25th BBQ Bass Ride

Last Saturday was Robert's and my 25th BBQ Bass Ride.  Who knew that a fun ride we did in 1998 would become an annual tradition?  It started small: about 4 of us rode a loop to Hillsboro for Tillman's BBQ (long gone) for a total of maybe 18 miles.  We thought that was pretty epic.

The mileage and number of friends have grown over the years.  We've had close to 30 riders in some years, and routes have been as long as 75 miles.  Last Saturday there were 16 of us, and we rode about 60 miles.

The ride started from Jordan Engineering.  I went uptown early to pick up some fried pies from Laverne Howard at the farmers market on the Monticello square.

Apple, peach, and sweet potato fried pies!

Laverne makes the best fried pies!  They have been a wonderful addition to the BBQ Bass Ride in recent years.

Robert set up the lobby at Jordan Engineering to receive our friends.  This year we had swag to celebrate the 25th BBQ Bass Ride!

Everyone signed in so I would know how many deluxe plates to order from Fresh Air BBQ.

I called in and payed for the order before we rode.  Garrison was our excellent SAG driver this year.  He picked up the BBQ for us as well as provided ride support.

Robert had mapped a great route.  As we rode on Pitts Chapel Road, I was having an in-depth conversation with Brian Rogers, our new teammate from England.  I just discovered that he's a big Rush fan, too.  We talked about Neil Peart's literary references in their lyrics, Brian getting to see Rush in his hometown in England, and the excellent Rush documentary, Beyond the Lighted Stage.

I was feeling so good, grateful for my community of cycling friends.  It was a warm, sunny June morning - my favorite time of year.  The western end of Pitts Chapel Road is kind of swoopy with beautiful woods on either side.  The sky was blue, and everything was the vibrant green of late spring.  Queen Anne's lace was blooming along the road.  For a few moments, I was fully present and happy.  It was the best part of the whole day.

Just a few miles farther, it was time for our party stop.  Robert had found a great location, a secluded spot behind the Newborn community center, next to a cemetery.

"I want you to bury me right over here."

I ducked behind this building for a nature break before I saw the door.

It must be at least a two-seater.  Maybe all 16 of us riders could have fit in here at once.

Garrison pulled up with the party supplies a few minutes after we arrived.  When Robert and I originally started the ride, it was just the BBQ Ride.  However, after a few years it became the BBQ Bass Ride when we added Bass beer.  We wanted decent beer for our ride, and we were into Bass back then.  For a few years we had only Bass, but eventually we started offering a variety of beers (including a Foster's oilcan for Bill).  We still like to get at least a six-pack of Bass each year.  Ironically, I couldn't find any Bass for our 25th BBQ Bass ride, but we had some acceptable substitutes.

The BBQ Bass Ride is the only time I have a mid-ride adult beverage.  My second favorite part of last Saturday was when I got back on my bicycle after the party stop.  The beer made me feel really good, and I loved everybody soooo much!

Amazingly, the group stayed together for the whole ride.  We rolled back into the Jordan Engineering parking lot, changed clothes, and sat under the two tents Robert had set up for us to enjoy BBQ and fried pies.

I truly love this annual get together with friends from various parts of my cycling world.  I'm grateful for each person who could join us.

Our BBQ Bass shirt from 2003

May I Ride

May is my favorite month.  It has Robert's and my anniversary (yea!) and the best weather of the year.  It's now June, but I still want to write and remember a few highlights from May.

Indian Springs Ride

Robert and I were trying to figure out how to ride and kayak on our anniversary weekend.  We came up with a great plan.  That Saturday morning, he drove over to Dauset Trails do a group MTB ride, taking the kayaks in the trailer.  I rode my road bike over and met him at Indian Springs.  I had sent a picnic with him in the car, which we enjoyed in the park behind Yahola.

We went to the ice cream shop for dessert.

Next was kayaking on the lake at Indian Springs State Park.

We saw at least three blue herons!  (I think we saw one of them twice on different sides of the lake.)  Robert has a pretty good zoom lens on his camera.

I rode home on my road bike, stopping at the spring before I left to refill my bottles with some delicious sulfur water.  It tastes like liquid hard-boiled eggs.

By the way, we got to go for a tandem ride the next day.  It was mainly to get ready for the Georgia Tandem Rally a few weeks later, but it was also an enjoyable way to remember our getaway transportation from our wedding reception 27 years ago :)

Almost caught him

Valley of the Giants

The next weekend was a big race, Valley of the Giants.  But first I have to describe the amazing week leading up to it.  I have just embarked on an exciting new adventure, the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership (IGEL).  It's a leadership and personal development program that addresses environmental issues.  My class has 31 people.  I like them a lot.  Most are from the metro Atlanta area, and most come from large work environments, e.g., Coca-Cola, Shaw, EPA, EPD, etc.  I'm excited to represent Middle Georgia as a single-employee company, Polyscape, LLC.

