February 27
End: Spring Hill Road & Mt. Ida Road
Miles: 29.5
Total: 1342.3
The bed I slept in was very comfortable, and I was in no rush to get up in the morning. By mid-morning Daniel gave me a ride to Subway, where I got some food before heading to McDonald’s to use their wireless network.
I spent a lot of time hanging out at different fast food joints in town, and didn’t exit Andalusia until the afternoon. The roads out of town were busy and had no shoulder and often a big ditch on the side, making for a bothersome road walk. I stopped at a couple of stores in tiny communities to use the restroom. I was lucky that they were there.
Part of me was hoping to avoid a nighttime road walk, but it was inevitable because of my late start. I had plenty of energy, and when darkness arrived I started listening to music to keep myself motivated and moving.
I passed through the small town of Dozier, and walked on. I got ID’ed by a cop who said that there had been another hiker doing the same thing as me a week or two before. It felt good to finally be catching up to Lakeland.
My goal was to get as close as possible to Luverne, which felt very far away. I got off of the big roads and started walking winding dirt streets. I didn’t feel tired, but by the time I got onto Springhill Road I was ready to rest. I found a good spot off of the road and set up camp.