Jonesin'

I've been jonesin' to complete my sixth and last 100K for the Virtual Brevet Series.  Yesterday I met my goal.  My ride was a loop southward to Jones County.  I was going to get a picture of the county line sign, but someone stole it!

I started with a visit to the Monticello farmers market on the square, which opened last weekend, a little late this year due to COVID-19.  Between being outside, masks, and keeping at least 6' distance, it seemed adequately safe.  I was jonesin' for a fried pie from my friend Laverne.

L-R: sweet potato, peach, and apple fried pies

I got a peach one (my favorite!) and a sweet potato one.  Sweet potato is also excellent, and she doesn't make those as often.  I dropped off the fried pies at my office, which is just off the square, to pick up later.  While I was there, I hugged Ashes the World's Best Office Cat.  She hugged me back.

After completing the loop portion of my lollipop route, I headed back north.  Jonesin' for some water, I stopped by the outdoor spigot at the Georgia Forestry Commission building on Highway 11.  I also snapped a photo with Smokey Bear.

I could have headed straight home and had 100K, but I rode a little farther back into town because I was jonesin' for a Wonder Woman Cookie Collision Blizzard (with chocolate chip cookie dough, chocolate cookie dough, and fudge).  I rode my bicycle through the drive-through because the dining room still isn't open.

I pulled over under a shady tree to enjoy my treat.

Already a little melt-y after just a few minutes!  Still delish.

While I ate my Blizzard, I listened to the theme song from the Wonder woman TV show.  There were some great TV theme songs back in the day.

Wonder Woman TV Show Theme Song

Coincidentally, a few days after I planned my ride, complete with Wonder Woman Blizzard, I saw a great post in A Mighty Girl, a page I follow on Facebook.  It showed this picture of stunt double Jeannie Epper with actress Lynda Carter from the Wonder Woman TV show.

Jeannie Epper was a trailblazer.  At the time (late '70s), it was still common for me to be stunt doubles for women.

In case you're wondering, I do my own stunts.

XTERRA Duathlon, Jasper County Style

I like to pretend that I'm not that competitive, but who am I kidding?  I hate getting those passive-aggressive e-mails from Strava: "Uh oh!  So-and-so just stole your QOM!  Dethroned!"  I had planned a V-50 on dirt roads for yesterday to get back a QOM that someone stole from me a few weeks ago.  Then, late Saturday afternoon I got another dreaded "uh oh" message.  So, I modified yesterday's route slightly to get that QOM back, too.

The last-minute modification included a Strava segment called Pope's Slope, which is only a few miles from my house on Old Adgateville Road.  I had to defend my home turf!  This segment is in the opposite direction that I usually ride Old Adgateville Road, up a significant climb.  I didn't remember ever riding that hill particularly hard, and so I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting the QOM back, particularly because my dethrone-er only beat me by five seconds.  I focused as I approached the bridge that designated the start of the segment.  Pound, pound, pound up the hill!  I think a left a piece or two of lung out there, but it was worth it to get the QOM back.

I continued on some great dirt roads near Round Oak that I ride less frequently.  They also gave me time to chill a bit and psych myself up for the other QOM I had to get back, which was going to be more of a challenge.  Coming back out on Highway 11 in Round Oak, I rode a short distance to Pippin Road, site of my next conquest - Big Pippin, Spinnin' Tha Cheese (hey, I didn't name it).  My Wahoo (bike computer) is supposed to let me upload starred segments from Strava so that I can see exactly where a segment starts and ends.  However, I couldn't get my QOM segments to load ahead of time, and so I studied a map to know where I had to ride hard.  It was 0.65 mile on the last part of Pippin Road, just before Caney Creek Road.

Pippin Road is infamous among us off-roadies for a huge climb in the opposite direction I was going.  I was glad that wasn't the QOM segment.  Still, Pippin has several other significant climbs.  According to Strava, Big Pippin, Spinnin' Tha Cheese started at the third creek crossing coming from Highway 11.  However, the second and third creeks were pretty close together, and I second guessed my memory as I picked up my pace.  I got to a 90-degree bend in the road.  Dang it, I had jumped too early!  I knew that bend wasn't in the QOM segment.  I eased up a bit but not for long because there was another creek crossing - the third one and the true start of Big Pippin, Spinnin' Tha Cheese.  Yikes, it was a bigger hill than I remembered.  But this was the climax of my ride, and I had to give it everything I had.  More pieces of lung left behind.

