like I do.

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, we should be able to reach Savannah, which is basically the top of Georgia. It will be nice to pass into South Carolina and see another welcome sign, like the one we saw today entering Georgia. After so many days in Flooooooooooooooooorida, it’s a real confidence booster to see a state come and go. It might not make you go any faster, but it makes you feel like you are. Which boosts your spirits. Which makes you go faster. So I guess it does make you go faster.

Anyway.