Peaches & Lakes 200K Permanent 2016

Originally, I didn't think I'd post a report for this ride because I can't write about all of them.  However, last Saturday's Peaches & Lakes 200K turned out to be one of the most enjoyable permanents I've done, thanks to a fantastic route with great friends during my favorite time of year.

To continue my R-12 quest, I needed to do a permanent in May because the previous weekend's brevet didn't work with my schedule.  I coordinated with Daniel, the Peaches & Lakes route owner, to do this excellent permanent.  Daniel, Ian, Robert N., and I did this route for the first time about a year ago shortly after RUSA approved it (see 6/8/15 ride report).  This is the optimal time of year for the Peaches & Lakes permanent because it's peach season - yea!  In fact, Dickey Farms, the peach stop on the route, opened for the year just a few days before our ride this past Saturday.

Andrew, Daniel, Ian, Julie, Robert N., and I left our starting control, the Waffle House in Thomaston, at 7:00 AM.  Daniel immediately turned on the juice because he thought he would be slower than the rest of us and wanted to get a head start.  The other five of us got into a comfortable rhythm on the bright, sunny morning.  It was a little cool at the start, but the sun soon began to warm us.

A couple of hours later, we arrived at our first stop, Dickey Farms.  Peach ice cream - woo hoo!

Photo by Andrew

Although I've ridden to Dickey Farms several times previously, I don't think I had ever seen their packaging process before.  I'm fascinated by any kind of processing equipment.  It's even better when it's for one of my favorite things - peaches!

Photo by Robert N.

Peaches are spread into one layer, moved single file onto a conveyor belt, and sorted by size

A piece of devil equipment - the one that puts a sticker on each peach. One of the activities in hell is peeling stickers off of fruit.

The peach ice cream was delectable, but unfortunately, Julie couldn’t partake.  However, she made quite a happy discovery: you can get a free sample of fresh peaches from the overripe ones that are culled from the packaging process.  My first peach of the season - swoon!

Next, we rode through areas very familiar to me from my group rides in Macon.  I enjoyed sharing these beautiful roads with my rando buddies, most of whom live in the Atlanta area and usually have to deal with much more traffic.

After skirting the western edge of the Piedmont Wildlife Refuge, we stopped in Juliette, made famous by the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.  As usual, the wait at the Whistle Stop Café was substantial, and so we decided to go somewhere else since it was an open control.

Unfortunately, Romeo’s in Juliette, the Italian restaurant that we visited on last year’s Peaches & Lakes 200K, has closed.  Therefore, we continued a couple of miles up the road to a convenience store.  This wasn’t nearly as exciting as the Whistle Stop, but we fueled and hydrated adequately and continued on our way.

You know it’s a good ride when you’re leaving the control at mile 80 and are sad that there are only about 45 more miles to go.  I was enjoying the day for several reasons.  First, we weren’t going at a breakneck pace.  More importantly, the training effect from so many long rides (300, 400, and 600K brevets plus some centuries) coupled with the intensity of Tuesday Worlds put me in good form for this ride.  Also, I truly love riding in Middle Georgia, and the weather was chamber-of-commerce perfect.  Then there was the excellent conversation.  We talked about all kinds of stuff, and I barely noticed as the miles simply disappeared.

Interestingly, one-third of Saturday’s riders were English (Andrew and Ian).  Andrew and I were discussing about how we occasionally have that common dream of being naked in a crowd.  Ian commented that he’s never dreamed of being naked.  Andrew and I decided that Ian must have a lot more self-confidence than we do.  Ian explained, “Of course I wouldn't take off my clothes; I’m a repressed Englishman.”  Ian cracks me up with his wonderfully dry sense of humor.

Andrew mentioned that when he first moved to Georgia some years ago, he learned that Georgia has 13 important agricultural products that start with the letter “p.”  I’ve lived in Georgia my entire life and had never heard this, but I was intrigued.  He didn’t remember the entire list, but our group came up with the easy ones – peaches, peanuts, pecans, poultry, and pork – as well as persimmons, which is less obvious but Andrew remembered being on the list.  He also remembered pimentos.  That’s seven of the 13 items.  We tossed out lots of other possibilities.  Later, I checked with the Google, but it didn’t have this elusive list of 13 items.  Therefore, I inquired in the land of Facebook.  These are the items I think are the most likely candidates for the remaining six slots: pulpwood, peas (field peas, e.g. black eyed, pinkeye, crowder, white acre, cream, lady, or zipper), peppers (i.e., bell), potatoes (sweet – Andrew said that Irish potatoes weren’t on the list), pumpkins, and pickles.  Entertaining yet less likely suggestions included pawpaws, plants, poke salad, pollen, pomegranates, poop, possums, and pot.

As we made a particular turn, I remembered a sign that I once saw at that intersection:

Party time!  Excellent!

When I told the others about the sign, Ian made some comment about the Rhapsody.  Of course, he meant the Rapture.  I teased him about not being up-to-date on his fundamentalism.  Then I described to him the Rapture Hatch.  I think that’s the hardest I’ve ever heard Ian laugh.

We stopped at a store near High Falls Lake.  We had been kind of leapfrogging Daniel, but we all got to the store at about the same time.  As we continued on, he and Robert took it a little easier while the other four of us stayed together the rest of the way.  Our last stop was in Barnesville.  Julie wanted something salty, and so she got a big bag of pretzels at a convenience store.  She, Andrew, and Ian looked quintessentially rando as they sat outside on the curb sharing the bag.

For much of the last part of the ride, Andrew and I talked about work.  I don’t know when I’ve talked about work so much, but it was refreshing to get a perspective from someone besides my husband or coworkers.  Andrew and I discovered that even though our lines of work are quite different, we face many of the same challenges: how much to focus on production vs. management, work/life balance, etc.  At one point I described to Andrew and Ian the difficulty of being unemployed for six months in 2009 during the Great Recession.  One of the biggest things I learned from that experience is that too much of my identity was tied up in my profession.  Sure, that’s an important part of my life, but in the past I let it define me too much.  Andrew and Ian knew exactly what I meant.  They commented on the typically American phenomenon of asking someone what they do for a living immediately upon meeting for the first time.  Particularly since being unemployed, I have intentionally not asked this question of new acquaintances.  In fact, even among my regular cycling companions in Macon, I still don’t know some of their occupations.  Also, I told Andrew and Ian that just a few weeks ago at the 600K I learned that our randonneuring friend Jim is an emergency room doctor!  Isn’t that a handy friend to have along for the ride?  (although I hope we never need his services…)

When I got around to checking my Garmin, we had only about three miles to go.  Wow!  We pretty much breezed to the finish.  Maybe it was Andrew and Ian’s British influence, but it was such a civilized ride.