I was almost positive I had gotten the QOM back on Pope's Slope, but I wasn't sure about Big Pippin, Spinnin' Tha Cheese.  My dethrone-er on Pippin had beaten me by 1:21, a hefty chunk for a 0.65-mile segment, especially uphill.  I had to do it in less than 2:48 to beat her time.

The plot thickened.  I lost the Pippin QOM in early May.  However, in just the past week, Strava has changed some of their policies, causing somewhat of a brouhaha in the cycling world.  Strava has had and will continue to have free accounts as well as paying accounts with more features.  One of the biggest changes in the past week is that now only paying members are on the KOM/QOM leader boards.  Therefore, my Pippin dethrone-er disappeared, presumably because she has only a free account, not a paying account like mine.  When I started my ride yesterday, I showed up at the top of the leader board, but I didn't have the crown symbol.  I wondered - if I beat my previous time but not my dethrone-er's time, would I get the crown?  That's exactly what happened.  My previous QOM time was 4:09.  Yesterday's time was 3:26.  I don't know how in the world my dethrone-er did it in less than 3 minutes, but I got the crown back.  As a bonus, I discovered later when I uploaded my ride to Strava that I got two other QOMs on Pippin Road!  My too-early effort paid off after all.

I got to simply enjoy the rest of my ride without any more pressure.  I rode through my beloved Piedmont Wildlife Refuge (PWR), turning off of Round Oak-Juliette Road (paved) onto Cut Thru Road (dirt).  Doesn't Cut Thru Road have a creek crossing?  Yep, I remembered correctly.  It didn't look too bad yesterday, and so I rode through and didn't have to stop - woo hoo!  A few miles later, I approached Natural Rock Crossing:

As always, I walked across here - no need to risk busting my arse.  It was also a lovely spot to stop for a Clif Bar and cool my feet for a few moments:

Butterflies also love getting water here:

I thought: if I had to choose between being competitive on QOMs and just enjoying nature while riding my bicycle, which would I choose?  Definitely the latter, but I'm glad I don't have to make that kind of choice.

My route took me a few more miles through the PWR, and then I headed home on paved Highway 11.  It was a fairly hard but very enjoyable ride.

When I got home, Robert showed me his latest work on the trails behind our house and adjoining cousins' property.  He's added a few spur segments.  We hiked pretty much the entire Polyhound Trail System, about four miles, which is what turned my dirt road ride into a Jasper County XTERRA duathlon.

Robert liked my idea to take a beer with us.  Recreation Ale from Terrapin Brewing in Athens, GA is one of my favorites to have after a dirt road ride.  I first had it several years ago after the Fried Green 50, and I always remember how good it was in that particular moment.  A few days ago I bought a 12-pack of Recreation Ale but didn't realize until I opened the box yesterday that I didn't get 12-oz. cans; I got 16-oz. cans - woo hoo again!

That makes up for the time in college when some classmates and I stopped for some beer on the way back from a field trip to Buford Dam.  One of them came out of the convenience store, excited about the good deal she got on the beer.  When we got them out of the bag, we realized why she got such a good deal - they were little pony bottles!

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed walking the trails with Robert.  Here's a cool old barn on a portion of the trail that he just rerouted:

This box turtle is getting a better view from up on a sweetgum ball:

Large beech tree!

I've seen the grave of Heidi, Robert's dog when he was a little boy, several times before, but I didn't remember exactly where it is.  Another one of Robert's trail reroutes goes right by it.  Robert had a little trouble back then with the rock carving and/or spelling 💓

I was particularly interested to see this final addition to the trail system, which I can't believe I never saw before.  It's hard to see in the picture, but there are rock piers left from a building that's no longer there (about 30' wide and 100' long).

