I follow Pecan City Pedalers (PCP), a cycling club in Albany, GA, on Facebook. I think a friend added me to the group, but I've enjoyed keeping up with fellow cyclists in another part of the state. It's been worth joining if only because they posted the T. rex route about 18 months ago. The roads trace the outline of a T. rex! This route has been on my radar screen ever since.
The T. rex route is about 200 miles long. When PCP did the T. rex ride at the beginning of 2019, they divided the route between several cyclists and completed it in one day. I'd been thinking I might divide the route in two with an overnight motel stay (bonus if I could get Robert to accompany me on any of the route). However, when COVID-19 hit, I didn't want to stay in a motel. Instead, events converged to allow me to do the entire T. rex ride by myself in a single day.
As I've described in recent blog posts, Hudson Valley Randonneurs has been hosting the 2020 Virtual Brevet Series (VBS), which has been a fun and motivating way to ride long distances while official RUSA events have been canceled because of the pandemic. The VBS originally was from March 28 through May 31. Then, when RUSA cancelled June events, too, George Swain extended the VBS through June 30 and super-sized some of the awards. I had already completed the regular vSR series by riding a 50K, a 100K, a 150K, and a 200K. The Super vSR series added a 250K and a 300K. I did a 250K a few weeks ago (see 6/11/20 blog entry). By doing T. rex as a single ride, I could get my 300K for the Super vSR series. Additionally, George offered the Longest Day Challenge, doing your longest ride of the year on the longest day. I can do a 300K in around 13 hours, well within the number of daylight hours on the summer solstice in Georgia. Therefore, T. rex had a threefold purpose: fulfilling my 300K requirement, serving as a great Longest Day Challenge, and allowing me to do a ride I'd been wanting to do anyway.
It had been several months since I got up at o' dark thirty for a ride. I switched the starting point of the T. rex ride to Vienna, GA, the closest point on the route to the interstate. (By the way, in Georgia it's pronounced VY-enna.)
I parked in the Vienna City Hall parking lot, which is right on the route. I figured no one would mind, particularly on a Saturday. This also provided an excellent photo opp:
Vienna sausages were a nice change of pace for a mid-ride protein source.
Additionally, I had a few special accouterments for the ride. I don't usually wear jewelry on bicycle rides, but I had to make an exception this time:
This was my riding companion because chickens are the closest descendant of dinosaurs today. Although my chicken has bird flu, at least he doesn't have COVID-19.
I rolled out shortly after sunrise. It was a beautiful morning with temperatures in the 70s and no wind. I was glad to be back in Southwest Georgia, which I don't visit very often. It's primarily farmland (row crops) and much flatter than the hilly Piedmont where I live. That means I could ride faster. Overall, the roads were in great shape with little traffic.
And then - surprise! There was a dirt road at about mile 23, at T. rex's hand. Having studied the route ahead of time, I thought I could continue on the current paved road to U.S. Highway 280, turn right, and pick up the original route. This would make T. rex's arm longer, however, which kind of defeated the purpose. Therefore, I turned right onto the prescribed dirt road. At first I could ride on the hard-packed, silty, clayey soil. Later, however, I had to hoof it through the sections of loose, sandy soil. The road was about 4.8 miles long, and I had walk about a mile of it.
Back on pavement, I soon rolled into the lovely town of Leslie. A nice woman said hello as I rode past her house. I thought about the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum, which is located in Leslie. Interestingly, it's not open on weekends although I wouldn't have wanted to take the time to stop during this ride anyway. Maybe I can go back sometime on a weekday.
This isn't as pretty as in real life, but I rode by the most pleasant pecan orchard on the way out of town:
100K in, I was ready for a short break. I sat under a big, shady tree in Leesburg (the heel of T. rex's foot), had a snack, and gave my feet a breather. My legs were decorated from the earlier dirt road:
To minimize store stops, I carried most of the provisions I needed for the day in my Yogi Bear picnic basket of a bicycle bag. I had plenty of food but knew that I would need to stop for water. There weren't as many churches (for outdoor spigots) as I expected. Maybe there are more heathens in Southwest Georgians than elsewhere in the state. I was grateful to find this deer processing facility at the crossroads of Yeomans:
No one was there. I walked around the corner and found the open-air processing area, which had a sink. The water was a little eeky, but beggars can't be choosers.
