Beautiful Backroads Century

Ever since we moved to Georgia we've heard from local cyclists about the Beautiful Backroads Century ride. Georgia cyclists seem to universally agree that this is one of the best organized bike rides in the state. On Saturday we took our tandem on the 65-mile course and after a day of perfect weather, beautiful scenery, great food and fun times, we now know why this ride has earned its stellar reputation.


The ride begins and ends at a Budweiser brewery about an hour's drive northwest of Atlanta. The minute you roll out of the parking lot, you're in the middle of rural Georgia. The route follows rolling hills through farmland, wooded forests and past many lakes and rivers. There were thousands of bikes and very few automobiles, although we did encounter a few pickup trucks with attitude! Many of the roads were narrow and winding and reminded us of stretches that we've seen on TV while watching the Tour de France. Although there were several 4-way stop signs, there was only one traffic light on the entire course. Loose dogs are always a concern in rural Georgia, so we were baffled to see several mellow mutts simply sitting by the side of the road watching all the bikes go by. We soon realized that they must have been so exhausted from running after all the bikes ahead of us on the course that they had no energy left to give chase!


We rode through several small towns and had to smile at the variety of garden gnomes and other statuary adorning the yards. Always wondered who bought that stuff. The sag stops were loaded with goodies and drinks. Many of them were at beautiful old churches set back in the woods. At the sag stop at the 55-mile point we were treated to the smokin' guitar of a southern rock band covering Lynyrd Skynyrd and Allman Brothers tunes. Too bad we couldn't load those guys on a truck and have them follow us in for the last 10 miles of our ride.


While I was busy on the back of the tandem fulfilling my role as expedition photographer and official greeter of other cyclists along the route, Michael was focusing on closing the gaps in an attempt to catch the riders in front of us. That effort, combined with his lack of hydration, resulted in some severe leg cramps later in the ride. The least I could do to assuage my guilt was to give him a mini-massage. Fortunately this took place at the rest stop with the rock band, so we didn't mind lingering a little longer than usual.


After the ride the Budweiser folks hosted a big barbeque, which translated to salad and dessert for the vegetarians. BTW, vegetarians are few and far between in the south. The standard reply upon learning that we're vegetarian is "well you'll eat chicken, won't you?" Since free beer was also provided after the ride, Michael decided it was finally time to hydrate. Guess who drove home?


This was a great ride and we'll definitely look forward to next year.

More Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/tandembikers

Beautiful Backroads Century website: http://hugeelvis.tripod.com/

Book Fairs and Rock Bands

We survived our first Georgia summer and now that the temperatures are down to the low 90's it's time to get back out and enjoy all that Atlanta has to offer. You may laugh, but compared to the 100+ temperatures of the last few weeks of August, upper 80's and low 90's actually feels great!

Over Labor Day Weekend we were delighted to stumble across the Decatur Book Fair, a literary event which drew upwards of 50,000 people. The charming old town square in Decatur played host to the 3-day event which drew authors from across the country, including Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain) and Kinky Friedman (author, singer/songwriter and politician). In addition to author talks and book signings, they had music, food, and a beer garden which seems to be a staple feature at every southern event.

A popular attraction was a community crossword puzzle, where people were encouraged to study the clues, pick up a pen and fill in an answer. We also enjoyed a high school poetry slam, where the cheers and jeers of the audience are encouraged. The poets were terrific, including one very courageous girl who performed her poem knocking organized religion for promoting hatred. Took a lot of guts to deliver that piece in front of a Bible Belt crowd.


The following weekend Piedmont Park, Atlanta's main city park, was the venue for a concert featuring the Dave Matthews Band and the Allman Brothers. 30+ years ago the Allman Brothers got their start in Athens, Georgia. Early in their career they used to set up in Piedmont Park (running extension chords from nearby hippie crash pads) and give free concerts. It was a huge deal that they were returning to this venue after all this time as a fundraiser for a park expansion project.


The concert has been sold out for months, but being old hippies ourselves, we decided it would be appropriate to crash the event. Actually in the old days we would have crashed the event, but now that we've evolved into law-abiding citizens we decided to just show up, take in the scene and hope that we could hear some good music.


The concert was promoted as a green event. They blocked off all the streets around the park, provided no automobile parking and encouraged everyone to take the train, walk or bicycle to the park. Amazingly, in excess of 50,000 people did just that and the event was a huge success. We joined the thousands of people who took the MARTA train to Midtown and then walked several blocks to the park. Along the way lots of guys were scalping tickets to the concert, but we decided that $50 per ticket was too high. Later we met a couple who paid $100 for 2 tickets and they turned out to be counterfeit. Trust no one in the Big City!


At the park we set up on a grassy area just outside the gates and to the side of the stage. When the Allman Brothers began playing, the sound from our "seats" was great. Wish I could say as much for the music. The Allman Brothers have a string of monster hits, but they rattled off the songs with very little passion. I guess rock 'n roll really is a young man's game. One highlight was Derek Trucks on guitar. His solos were incredible. Otherwise, it was a beautiful evening, but after an hour of ho-hum tunes we decided to grab some dinner and head home. If we hadn't been looking forward to an early bike ride on Sunday we would have stuck around for Dave Matthews, but I'm sure we'll catch them another time.

We are trying to get more training miles on our bikes. We signed up for the Beautiful Backroads Century ride on September 22. http://hugeelvis.tripod.com/ The ride begins and ends at a Budweiser brewery and everyone gets free beer after the ride. The scenery in this part of Georgia is supposed to be spectacular and it's a very popular ride in our area. The group that we're riding with has decided to do the 65-mile ride rather than the 100-miler. Last year, after finishing the 100-mile ride, most of the beer was gone, so they've decided to get their priorities straight this year!