Day 3: Matt's POV

Day 3 we spent at Fort Mountain in Georgia. We stayed the night and because a certain person who will remain nameless forgot to bring his gear we all had to fit into a single tent. This paired with the nice gravel flooring led to a pleasant night's sleep. After waking up we visited the “mysterious” wall of Ft. Mountain which after many, many stone steps turned out to be a pile of rocks. If I was a geologist I'm sure I would think it was delightful. So after that we went to the park office, paid for our campsite and as well as our mountain biking permits. Overly excited to get started I led us into a ditch. After riding that out we found the entrance to what the trail marker said was a 6 mile loop. Now the thing that should be known about any riding outside of Florida is that, well, they have actual mountains and for 3 of those 6 miles you're actually coasting on downhill (for the other half you're paying for that ride with a climb). In my opinion, which seems to be shared only by myself, it was pretty sweet, you get a ton of speed on those hills and if you can manage the switchbacks without killing your breakpads its overall a nice ride. Only issue is that a lot of the turns after the drops aren't banked so if you don't stop quick enough you're going to find yourself in a tree. Definatly something I'd ride again, although my partners might not be so in interested as you'll hear their account later. I also left out that after the trail we had to ride a lot of pavement uphill which didn't win me any points either.

Day 2 Recap

Mike and Matt did a coin flip to see who would share a bed with me. Matt was the lucky winner and after we all showered (separately of course) we slept in a creepy $60 hotel where I killed a huge bug on the air conditioning unit. Little did we know this would be pretty much the last time we would sleep on a real bed for the week.

After getting up Monday, we made our way to High Falls State Park in Georgia. It was a pretty amazing place. The waterfall was really a site to see. We met our 2nd guide here in Brenda Jones who was very helpful with setting up the canoeing/kayaking adventure. After trail running through the forest and catching our breaths, we rented a canoe and a kayak and made our way through the giant lake.

Unfortunately I suck at canoeing, but it was definitely a successful first half of beast and feast. After completing our water world adventure, we headed back to the quest and left High Falls for Big Pie in the Sky.

Mike and I mentally prepared ourselves for the 30-inch, 11-pound gigantour known as the Carnivore Challenge. Stomachs rumbling in anticipation, we waited for nearly 2 hours to start. The first slice of this gooey, salty, piece of heaven was amazing. We quickly learned our eyes were bigger than our stomachs as we struggled to get through 2.5 slices each. Ultimately, we admitted defeat, leaving behind a pile of greasy, overly-salty, soggy pizza slices. We did meet two guys in Kelly Fanning and Geoff Thompson who were very welcoming and cool guys to talk to.

After we rested for a bit, we made our way up through the 2800 foot Fort Mountain to camp for the night. It just so happened Mike forgot the other tent and all three of us had to share a tent. Tuesday morning we went mountain biking through hell and were ready to kill Matt by the end.

Celina

Reason's to Come Back:

BBQ

The people

Slingshots

Cafe cubano

The junk shop

People here do not make fun of my Spanish

Reasons to Not Come Back:

The lack of internet/phone service

The convicts who roam freely outside the prison

The things that live in the woods

Cafe cubano

Ode to Little Debbie and Her Oatmeal crème Pies

OpenOffice keeps correcting “creme” for some reason. Nevermind. We stopped at a Safeway the other night to buy some milk. All this time I've been looking for Oatmeal crème Pies. I don't know why really, but I wanted them. Not only did the Safeway have said pies, they had them in bulk and on sale. I ended up buying two “Big Packs” for $6 and change. That's 24 count in total weighing in at 4 lbs. Last night, as well as finishing my first box I also read the Nutritional Facts for my first time ever. Under calories it read “330”. Okay I thought, so a serving must be 2-3 cookie things. Nope. Thats for one. One delicious crème filled piece of heaven is 330 calories. Before that I had already had 2 and was working on my third I had pretty much eaten my recommended calorie amount in less than half an hour. Besides having some indigestion and very strange dreams I woke figuring I had avoided any serious side effects of consumption. I was wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong. I went outside to use the bathroom when I picked up a weird, yet familiar scent. It was that of oatmeal. I'm no expert on anatomy or bodily functions but either I'm going insane or my sweat smelled like the cookies. Perhaps it's a sign I should stay away from them but the unopened 12 pack sitting in the back of the Quest says otherwise.

Ode to Cafe Cubano

I like Cuban Coffee. I like it quite a bit in fact. Last night at the “Cuban Lady's House” (in Miami that would be very vague but in Celina it's strangely specific) I was offered a cup. Then I was offered another one. Because I have issues saying “no” to people and enjoy this rocket fuel of a drink I happily drank my shots and really felt like I could have had a couple more. This morning we stopped by her house again to pick up a loaf of “Monkey Bread” and she offered me some more of this drink which has apparently become my equivalent of catnip. Attributing my heartburn last night to the 990 Calories of Little Debbie Oatmeal Crème Pies, I took the cup and happily drank it down. As we were about to leave the CL asked if I want to take some cafe with me. Wide eyed and intrigued I asked “You can do that?” curious as to how I would carry a coffee shot cup in the car without spilling.

“Well I'll put it in a thermos”.

Because I'm stupid I said okay.

So she made another batch and poured all of it in a Thermos. It was then I realized this lady is not nice, she's an enabler. I had about 16 oz in that cup. I finished it all before we hit Cookeville which is about 40 minutes away, stopping halfway to reapply antiperspirant. And now I sit here driving the wonderful curves of Tennessee feeling the acid I've consumed burning its way down and hoping that before we hit the “Vortex Bar and Grill” I can find someone to pump my stomach.

The Following

is what I wrote on the car ride today. More to come eventually

We are

Currently in front of a closed BBQ place which so far is the only place we've been with wifi in the past couple days. Because of this we haven't been able to update the blog recently and can't find any other BBQ pits. We'll have updates later if the library does indeed have the internet we so crave