Day 42 – 20 miles – 607 total

We decided to start the day by going back to Steffans for a good breakfast. Usually we eat clifbars or gas station food for breakfast so this was a real treat. I ordered their special. Steffans benedict. An english muffin topped with eggs and ham, then doused in southern sausage gravy with a fried green tomato on top. Out of this world.

We then headed out of Kingsland and took some backroads to stay off of hwy 17. It was a little out of our way but worth it for the peace of mind we had while on the backroads. Traveling on Georgia’s backroads is an experience in itself.

POW!!!!!

We walked by a guy’s house and heard a gunshot come from his yard. Georgia. Thankfully he wasn’t shooting at us but rather facing the other direction. Nothing like a little target practice in the morning to start your day. We picked up our pace a little to get past his property… just in case.

I made some calls to media sources in the upcoming towns. I got a few leads and took my notes to follow up on them. One was a Christian radio station who told me to call back at 1:10 and they would have me live on the air to talk about what we are doing. We had a little time before then so we kept on walking.

We discovered an awesome trail coming into the town of Woodbine. A paved path ran along an old rail road line. We enjoyed this gem very much. They call it the Georgia Coast Rail Trail.

We made it to our 600 mile mark for this walk while on the trail. We stopped to share the moment on social media and this was also about the time that I needed to call in to do the live radio interview. So we waited until then and I did that. It was a short interview and I rambled a bit but I got the main point across I guess. I should’ve been more prepared. I was thinking that I would know what to say but the nerves hit me and I felt like I didn’t say the right stuff but Stick told me that I did good.

We were hungry after all of this so we went into a restaurant named Captain Stan’s. It was awesome. The main part of the restaurant was outside. They had fire pits and a stage for music. All of the furnishings had been written on in black marker by previous patrons. They had parachutes overhead as a canopy for shade. Old album covers and many signs with adult humor were hung on the fence.

We ordered cheeseburgers. They were great. When I finished eating my phone rang and it was Kelli from the radio station. She said that she was off of work now but wanted to help us out. She reached out to her church and to a local campground. She found us a place to stay and we were invited to come speak at her church. Amazing. We were very excited to meet her.

At the same time that I was on the phone, Stick tried to pay for the meal but Captain Stan himself said no way and didn’t let us pay. We expressed our gratitude and still tipped the waitress and got back to steppin!

Woodbine was a great town. The people in it made it that way. We had no choice but to keep going though.

There was a big bridge leaving town and it was dangerous to walk on as there was no shoulder. There was also a huge hump in the bridge so the oncoming traffic couldn’t see us. We chose to go into the opposite lane and move quickly and then switch back to our usually walking side once we were at the crest. Stick took the lead and I was our set of eyes behind us. I would send him the information about what was behind us and he was calculating what was ahead. It was a great system and served us well. We made it.

We then tried to find the trail that was supposed to be available to us but it wasn’t. Just a bunch of woods on top of an old railroad bed. We tried to take it but it was horrible. We had to cut through some more woods to get back to the road. We walked briskly and tried to make it as far as we could before the sun went down.

We then found a great place to set up camp and ate our stovetop dinners and that was that. 20 miles down. More to come tomorrow!