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built it as a base camp for other work they did in the area during the Great Depression.  About 10 years later, it was converted into a POW camp for German soldiers during WWII.  After the war some of the Germans settled here permanently because they really didn't have anything to go back to in Germany.  They were allowed to work on local farms as POWs.  They could stay after the war if they found a sponsor.  According to an older friend, all stayed who wanted to, and they were very successful farmers in Jasper County.  Also, for a while after the POW camp, the building was used for things like storing hay.

One of the Germans discovered nearby feldspar deposits.  Feldspar mining and processing was a significant employer in Jasper County until just recently.  Interestingly, feldspar is the parent material of kaolin, which is mined in a belt just south of the Fall Line, approximately 40 miles south of here.  Geology rocks!

Yesterday afternoon when Robert and I got back from our hike, I got another "uh oh" message from Strava.  This one is a long stretch of Hopewell Road in Bibb and Crawford Counties.  Looks like another QOM conquest is in my future.

1066 Ride

I played a fun game with myself to complete the 50K series in the 2020 Virtual Brevet Series. History is a weak point for me; therefore, several months ago I decided to read about the Norman conquest of England in the book 1066: The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry.  Around the same time, I realized that there’s a cool looking dirt road I had never ridden, Forest Service Road 1066.  So, I decided that as soon as I finished the book, I’d do a dirt ride to include F.S. Road 1066.  I did both yesterday - loads of fun!

On the surface, the Bayeux Tapestry appears simply to commemorate the Norman victory over the English at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.  However, the premise of the book is that the tapestry has hidden English and non-Norman French viewpoints - quite intriguing.

The Bayeux Tapestry is believed to have been created within a few years of 1066.  Amazingly, it is one of the few relics from that time to have survived the centuries.  The book conjectures that the tapestry had been stored in a crypt in the Bayeux Cathedral fairly soon after its creation.  The crypt was damaged and not reopened until the 1400s, when the tapestry was rediscovered.  This likely led to its survival through the Middle Ages.

Yesterday I sat in the sky chair on my front porch, which is one of my favorite places, to finish the book.  Then it was time to ride.  I donned my Rouge Roubaix jersey for its French ties.  I would have worn my PBP jersey, but I was saving it for a Zoom presentation I made today to the Macon Rotary club about my PBP adventure.

As an obscure connection to the book, I also wore my scream socks.  The artist who created the painting The Scream was Edvard Munch, who was from Norway.  One of the lesser contenders for the English crown was Harald of Norway.

To get to F.S. Road 1066, I rode on another dirt road I had never been on, an extension of Apt-to-Miss Road in Jasper County.  It leads into the Oconee National Forest and becomes Poplar Road in Putnam County.  It’s a pretty connector to Hillsboro Road in Putnam County, not far from F.S. Road 1066.  I reached the eponymous road!

The Black Knight accompanied me, riding in my jersey pocket.  He was glad to get out for some fresh air at the photo opp.

This was the Black Knight's first ride since the 2016 flèche I did with Audax Atlanta.  My team's name was It's Just a Flèche Wound, and the Black Night rode pinned to the back of my jersey.  I named him Nigel, a good British name.  My rando buddy Ian, who is from England and was on another flèche team, was scandalized.  He said, “The Black Knight doesn’t have a name!”

After the photo opp, I felt enchanted as I started down F.S. Road 1066.  It would be a dream to have a dirt road like this that was 50 miles long - or even 50K long.

Holy Grail Trail

F.S. Road 1066 does get gravellier toward the other end, but overall, this is one of the most delightful dirt roads I’ve found near my house.

In addition to the 2020 Virtual Brevet Series, I'm taking the 2020 Library Challenge.  In January I picked up a calendar from my local library with 50 categories of books.

I'm an avid reader anyway, and this has been a fun way to challenge myself with books, particularly during pandemic time.  I've worked through about half the categories so far.  1066 allows me to cross off “A Book with a Number in the Title” and “An Author's First Book.”

Ride on and read on!

25th Anniversary Tandem Ride!

25 years ago yesterday, Robert and I left our wedding reception on a borrowed tandem:

My sweet sister Donna, who was also my matron of honor, decorated our getaway bicycle for us :)  In case you're wondering, yes, Robert and I changed clothes before we rode off.  Also, we only rode about a mile to where our car was parked.