Nearly 97 miles in, at the tip of T. rex's tail, I had another surprise: another dirt road! Again, because I had studied the route ahead of time, I thought I could continue on the current paved road to the next paved road without messing up the shape of T. rex's tail too much. I wanted to double check on Google Maps, but I couldn't get an Internet signal. Therefore, I decided to be adventurous and go on the second dirt road after all. Like on the first dirt road, I was able to ride the hard-packed sections, but I had to hike-a-bike through the loose, sandy sections:
This dirt road was about 4.5 miles long, and I had to walk about 0.75 mile of it. Although this actually was shorter than the first dirt road, the going seemed a little tougher, probably because I wasn't so fresh by now. By the way, I later confirmed that, yes, I could have continued straight on the paved road instead of turning on this dirt road. But then I wouldn't have had as good a story.
Just a few miles past this second dirt road, I got to the tiny town of Parrott. I had filled only one bottle with the eeky water back at the deer processing facility, and so now I really needed water again. The Visitor Center looked like a good bet. I went around the entire building but didn't see an outdoor spigot. Then, lo and behold, right across the street was a spigot sticking out of the sidewalk. It was kind a strange location, but I was thrilled to find it. I drank the little bit of liquid I had left and then filled both of my bike water bottles and both of the empty Gatorade bottles in my Yogi Bear picnic basket. This would keep me going for quite a while. Oh, yeah - I washed some of the dirt off my legs, too!
Transitioning to T. rex's back, I passed Koinonia Farm:
Koinonia Farm is an intentional Christian community, or what we might call a commune. This is where Habitat for Humanity began. I'd love to go back here for a visit sometime.
I was a little more than 200K into my ride as I approached Americus. I found the perfect place for another short break: a quiet, deserted, covered pavilion. Vienna sausage time!
Americus was the busiest part of my ride. One driver was a jerk, but overall the traffic was manageable. I wonder if the locals call it 'Mericus?
Heading north, it looked like I had just missed a rain shower. Although it wasn't terribly hot for June anyway, the passing rain and brief cloud cover helped keep it relatively cool that afternoon.
I crossed the Macon County line, which is not the county where the City of Macon is located. Georgia can be confusing like that. Anyway, just over the county line was Andersonville National Historic Site, location of Andersonville Prison, a prisoner-of-war camp during the latter part of the Civil War. Robert and I visited here some years ago. It's obviously a very sobering place and seems particularly poignant during these current times of civil unrest.
Although I wasn't quite smelling the barn, I felt pretty good at 50 miles to go. I stopped at a CVS in Montezuma (my only store stop) to get a couple of Gatorades for insurance to get me through the ride. As I sat on the sidewalk outside, eating a pb&j sandwich, another customer walked by and said, "Did I see you in Americus?" I laughed and said, "Probably!" He must have thought I was nuts. He was right.
I rode about five more miles on Georgia Highway 26. Along that stretch, I passed Yoder's Dietsch Haus, a famous Mennonite restaurant. I laughed to myself, remembering years ago when I announced to my coworkers in Atlanta that Robert and I were moving back to his hometown of Monticello. One of them said, "Oh, the place with the Mennonite restaurant?" I had to clarify that we were moving to Monticello, not Montezuma. Over the years I've heard a number of people mix up the two towns.
The rest of my ride was almost all on county roads through beautiful farmland. It was a perfect summer evening with blue skies, greenery everywhere, and temperatures just like I like them. I did take one more snack break at a hospitable A.M.E church. Yet again, I was amazed at how much better a calorie boost made me feel.
At last I arrived at the Vienna city limits! I finished comfortably before sunset. The route was within a mile of being 200 miles long. I couldn't get that close to 200 miles without topping it off, and so I did a few laps on a quiet downtown street right before I got back to my car.
Southwest Georgia may not be as flashy as other parts of the state, e.g., the mountains or the beach, but it's a great place to visit. In addition to the things I've documented here, I saw a number of other interesting things that I didn't stop to photograph, e.g. the location of Charles Lindbergh's first solo flight and Mad Dog Road (glad I only passed that one and didn't have to ride on it!).
My overall average speed probably would have been about 17 mph if not for the sections I had to walk. That's a statement of amazement, not a complaint. I'm thrilled to have averaged 16.1 mph for 200 miles. I love the rolling hills of home, but flat terrain definitely is faster. I joke about cycling friends who fixate on average speed. Yes, I like to ride as fast as possible, too, but that's not the only (or usually main) consideration. I'm grateful I felt well and was able to ride the entire route during daylight hours. And when it comes down to it, the most important thing is to have fun. That I did. In fact, it was such a great ride that it's almost a bonus that I got to draw a T. rex - RAWR!