IGEL consists of five four-day sessions, held every other month in various parts of Georgia.  Our first session was in the mountains, at the Lodge at Amicalola Falls.  This actually worked out well logistically because IGEL ended on Friday, and Valley of the Giants was the next day in Blairsville, a little farther north.

I took my road bike to IGEL with me, hoping to get in a little riding on at least a few of the days.  I did, but I had a big surprise: the Lodge at Amicalola Falls sits atop a huge hill.  And I mean huge!  The climb is about 1.25 miles with an average grade of more than 12%.  Parts of it are about 25%!  I don't know when I last attempted a climb that steep - probably back in the 2000s when a few of us climbed Brasstown Bald to watch the end of one of the stages of the now-defunct Tour de Georgia.  Anyway, the climb up to the Lodge at Amicalola Falls was killer.  I did it twice while I was there.  It inadvertently helped me; I figured if I could do that climb twice, I could handle anything that Valley of the Giants threw my way.

Robert came up for the race, too, and brought my gravel bike.  He raced the intermediate route (61 miles), and I raced the long route (88 miles; it was supposed to be 92 miles, but at the last minute the Forest Service closed one of the roads we were to ride on).  Yes, there were some serious climbs.  The hardest was a dirt road up Wolfpen Gap that I had never ridden.  I gutted it out.  I managed to ride up the entire way, even passing a few guys who had to walk.  There were a few other big climbs later in the race that I had encountered on Brian's Gravel Monster, our first Georgia gravel randonneuring event a few months ago.  Already being familiar with those later climbs definitely gave me a mental boost.

Only two women completed the Valley of the Giants long route, my friend Julie and me.  However, Julie didn't read the race rules.  The entire route wasn't timed.  Only four sections were.  I hit it hard during the timed sections but went fairly easily on the rest.  She finished the entire course before I did, but I went faster on all the timed sections and, therefore, won.  Sometimes it pays to read the instructions!

The race organizers use the timed-section format to encourage people to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and not just hammer the whole time.  This format appeals to me anyway, but it particularly suited me this time.  I was tired going into the race, which I attributed to staying up too late every night talking to my IGEL classmates (totally worth it, though).  However, when I got home I discovered that I also may have felt fatigued because of COVID!

Two of my IGEL classmates tested positive while we were there despite all of us being required to be vaccinated and boosted.  We learned of the first case on Thursday and the second case on Friday morning, our last day.  I did a COVID test that Friday afternoon.  Because it was negative and I didn't have any symptoms, I continued on to the race in Blairsville as scheduled.  However, when I got home Saturday night, I did a second COVID test, which was positive.  About the same time, my symptoms started.  They were mild, and I felt normal by Tuesday.  Even so, I stayed in isolation, using the guest bedroom and bathroom and working from home.  What a bummer to get COVID after being so careful to avoid it for more than two years.  But as Robert said, it was nearly inevitable that we would get it eventually.  I'm just grateful it didn't affect me too badly.  I'm even more grateful that I didn't pass the virus to either Julie or Robert.

I scrupulously read the COVID recommendations on the CDC website.  I saw that I needed to stay isolated at least five days.  Unfortunately, that meant that Robert and I couldn't go to the Georgia Tandem Rally the next weekend.  On the other hand, I still could ride my bicycle by myself.  Within a week I was back up to full speed.

Mid GA Peaches 200K Brevet

I was happy that I was able to do the Mid GA Peaches 200K according to plan.  Six of us gathered in Thomaston last Saturday for this beautiful route on many roads familiar to me from Peach Peloton.

The mode of names of my cyclopeeps is Chad (5).  Still, it's pretty cool that I have 2 cyclopeeps named Graham.  I got to ride with both of them on this brevet.  They had never met each other.  I differentiated between the two of them by calling them Graham the Elder and Graham the Younger, a la Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger.  The resemblance is uncanny.

I told them to look philosophical for this photo.

Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Younger

We even got philosophical during the ride.  Graham the Elder got behind for a while.  When he caught up, I told him I was glad to see him because I was afraid he had DFOed.  I had to teach him what that meant (Done Fell Out).  Then, I asked him whether it's worse to DFO or DNF.  Graham the Elder said that DFL is best.

Peach ice cream at Dickey Farms was the highlight of the ride!

I also clued the two Grahams into the availability of free, cast-off, fresh peaches behind the building.

One for the road

The next best thing to peach ice cream and fresh peaches at Dickey Farms was learning that Hollis Road in Upson County no longer has rough chip seal.  Now it has nice, smooth pavement.  As Linda Richman would say, "It's like buttah."