In 2006 Robert and I got our own tandem.  Although we mostly ride single bicycles, we've had a lot of great times on the tandem, too.  We've been to almost every Georgia Tandem Rally since we got our tandem, and we also rode it in the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) in 2007.

Yesterday, I talked Robert into a tandem ride.  He got the bike ready to ride and then headed out to run a few quick errands.  While he was out, I taped an updated version of our wedding day sign to the tandem:

We did, indeed, ride to Hillsboro (sans sign, which was really just for a photo op).  More specifically, we rode to Hillsboro Lake, which is one of my favorite weekday routes.

More often than not, I've been riding to and from Hillsboro via Goolsby Road instead of down Highway 11.  It's about 1.7 miles longer, but it avoids the newly installed rumbles all along the white and yellow lines.  Robert and I headed down Goolsby Road toward Hillsboro.

When we turned around at Hillsboro Lake, Robert said he was going to take us back on Highway 11.  I was surprised, but that was fine with me.  In fact, I did a quick calculation in my head.  We had ridden 13.3 miles to Hillsboro Lake via Goolsby.  If we went back via Highway 11, it would be 11.6 more miles - a total of 24.9 miles.  Hmm...nearly 25 miles, and it was our 25th anniversary...

Sure enough, as we rolled back into our driveway, our total mileage was 24.9 miles.  Robert agreed to ride a few laps around our circular driveway to get 25 miles.  That's true love.  Ride on!

Virtual Flèche

Good ol' George added an event to the 2020 Virtual Brevet Series: a flèche!  Unlike brevets, which are solo efforts (although usually done with riding companions), a flèche is a team event.  Audax Atlanta was supposed to have an in-person flèche in April, but of course it had to be postponed.  The V-flèche was held this past weekend and was such a fun way to tide us over.

Like a regular flèche, the V-flèche required a team of three to five people.  I recruited my rando buddies Brian, Graham, Ian, and Wayne to be on a team with me: A Pound of Flèche.  Although a regular flèche involves riding 360 km within 24 hours (including overnight riding!), the V-flèche was a 100K that had to be completed within 6 hours, 40 minutes.  V-flèche team members could ride inside or outside, separately or together with appropriate social distancing.  Team A Pound of Flèche started at 9:00 AM this past Saturday, riding from separate locations.

The guys and I checked in with each other and sent some photos during our rides.  My ride took on somewhat of a train theme.  For a while, we had thought about riding together, maybe riding the Red Caboose Populaire, a 100K route.  However, we reconsidered and decided it would be more prudent to ride separately.  Still, the prospect of getting a pimento cheese sandwich at The Caboose, a great little sandwich shop in Rutledge, took hold of my brain.  I planned my route to include this as a lunch stop.

As I rode toward Rutledge, my route went a few miles on Georgia Highway 142, parallel to some railroad tracks.  The tracks aren't abandoned, but interestingly, hundreds of railroad cars are being stored along the tracks for a number of miles.  A gap is left between cars at crossroads:

They are mostly hopper cars.  Maybe The Boxcar Children, a book I loved when I was young, could be updated as The Hopper Car Children.

Halfway through my ride, I arrived in Rutledge.  Samich time!

I carried my lunch across the street to the town gazebo, the perfect place for a picnic:

I was glad to have a dining companion:

Some beautiful irises added to the ambiance:

My tasty lunch was rocket fuel for the second half of my V-flèche.  They even toasted the bread!

Appropriately, a train rumbled through town while I was eating.  Lots o' stuff was being hauled in double-decker containers.  Some of them were Amazon Prime containers.  People obviously are still shopping online.

After this most enjoyable lunch stop, I got back on the road.  It was a beautiful day, and I finally got to take off my arm and knee warmers.

In Newborn I turned onto Pitts Chapel Road to go back to Jasper County.  I went on this lovely road about a month ago.  The road is still closed to cars - but not to bicycles!

The bridge is almost complete now:

They did a good job of blocking the road to traffic; I had to squeeze through with my bike!  That's a rare unicorn tractor on the right:

These 100K rides are pretty cool because I still have time to do stuff when I get home.  Regardless, what better way to enjoy a bright, fresh May day than outside riding a bicycle?  I hope my V-flèche teammates had as much fun as I did.