Acworth 200K Brevet

What a great brevet today!  What a great day all around!  Kevin, Wendy, and Jeff did a terrific job with the logistics to ensure an excellent ride.  A group of about ten of us did pretty much the whole thing together.  Such good companionship really does make for an even better ride.

I had no idea that the roads would be so picturesque.  I’ll bet that many of them used to be dirt roads that were paved at some point; no county planning & zoning commission these days would allow many of the twisty, turny roads that we encountered.  The beautiful weather was the icing on the cake.

I enjoyed the unique features of this ride.  The water at Cave Spring was delicious and refreshing.

Also, it was interesting to see the Etowah Mounds even if only from a distance.  I’d like to go back for an actual visit sometime.  I’ve been to the Ocmulgee Mounds in Macon, quite a fascinating place.  Both sets of mounds were built by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture.  By the way, if you want to visit the Ocmulgee Mounds, a particularly good time to go is during the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival, held around the first week of spring.  Ranger-led lantern light tours are conducted at night during the festival.

On most of my recent brevets, I’ve packed a sandwich to get a little protein.  Today I mixed it up and packed a can of sardines.  I brought the ones in mustard sauce; even I thought it might be a little extreme to eat the ones in Louisiana hot sauce during a ride.  Ian said it looked like I had fishing weights in my jersey pocket.  It’s kind of fun to carry sardines on a ride because they freak some people out, but if you like them, they really are good bike food.  Besides, you get to use some duct tape to attach your plastic fork.  (I’m not pro enough to eat them with my fingers.)

Julie had told me that it was a fast brevet, and she wasn’t kidding!  I suppose that’s because the route seemed relatively flat.  Even so, Jeff pointed out afterwards that, surprisingly, we had about 6,000 feet of climbing.

After the ride, I took Kevin’s advice to go to Henry’s.  Now Kevin, you didn’t mention that Henry’s is a Cajun restaurant!  I love Cajun food!  If I hadn’t checked it out on Google, I might not have made the effort to go there.  Boy, was it great!  Po’ boy, that is – with crawfish.

That possibly was the best post-ride meal I ever had.  I told my husband about it, and I’m going to make a point to take him there next time we’re traveling up I-75.  I’m also inspired to start cooking more Cajun food.  I plan a week’s worth of menus and go grocery shopping once a week.  We have something Italian every week and Mexican or Asian meals almost as often.  We need to start having Cajun at least that frequently.

See you all on the road!

Betty Jean

P.S. Acworth is Bill the Cat’s favorite city.

Ack!